The Clay House

CAPUT MORTUUM – AFTER THE FIRE.

 

The title of this exhibition refers to the main strands of influence that effect and inform my work.

 

Fire is the main element that energises and transforms the materials I use. Fire has the capacity both to destroy and create, to calm and produce fear. It can be used to harden, strengthen and also make materials more fragile, fragile to the point where the material becomes lifeless and falls apart to become ash. I use the process of calcination, to introduce the element of unpredictability and instability into the work. I mainly use melting, boiling, scorching, burning and drying, by directing flame onto the work either by blow torch or by putting objects into a bonfire, incinerator or burner.

 

I also use caustic substances to burn and blister surfaces to produce colour variations. The materials I use are predominantly ash, clay, lead, various other metals, bitumen paint and beeswax.

 

The Latin term Caput Mortuum is an alchemical reference meaning both ‘Dead Head’ and ‘Worthless Remains’. Dead Head has historical links to Egyptian burial practices, especially the head of the Mummy and its brown colouring. The Dead Head symbol is three dots in the shape of a triangle.

 

The theme of ‘worthless remains’, is an important element within my work.

 

The ‘Remains’ are the residue of the initial Alchemical process of Nigredo. Nigredo is blackness, chaos, the epitome of decay, putrefaction and decomposition. The process is the first in a refining sequence where the prima materia is purified and transformed. The material is cooked, sublimated into a uniform black matter; what remains is the Caput Mortuum. In Alchemy the residue is discarded, I however reintroduce the substance back into the work process.

 

Within the alchemy tradition this sequence of transformation goes through 4 stages: Nigredo, Albedo, Citrinitas finally Rubedo – black, white, yellow and red. Rubedo signified the final purifying stage of the Magnum Opus the colour red being strongly associated with both gold and the Philosophers stone. For many Alchemists however the process was more about a path to a form of spiritual enlightenment or self-knowledge akin to what Carl Jung later described as a ‘process of individuation’.

 

The union of these two themes has culminated in the work for this exhibition.

 

Fire is used to create the ash, chemicals, paints and oils are cooked and burnt to use on the surface of the works. Objects are burnt on a bonfire until they crack or fragment. I then search through the debris looking for the pieces I need then repeat the process with what remains. Some of clay work is left in its raw, uncooked form thus having its own innate fragility. It cracks and breaks through normal wear and tear and more poignantly if left out in the open air for a prolonged periods of time would dissolve away into the ground.

 

At the time of writing, I am working through the process closer to the Nigredo and Albedo stage, especially in the paintings and floor pieces; blacks, dark blues give way to the greys of the ash, clay and lead. The white of Albedo is also apparent but it is often corrupted by colours formed from the reaction of other materials.

 

With the introduction of Beeswax, various yellows have given the opportunity for the Citrinitas process to evolve, and this is being explored through a sequence of works on paper. The floor pieces are predominantly made of clay and consist of hundreds of fragments, all of differing shapes and sizes. These floor installation pieces are still in their infancy and will develop and mature over time depending on the architectural space they are shown in.

 

Keith Frake

May MMXXII.

 

 

3D Clay Construction

2022

30x17x16cm