Traces of Matter is one part of an ongoing body of work produced by Isabella Rudzki (b. 1995, Germany) and Sasha G Kramer (b. 2001, Colorado, USA). The collaborative project began in December 2025, when the two artists spent two weeks in Rudzki’s family home in Zankenhausen, Bavaria. The artists took an intuitive approach to the material, harvesting local Bavarian clay and beginning physical fabrication before turning to formal research, allowing direct action to guide their investigation.
Within the first meter below ground in Zankenhausen, the soil consists of shallow glacial loamy clay, formed by Alpine glacier meltwater and surface weathering. Unrefined in its natural state, this iron-rich material is filled with fine silt, grit, and small glacial pebbles – historically used for structural rural applications across Upper Bavaria.
The clay of Zankenhausen was the first material Isabella Rudzki ever sculpted with. At three years old, she discovered it alongside her siblings in the garden of the rural village where her father had grown up. They instinctively played with it, shaping small objects like tiny cups and figures resembling mummies wrapped in toilet paper. This foundational experience took place before the digital age, in a setting where natural resources were the only accessible items to play with and felt deeply inviting.
In December 2025, when Rudzki and Kramer traveled to Bavaria with the intention of creating a body of work together, clay had only been a brief point of discussion beforehand. Rudzki’s family home overlooks an agricultural field. This December brought grey, foggy, and cold weather. Dark brown earth met a flat whitish sky, with fog hanging low until midday. Upon arrival, this stark contrast created a natural setting for labor and performance.
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The ground, damp and slightly frozen, became the primary spot for experimentation. Removing all items of clothing including shoes, we stepped into the earth instinctively. Met with the harsh reality of the winter conditions, the act of labor through performance became so raw and real. The actions performed were results of real bodily reactions to cold and discomfort, yet simultaneously experiencing satisfaction from performing ancient labor rituals.
When we left Bavaria that December, we had the feeling the work we had done was only the beginning, and that the possibilities were endless.
In August 2026, we revisited the site. This time the earth was dry, hot and crumbling - the result of a drought. The premise of the trip this time was entirely focused on gathering clay.
Using the antique tools that were found in the family’s shed, we began hacking away at the soil, revealing clay. The hole we dug became the center of our ongoing performance, during which we wore simple cotton drapes. By adding water and modeling the clay walls, we turned the hole into a vessel and allowed it to dry. On the last day of our stay, we lit a small fire inside to burn the “workwear” we no longer needed. A few clay forms we had sculpted beforehand ended up in the embers. When we returned after an hour or two, they had turned red and grey, obviously fired into our first ceramics.
By the end of the trip, we had gathered over 600 kilograms of dry clay to take back to our Berlin studio, where we set out to create an indoor field alongside a group of friends.
Material: Natural clay; Composition: 60% Fine silt and clay body, 35% Quartz sand aggregate, 5% Iron and mineral oxides
Weight: 600 kg
Volume:
Dimension: 24 sqm
Origin: Zankenhausen, Bavaria
Text by Isabella Rudzki and Sasha G Kramer
Photos:
Paula Reschke
Dominik Friess
