Ellie Levy

BFA in Art & Design

Parasitic Vessels: Forms of Disuse

Parasitic Vessels: Forms of Disuse is a series of homologous ceramic forms that play host to a parasite that evolves throughout them, reassigning their anticipated functional value as they morph into more complicated bodies. A parasitic relationship is characterized by one organism, the parasite, drawing its resources from another, the host, in ways that exist on a spectrum of symbiotic to malevolent. A parasite can evolve over different hosts due to its impulse to regulate its host body’s immune responses. In these ceramic bodies, the parasite is tender in the way it clings to its imagined life sources while it is aggressive in the ways it renders them objects of dysfunction. The ambiguous relationship between parasitic growth and form in this series is meant to evoke a polarizing response; the viewer may be enticed or repulsed by their visual idiosyncrasies. The hosts’ mutations invite new ways of engaging with and appreciating the forms they occupy. The imagined user becomes the viewer as the bowls’ purpose shifts from holding to being held. As familiar unobtrusive objects are transfigured into curious forms of consideration, I aim to cultivate a space where we are reminded to explore the simple predictable forms our lives orbit around. Ellie Levy is a ceramic artist from Los Angeles, California, focused on elevating conventional forms through applying underglaze surface treatments. The imposed peculiarity she elicits in her surface designs shifts their value from being forms to engage with in predictable utilitarian ways to forms that offer space for more exploration and consideration on account of their unfamiliar features.
An image of a white bowl with yellow and red- patterned sculptural additions wrapping from the interior to the exterior surrounded by bowls with the same visual qualities surrounding it.

Parasitic Vessels: Forms of Disuse, 2021
Underglaze and translucent glaze sections on white earthenware
D: 4.5″- 8.5″ x H: 4.5″- 6.5″
This is a demonstration of how the forms must rely upon their parasites to balance, signifying a tender exchange in the relationship between parasite and host. The growths could be interpreted as mutations that disrupt balance or offer it. These forms are placed in the context their uninfected bodies would function, but that in which the parasite distances them from as it morphs them into dysfunctional objects.

An image of 20 white bowl forms with sculptural surface additions posed in different positions closely situated, showing the progression of patterns on their surface attachments.

Parasitic Vessels: Forms of Disuse, 2021
Underglaze and translucent glaze sections on white earthenware
D: 4.5″- 8.5″ x H: 4.5″- 6.5″
The forms pose to evoke how the parasite transforms throughout their bodies, varying slightly as it spreads across their host bodies. This is a visualization of the concept that a parasite can evolve through different host bodies on account of their acute awareness of their host’s immune responses.

An image of the exteriors of many white bowl forms with colorful sculptural additions displayed on 2 rectangular tables with white table cloths.

Parasitic Vessels: Forms of Disuse, 2021
Underglaze and translucent glaze sections on white earthenware
D: 4.5″- 8.5″ x H: 4.5″- 6.5″
The forms pose as inanimate organisms to highlight the evolution of their mutations on their exteriors.

An image of stacked white bowl forms with colorfully patterned sculptural surface additions.

Parasitic Vessels: Forms of Disuse, 2021
Underglaze and translucent glaze sections on white earthenware
D: 5.5″- 8″ x H: 5″- 7″
The forms hold each other, mimicking the parasitic growths that cling to their bodies and demonstrating how the bowl’s function of holding is altered on account of their mutations.

An image of stacked white bowl forms with colorfully patterned sculptural surface additions.

Parasitic Vessels: Forms of Disuse, 2021
Underglaze and translucent glaze sections on white earthenware
D: 5.5″- 8″ x H: 5″- 7″
The forms crawl over each other and dominate one another, paralleling the ways in which their parasite does so.

An image of stacked white bowl forms with colorfully patterned sculptural surface additions.

Parasitic Vessels: Forms of Disuse, 2021
Underglaze and translucent glaze sections on white earthenware
D: 6″- 8″ x H: 5.5″- 7″
The forms hold one another, expressing how their parasite subdues their ability to stack as conventional functional bowls are anticipated to.

An image of a white bowl form with a yellow, red, and black line pattern that sculptural surface additions that move from the exterior to the interior.

Parasitic Vessels: Forms of Disuse, Host 1, 2021
Underglaze and translucent glaze sections on white earthenware
D: 6″ x H: 5.5″

An image of a white bowl form with a blue, purple, and black line pattern that sculptural surface additions that move from the exterior to the interior.

Parasitic Vessels: Forms of Disuse, Host 2, 2021
Underglaze and translucent glaze sections on white earthenware
D: 7.5″ x H: 7″

An image of a white bowl form with a blue, yellow, and black line pattern that covers sculptural surface additions that move from the exterior to the interior.

Parasitic Vessels: Forms of Disuse, Host 3, 2021
Underglaze and translucent glaze sections on white earthenware
D: 6.5″ x H: 6″

An image of a white bowl form with a light green, red, and black line pattern that covers sculptural surface additions that move from the exterior to the interior.

Parasitic Vessels: Forms of Disuse, Host 4, 2021
Underglaze and translucent glaze sections on white earthenware
D: 8″ x H: 7″