Senescence

Craig Wcislo

15” x 15” x 16”

Stonewear and Wire

In Senescence, Craig Wcislo presents a sculptural form that feels simultaneously ancient and speculative, as though shaped by evolutionary pressures beyond human time. The work’s swollen, asymmetrical body is rendered in stoneware with a richly mottled surface that suggests mineral accretion, cellular growth, and organic decay. Emerging from this dense ceramic mass, a porous, net-like wire structure clings and folds, introducing a sense of fragility and exposure that contrasts with the sculpture’s weight and solidity.

Wcislo’s practice is informed by science fiction and the study of alternative life forms. Senescence reads as a meditation on transformation rather than decline. The title references the biological process of aging. The piece proposes senescence as a generative state where structure softens, boundaries dissolve, and new forms of existence become possible. The clay’s malleability allows the form to appear grown rather than constructed.

Senescence aligns with biomorphic abstraction and postwar ceramic sculpture. The work recalls the organic surrealism of Jean Arp and the material sensitivity of Eva Hesse. Wcislo’s integration of wire introduces an element of tension and linear interruption, echoing postminimalist strategies that emphasize process, vulnerability, and material contrast.

Presented as part of Mash Gallery’s group exhibition Rhythmic Contours, Senescence contributes a sculptural interpretation of rhythm through bodily curvature, surface patterning, and structural imbalance. The eye moves across its undulating contours, registering rhythm as gradual change that is shaped by time and transformation.

Senescence addresses evolution, vulnerability, and the poetic intelligence of materials.