American Coke Bottles, 2010, gilt in American flag design
Blue top stoneware bottles, circa 1900
The Open Studio at MAD is a workspace on the 6th floor of the museum devoted to artists carrying-on with their work, interfacing with the public. So it was inevitable one fine day when I was wedging clay that a woman walked in with her young daughter who blurted out “Mommy! Look at that man,… he’s kneading bread!”
I smiled to myself. It’s true; the process of wedging clay resembles the kneading of bread dough. But this act that begins the potter’s process, which the little girl was sooo excited about, gave me such pause to consider what is really going on?
Linda Christianson, Oil Can, ceramic, 2010
Unsigned Batter Pail 1890, brown alkaline glaze, maintains original bail handle and tin lids, base is relief ribbed, approx 8""
Manipulating a lump of clay into this “kneading” motion with the wrists of one’s hands and the bearing of the body, typically forms the controlled mass of clay that rolls onto itself in a spiraling pattern. It is meant to release trapped air bubbles, allows us to inspect our clay for lumps and impurities, further makes the clay more homogeneous by flexing the molecules which lends a renewed sense of elasticity, and lets us feel the hardness/softness and moisture content of our natural material.
For beginners and those more advanced, one must be concerned with the physical act, but it also initiates a whole process, to which many of us subscribe, but with an unconscious falling.
Normally, people don’t think about the person who came before them to the wedging table that day, the previous day, the last week or month before. Indeed, wedging may only be a momentary process, but the process has existed since the earliest of times.
One could argue that the wedging table is both temporal and also has eternal aspects to it, having been borne for the initiation of a process that has lasted throughout the course of time.
With the many wedging tables that there are in this world, little do we think about the process as part of a universal vocabulary, but it is something that has shaped our pottery traditions in time immemorial. When the act of creating becomes a special language to us personally, is when we observe the outline of its grammar and prosody through which we filter our experience in the ceramics we make.
Unsigned Coffee Pot, 1890, ceramic and metal
Byron Temple, Teapot, 1967, stoneware
Colorado Teapot, designed by Marco Zanini for Memphis, 1983
Wedging has seen historic stylistic differences between East and West, but today those differences are no longer absolute. However it is still a process where consciousness can be lent towards a quickened pace, should one decide to pursue the rewards of clay.
Wedging may be cited as a rite of passage, but the field is not meant for everyone who tries their hand at it. For those who choose to make a commitment to its art and design, and have a desire to learn the ways, the experience can lead to an individual voice, where wisdom can be obtained.
As potters, as artists who choose to work with clay, we stand with the accretion of our forebears’ hard-gained knowledge, passed down from one generation to the next, and yet, we are forged today in the firings of our own doings.
This I believe is the Form of Tradition.
Photo credits to: Linda Christianson and http://www.schallergallery.com/
Bruce and Vicki Waasdorp at: http://antiques-stoneware.com/index.html
March 11th, 2010
Doug Navarra
I can hardly believe a month of Open Studio’s has already passed! My exchanges with the visitors have been wonderful and among the many notable characters I have met, I recently spoke with two opera singers, a student of electrical engineering and travelers from Qatar, Israel and France. I regularly speak with visitors about my works relationship to the natural world. It often functions as an access point, allowing viewers to relate to the abstract forms. My hope is that this current work extends beyond the ’subjectification’ of nature and I would like to expand briefly on some additional facets in my thought process.
I will be exhibiting new work in an exhibition in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Please join me for the upcoming opening of : The World We Live In, The Worlds We Create @ Like the Spice Gallery
Opening Reception: Friday, March 12th, 6:30pm – 10:00pm
“Design Activist” would be the most appropriate way to describe American industrial designer Stephen Burks. This young multi-talented visionary, who has worked with some of the world’s most recognizable names in fashion and furniture industry, is changing the we way think about design – one idea at a time. By simultaneously using a top-down and a bottom-up approach he brings together the industrialized world’s gatekeepers of culture with traditional people in remote locales to create sustainable objects and symbiotic relationships.
Is it art or design? In graduate school we read extensively within this topic. People like to categorize things into one or the other, black or white. For me, working within the theme of shoes, intention and process help define what it is and hopefully my form conveys it. Before graduate school at Cranbrook I would have said definitely yes I am an artist, not a designer. Studying design and design issues for 2 years definitely changed how I view my work, and I position myself as working within both art and design fields. Fashion allows this fluidity. Just look at some of the work of the late Alexander McQueen or Jean Charles de Castelbajac. Some of the current footwear design is so out there and creative amazing. I try to not compare myself to these big fish.
Untitled_ 2010, porcelain, chinapaint, decal, 12"x 5.25"x 4"
I wanted to take this opportunity to acknowledge a trend that has been occurring when individuals refer to my work. People often use the term ”doll” when addressing it. I find the doll comments revealing as they enable me to reflect on my intent and how the work is functioning to the viewer.
Although this might be a conversation more rooted in semantics I think one aspect resides around intention. Intentionality plays a large part in how we view and distinguish between commonplace and fine art objects. The intention of a work of art utilizing the language of “dolls” is very different than actually being a doll. By doll I mean something that a child / adult would collect for its beauty, nostalgic value, or historical significance.
I am interested in the dualism of referencing the innocence of a ceramic doll while simultaneously dismantling and subverting it. As with any work of art, utilizing appropriated images or styles can limit a work and serve as the primary signifier rather than reveal the artist’s intention.
In thinking of other artists who reference ceramic figurines I can’t help but notice the proximity of Viola Frey’s work to this discussion. The exhibition “Viola Frey: Bigger, Better, More,” includes her common place objects of affinity and thus their presence creates interesting insight and dialogue with her monolithic works. Frey calls to mind these collective images and under her skilled hand the commonplace becomes the compelling.
In my work I am interested in doing the same, although the initial female figure references a ceramic doll, an investigation of established ideas of constructed femininity, adornment, and martyred saints transcends the traditional function of a doll. I use the inviting scale as a tool to lure the viewer while revealing something more subversive than the porcelain objects displayed in grandma’s cabinet. Bordering between delight and disgust my current work intermingles imagined and historical narratives to breathe new life into the realm of the ceramic figure.
Come visit the open studio on Wednesday and we can discuss!
March 2nd, 2010
jessica stoller
My topic you will notice has a slight change. Instead of Form & Tradition, I believe it is The Form of Tradition. This change allows a blending of two categories as one, instead of treating them as separate entities. My appeal is for “pluralism” in the study of Tradition and to allow for a diversity of inclusion.
I just completed my second Saturday as an Open Studio Artist, and am invigorated and ready for next week!
My favorite question so far was a man asking me, “Why shoes?” To which I replied, “why not?” It’s difficult to describe a passion and compulsion to create. Shoes are familiar, common, objects, but for me they are my art. I aim to transform the shoes identity, so art becomes part of the function of the shoe. Shoes are structural objects which stand alone, unlike garments, though they are transformed by the addition of the body and movement.
I’ve been very enamored by the ceramics coming out of England built on the Leach and Cardew tradition. Some of the top potters there are doing some great work. But what I see there (as opposed to here in the States) is an unparalleled pride or charge of excitement for functional work, which I think is a very compelling aspect of their tradition.
