Gestural Excavations is a body of material research that unfolds through the physical and poetic interplay between gesture, repetition, and material-guided process. Referencing the methodologies of archaeological excavation, the work draws inspiration from the eroded architecture of the Tombs of the Kings in Paphos, its fragmented rhythms and ruptured strata emanating through these works.

The works originate from a written piece titled In Flow, a gestural verse written in response to time spent at the ancient site. Through writing, Serena traced the memory of her experience and envisioned the gestures of time and hand that once shaped its forms. Translating these movements into clay, she sought to uncover how process itself could act as excavation, revealing what lies beneath the surface through touch and repetition.

During this period of experimentation, Serena established a set of constraints: limiting herself to two contrasting clay bodies: porcelain and black grogged clay, to explore their dialogue of movement. Working in a bichromatic palette that echoes the aesthetics of Cypro-Geometric I ceramics, she layered, stretched, and stacked the clays, allowing fissures and ruptures to emerge through the tension between them.

By treating tools as extensions of the body and the wheel as a site of emergence rather than control, the process became one of surrender and discovery, where gesture and material guided each other. Through this merging dialogue of intention and chance, Gestural Excavations traces a coalescence of gesture and repetition, echoing both the act of unearthing and the remnant of touch across time.

 RCA MA Ceramics and Glass Collection