Soft layers of rolled-out clay are draped in layers. One would like to reach in and feel the malleable, fine-pored earth between the fingers, inhale the smell of the organic, moist mass, and lead the plastic consistence to a concrete shape. The photographs from the series Untitled (Clay Portfolio) were taken during Chris Curreri’s one-year ceramics course at the Toronto Gardiner Museum. You can see the failed experiments and leftovers that did not make it into the kiln. The crumbled clay plates and collapsed vessels confront the viewer with a formlessness that seems to be resisting completion. The medium of black-and-white photography stands in strong contrast to the haptic and sensual elements of the clay. The small-format photographs create a formal abstraction and create a distance. As the viewer withdraws from the intense attraction of the image and takes a step back, doubts can arise. Do we see a snapshot of the production process or failure? Curreris work (film, photography and sculpture) is premised on the idea that things in the world are not defined by essential properties, but rather by the actual relationships that we establish with them.