Legible Earth: The Mud Library

Legible Earth: The Mud Library is a series of ceramic tablets that use deep ocean sediments from Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Core Repository as a drawing and glaze material.  These works consider the impulse to archive and study materials from the Earth to better understand ourselves within geologic history. The Core Repository houses ocean sediments collected from around the world, and is sometimes referred to as the “mud library,” with these intimate works playing with the forms of books, manuscripts, and the core samples themselves. Colors arise from the sediment reactions in the kiln,    while the markmaking occupies a space between writing and drawing.