About

Holding Space Through Clay is a participatory, community-based art  project by the International Sculpture Center that invites individuals from around the world to press their thumbprint into clay and to engage in the simple, embodied act of squeezing and shaping the material. This gesture, quiet, repetitive, and tactile, creates a meditative space in which participants are encouraged to slow down, breathe, and become present with their own bodies and with one another, even across distance. The thumbprint, one of the most unique identifiers of human identity, becomes a shared mark that simultaneously signifies individuality and collective belonging.

The resulting clay forms, created by participants from diverse communities and geographic locations, will be gathered and sent to the International Sculpture Center, where they will be assembled into a single installation. 

Through its emphasis on touch, repetition, and material intimacy, the project frames clay as both medium and metaphor: malleable, responsive, and shaped through care. Imprint offers a contemplative counterpoint to fragmentation, proposing that even the smallest gesture can hold profound meaning when made together.

Project Lead

This project is led by Laura Jean McLaughlin, International Sculpture Center’s first Member Artist-in-Residence at the ISC Gallery in Pittsburgh.

For more information, contact Laura Jean McLaughlin at ljmclay@hotmail.com.