The 8th biennale of Israeli ceramics
From Wet to Fired

In the 8th Biennale of Israeli Ceramics, titled "From Wet to Fired", Boris Katz presented a monumental sculptural head composed entirely of handmade ocarinas — small ceramic wind instruments he has worked with for decades. Drawing inspiration from the composite portraits of Arcimboldo, Katz assembled these vessels into a human likeness, where each curve and spout forms a cheek, a brow, a curl of hair.

But this is not mere playfulness: the work fuses function and form, sound and silence. Every component of the sculpture is an instrument in itself, holding breath and voice — yet frozen in clay. The piece invites the viewer to consider the threshold between object and being, music and muteness, surface and interior.

The exhibition was curated by Dr. Eran Ehrlich and held at the Eretz Israel Museum in 2016.