Black Colored By Meira Una
Meira Una’s work process could be characterized as absurd and, at times, even hyperbolic. Her colorful and optimistic forms are a delight for the soul!
The work process is long, full of contrasts, and full of elements of randomness and destructiveness.
Unlike what usually comes to mind when one thinks of the production of a vessel or a three-dimensional object, namely an order of work that begins firstly with a design that is later embellished and painted, Una begins by applying the painting and other painted embellishments first as she flattens her clay into a large substrate upon which she lays colored and engraves. Only later will the painting be transformed into a vessel.
Una chooses to work with black material that is all absorbing and full of acidity. In order for Una to be able to work with it, she coats the black base with two layers of bright white porcelain. Once the porcelain dries, she can begin painting.
(Marmalade @ Meira Una. Special Technique. 9x22x22cm. )
The preparation of the material takes a few hours and is an essential part of the creative process of the Black Colored series.
The painting itself is comprised of two elements: color blocks and pin engravings. The colors are organized either in an ornamental manner or alternatively are layered over the medium in an abstract way. The engraved drawing is immersed in the colored areas as it creates a recognizable image: a woman figure, a tiger. At other times, the melding of shades and engravings amounts to an expressive abstraction.
The painting created in the black clay body with the white skin, and white is too fragile to transfer. Thus Una divides the wet slab into three pieces and throws each of them on the floor. The act of throwing the wet clay on the floor opens up the thin-lined engraving, resulting in the deepening of the pen drawings, stretching and spreading the colors. Una continues to distress the clay forms as she tosses and throws the newly formed fragments onto sticks or small balls, which impress their crevices on the medium’s surface.
After the fragments have dried, Una reassembles them into a three-dimensional container, receptacle, or an abstract form. The act of reassembling can be, at times, random to the extent that it creates surprising new constructs and combinations that would not have been created had they been preconceived or preformed before.
(Blowin in The Wind @ Meira Una. Special Technique. 26x17x20cm. )
The work process of Black Colored is complex, reticent, and entails crucial and embedded obstacles, placed by the artist herself. The work demonstrates a seeming struggle between contestable oppositions such as black and white; a simultaneous flirt with engraved lines and shades of colors, as well as a dedicated diligence that is later morphed into destructive acts. Una’s compulsive process brings about a resolution of the fragments with the creation of new objects, which is a result of randomness, independence, and freedom. The randomness allows things to happen, and makes the work complete.
Meira Una (1947) is a ceramic artist. A graduate of the Betzalel Art and Design Academy in Jerusalem. Una participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Israel and abroad. Una is a recipient of many research grants as well as the winner of the “Alex de Rothschild” prize for art.
Meira Una works and teaches in her studio in Jerusalem.
