Fire and Water is a continuation of Kay Aplin’s investigation into micro-flora which has been the focus of her practice since 2013 and builds on her cross disciplinary collaboration with sound artist Joseph Young.

Kay used a digital microscope to magnify micro flora as the basis for her tile-based designs, whilst Joseph utilised binaural recording techniques to produce an immersive soundscape.

‘Fire’ refers to the woodfiring technique employed to fire the ceramics whilst ‘water’ references the site of a natural spring in Asturias, Spain, the source of the plants. Joseph recorded the sounds of the spring and an anagama firing at Kohila Woodfiring Symposium, Estonia, attended by both artists in 2017. The resulting soundscape accompanies Kay’s wall-mounted roundels of Asturian Flora in soda woodfired and oxidized porcelain.

Fire and water together with clay (earth) produces a mixed media experience that extends our understanding of form and texture in relation to landscape. The installation was presented at Collect 2019, Saatchi Gallery, London.

Fire and Water was created for Collect Open in 2019 in residence at Tolne Gæstgivergård, a wood fired installation responding to micro flora growing around the Victoria Spring in Borines, Asturias. The resulting installation included a two-channel sound piece by Joseph Young featuring the sounds of the spring and the anagama firing in which the ceramics were fired.