OMPHALOS

A-B Projects, Los Angeles | 2019

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Greek for ‘navel’, omphalos is also the term for ancient stones that marked mythological centers of the world. They were once understood to be the seat of Hestia, who was considered as a procreative and generative principle in both the natural and human worlds. In Linda Swanson’s installation, the omphalos is a metaphor for clay’s ability to harnesses the generative capacity of earth; the ceramic vessel becomes a center of the social world. These forms began as digital dots that were 3D printed and then slip cast in plaster molds. The technological, cultural and natural merge as these vessels gradually fill, overflow and become encrusted with brine.

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