Two-person show, "Extended Materiality" Althea Murphy Price & Mie Kongo, curated by Brian J. Robe, at Candro building of Tri-star Arts, Knoxville, Tennessee

March 5, 2024 through June 1, 2024

All individual work photos by Holly Murkerson

Inspired by this marble building, I decided to create site-specific works in response to the building’s material. Each piece in the work, titled ‘Pink Marble Slab Project,’ incorporates Tennessee pink marble to explore how I could extend/manipulate the use of the material.

Marble, essentially a form of limestone, owes its composition to calcium oxide, which serves as a key flux component in high-temperature ceramic glazes. Chinese potters from a thousand years ago sourced calcium oxide from various natural elements including limestone, wood ash, and marble. I crushed Tennessee pink marble to develop a glaze for my work. Approximately 30% of this glaze comprises Tennessee pink marble.