Illuminated Essence  2025

Moj Habibi

Wheel-thrown and hand-textured forms | Oxidation-fired earthenware, terracotta, No.37 clay, glaze, and light

Illuminated Essence is a series of ceramic and mixed-media sculptures that explore the interplay between form, surface, and illumination. Each work is pierced with openings—apertures that allow light to move through, casting shifting patterns of shadow and glow across space.

Every sculpture stands as an individual presence, shaped with its own textures, rhythms, and gestures of light. Together, they form a constellation of difference, suggesting that beauty lies in variation, and that it is not only possible but vital to be different.

In these works, light becomes an active material. As it filters through the perforated clay, it creates movement and atmosphere, balancing fragility with resilience, weight with luminosity. The openings act as thresholds—places of passage and transformation—reminding us that permeability can be a source of strength.

By uniting clay’s tactile memory with the ephemeral qualities of light, Illuminated Essence reimagines ceramics as a contemporary language of reflection and encounter, offering audiences a quiet meditation on individuality, resilience, and the shared human experience.