AUGUSTA, GEORGIA.- The Morris Museum of Art opened the exhibit Challenging Reality: Ceramics of Sylvia Hyman through February 11, 2007. Sylvia Hyman, one of the grandes dames of the world of ceramics creates meticulously crafted trompe l'oeil sculptures. Hyman's sculpture inspires both delight and a sense of disorientation when viewers realize that these everyday objects of wood, cardboard, and paper are actually made of clay.

These everyday forms often reflect her interests and personal history, observes Hyman: “As subject matter, I choose such familiar containers as old boxes and baskets and fill them with contents that both convey information and stir the mind: old papers, documents, letters, music scrolls. even crossword puzzles—all made of clay. Using porcelain and stoneware, I seek to capture not only the appearance of things, but also their essential nature, giving equal weight to meaning and visual impact.”

Many of the tools with which she works and the materials she uses are the same as those used by clay workers since ancient times. However, some of her tools, such as her electric slab roller, are fairly recent inventions. All of her work is high fired to about the same temperature as the ancient Chinese porcelains and the Japanese and Korean stonewares. The printing on the clay is achieved by either the silk-screen method or with rubber stamps. Although she rarely uses glaze for her current work, most of the colors she uses are potter’s underglaze colors or metallic oxides. These are fired onto the clay. Sometimes she uses acrylic paints to achieve special effects after the firing and occasionally she uses epoxy putty. All the various parts of her sculptures are fired individually, then assembled and epoxied together to form the finished work.