Exhibition Statement

Todo Cuenta en El Washer is a self-directed BFA senior thesis show by ceramic artist Jillian Mae Seversky. It is a collection of nine medium to large ceramic wall, pedestal, and floor works made from Spring 2024 to spring 2025. The works identify and compare Seversky’s Mexican and Queer identities in a contemporary settings by engaging the viewer in a conversation about what people hold onto-our physical and emotional histories as we age into adulthood. Seversky’s sculptures dually function as both reliquary and lint roller. Trying to preserve consecrated memories while also bogged down and stuck with involuntary personal and familial traumas resurfacing. The viewer sees this represented throughout the pieces as recognizable objects and indistinguishable textures that expand upon traditional flat narrative stories seen on traditional Mexican ceramic vessels. Cloud forms permeate these works, creating an emotional and visual tie from one sculpture to another. These forms also serve as a neutral underpainting for recognizable objects, textures, and colors that exist within or upon the forms. In this series, the viewer is invited to experience a sense of cluster due to the constant convergence of texture, object, and color. The assembled works bind and stick to themselves in a shared space, allowing viewers to reflect and bear witness to the artist's experience, but also to confront dual joys and hardships in a less daunting manner.