Les vents, la colonne is constructed by nesting shapes on top of each other. They are carved and glazed with a transparent glaze. Marie Côté has reproduced wind movements inspired by wind maps or isobaric maps on the outer surface of the pieces. Indeed, the wind rises and falls in a perpetual and circular movement reminiscent of the potter’s work and the knowledge of the wheel. Like the wind, the potter also creates forces, pressures and tensions, forming a vacuum surrounding the earth in order to shape the clay.


Columns are a naturally occurring phenomenon in nature, from the architectonic structures that make up a forest, to funnel clouds, large stalagmites/stalactites, ice formations, and hexagonal basalt pillars in Canada, Iceland, Scotland and Ireland. Meanwhile, the wind is essentially invisible except for the things it moves.

In Côté’s series, Les vents, la colonne, we are reminded that Nature is also an artist/sculptor, leaving her trace as chiselled reliefs on the land, relating stories of our origins.