Karlina Mezecka

Karlina Mezecka is a student from Riga, Latvia and has been living and working in London since 2021. After undertaking a BA in ceramics at the Art Academy of Latvia, she pursued her MA studies at the RCA to further develop her artistic practice. Working in an interdisciplinary manner across several different mediums, the artist is focused on developing various narratives that challenge the use of ceramics.

During her studies at the RCA Karlina participated in two collaborative exhibitions in Latvia and will continue her studio-based practice in London in the future. She is interested in developing her work in a gallery framework and working with museums and institutions alike.

My work focuses on developing various narratives that challenge the use of ceramics, mainly through installations and sculptural pieces. I explore ways of merging and combining ceramics with glass and metal, putting all three elements in a polylogue of materiality. The result is a state of flow between antipathetic materials. The ceramic pieces seemingly grab into the glass, just about to pierce the surface. Referencing the notion that the depths of our oceans are a larger mystery to man than outer space, the shapes are in a state between familiar and alien. Metaphorically, these pieces bring a ray of light beneath the surface of water into an environment where it doesn't even exist.

Perhaps the main theme of my work is not about notions of light or materiality but about collision and interaction. It's a still moment when one element devours or overpowers the other - yet it’s unclear which element is alien in the ecosystem of the other. Capturing the moment when light clashes onto the surface of water - is light disrupting the surface of the water or is the water in fact distorting the trajectory of rays of light?

A poetic discourse on optics: our ability to see is entirely reliant on reflections – the translation of light within the medium of ceramics acts like a prerequisite for the shape of glass. One cannot be seen without the other and the materialisation of the ray of light is a prerequisite for the emergence of the glass form.