Songs for Clouds

<p>Uffner &amp; Liu is pleased to present Songs for Clouds, Hilary Harnischfeger's fifth solo exhibition at the gallery. Marking a significant development in her multimedia sculptural practice, the exhibition debuts three new wall-based works at the largest scale Harnischfeger has produced to date. Harnischfeger's work is grounded in a sustained engagement with material transformation and the slow processes of the natural world. Drawing inspiration from specific landscapes—often mountain peaks—her works evoke geological formations shaped over vast spans of time. Rather than presenting direct representations of place, Harnischfeger constructs forms that appear weathered, stratified, and eroded, as if shaped by tectonic pressure, sedimentation, and mineral accretion rather than by human hands. Her material vocabulary includes ceramic, pigment, paper, ink, quartz, mica, wood, and hydrostone. Among these, paper plays a particularly central and unexpected role. Painted cardstock is meticulously cut, stacked, and adhered in layers, creating dense surfaces that resemble sedimentary rock strata. These paper formations are then embedded into cast ceramic and hydrostone bodies, where they function both as structural components and as material interruptions.</p>