When we look at a leaf, we see a predominantly flat plane, intersected by a midrib and myriad veins, or perhaps dotted with ailments like fungi or the eggs of insects. But imagine what these bits of foliage would look like if blown up like balloons. Artist Syd Carpenter responds “to the garden as a source of form” with her Expanded Leaf series. Imagining a papery leaf if it were inflated, perhaps to the size of a cat, the resulting forms take on “the girth, weight and physicality of animals,” she says.

Carpenter is known for her clay-based practice exploring the body, land, agriculture, and African American history. She taps into the ancient legacy of the material, merging the timeless medium with contemporary concerns. Perception and expectations are thoughtfully challenged as we encounter bulbous, creature-like beings that simultaneously seem alive and inanimate.

In her recent Farm Bowl series, Carpenter considers another enduring juxtaposition, especially in the world of craft: form and function. She transforms the ubiquitous shape of a bowl into a series of tableaux that delve into relationships between African Americans and the land. Investigating ideas of utility, labor, place, and narrative, the sculptures are encircled by farm animals, foodstuffs, modest houses, and fences.

“The handmade bowl is a universal form with equivalent examples represented in every culture,” Carpenter says in a statement. “It is an open, round form with an inner recessed chamber rising from a smaller foot to a wider rim. Bowls can serve ritualistically or as mundane, utilitarian objects.” In their nearly universal applications and ageless form, the bowl provides a unique way of “holding” African American experiences and connections to the land.

A major retrospective of Carpenter’s work, Planting in Space, Time, and Memory, opens in January at the Woodmere Art Museum in Philadelphia. Running concurrently, another solo show titled Home Bound in Wood, Steel, and Clay runs from January 22 to April 5 at the Berman Museum of Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. Her work is also included in the group exhibition Re-Union: Syd Carpenter, Martha Jackson Jarvis, Judy Moonelis, Sana Musasama, and Winnie Owens Hart at the Frances M. Maguire Art Museum of Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, from January 14 to March 29.

If you’re in Washington, D.C., you can also see Carpenter’s ceramics in State Fairs: Growing American Craft at the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery, which continues through September 7. Find more on the artist’s website and Instagram.