I am interested in the experiences of knowing, understanding, or belief that come through the more-than-rational act of creating. My sculptural work happens in places where art, science, magic, and mythmaking overlap as methods of research. The study of ceramics provides an alchemical groundwork where these dialogues converge and are contextualized with one another. Handbuilding with clay and experimenting in glaze science, I engage with chemistry and intuition simultaneously to conjure forms that carry their own myths. My studio is full of found objects (bone, fossil, eggshell, document, industrial detritus) whose textures, forms, voices, and chemical makeup weave into the process of making. Out of this, critters of clay emerge and speak to the edges of natural/synthetic, ancestry/kinship, life/consciousness, belief/knowing - queering scientific methods to work alongside felt, collaborative ways of knowing.

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Aya is currently living in Bloomington, Indiana pursuing a BFA in Ceramics and a minor in Methods of Inquiry in Philosophy, Science and Folklore at Indiana University while working as a studio assistant for the IU ceramics area. Aya’s studies began in 2013 through fibers at Pratt Institute, NY, and in 2016 spread to metals, wood, and ceramics through an AFA at Gaston College, NC. Aya traveled to the Mojave Desert in 2021 and worked at an Arts & Ecology Permaculture Education site to pursue a marriage of art and science. She is now at IU to pair these explorations with a deeper understanding of material communication. Aya currently collaborates with IU Biological Scientists studying symbiotic relationships: documenting their research processes and aiding in their visual representations. This mutualist collaboration provides context for Aya’s own work at the intersections of art, science, magic, and mythmaking. Currently, Aya is organizing a collaborative project called Symbiosis, which brings together artists and scientists to share their research and work together to curate a joint exhibition. The project is open to anyone interested, and more information can be found here.