Indholdsfortegnelse for No. 112 i Ceramics: Art and Perception

Is the ceramic avant-garde a contradiction in terms?– Garth Clark Lusting after equality with fine arts has, in fact, been destructive to crafts… distinctly yourself, especially where it means being unlike mainstream fine arts.– Janet Koplos In the late 20th Century, when there was discussion on whether ceramic art (which is closely linked to the practical tradition of craftsmanship and history) could accommodate the spirit of avant-garde modernism. Garth Clark, an art critic from the United States, argues that the thesis that it is only through the destruction of the old that we can we find something new was a myth and suggests that the destruction of tradition is not something that is always necessary for the avant-garde to prevail.1 Clark states that “History can be a servant to the…

The ceramic sculptures of Canadian artist Violette Dionne can be described as strange, weird, disturbing and atypical. The three-dimensional objects from a group called Fin d’inventaire (End of Line) are pseudo-remains of industrial appurtenances; lawnmower, electronic devices and mechanical trash of all sorts now transformed into dire poetic images. The plastic precision of the artefacts makes one marvel at the maniacal purist craftsmanship of this contemporary appropriator. Not only is the Zen posture of these imitative artefacts effectively troubling, but so is the visual equivocalness of the surfaces and their political statements. Are they oxidized steel or some Bizen accretions? Not only is the Zen posture of these imitative artifacts effectively troubling, but so is the visual equivocalness of the surfaces and their political statements. At first glance, one wonders…

Why do we make what we make? I’ve been asking myself and fellow ceramicists this question for several years. My first – and still working – binder of ceramic notes has a photo of some of the pots that were unearthed at the Louvre when IM Pei’s pyramid was being constructed. They survived the French Revolution only to be buried when the palace was handed over to the people. I took the photo and have it on the front of my notebook as a reminder that ‘This shit lasts, so make it good and make it mean something’. I suppose in a way it is my maker’s Mission Statement. In my search for ‘why we make what we make’ I was surprised to find that most of my peers had…

A new word entered the vocabulary of Australian ceramics years ago. That word is Gulgong. An example of a normal sentence in which it is used is: ‘Are you going to Gulgong?’ Or, ‘Did you go to Gulgong?’ This means: will you, or did you, attend the latest ceramics event in the town of Gulgong? Among Australian ceramics people the town name has become synonymous with these meetings. There have now been ten ceramics based events in Gulgong, a small town in the state of NSW, about four hours drive north-west of Sydney. A group of Masters are brought in to do extended workshops and talk about their work. Hundreds of people attend to observe and learn. Accompanying this are exhibitions, shop front displays, individuals selling each other ceramics, and…

Visitors to the Golf Park in Achimota, Ghana, cannot fail to notice Frank Dei’s beautifully painted pots, which transform the serene environment of the park into a variegated landscape of evocative forms and colours. Presented in pairs and arranged in several rows and columns, the wide range of pots on display beckon to prospective buyers like beautiful maidens flirting with suitors. Dei’s flowerpot business is reflective of the entrepreneurial spirit of many young Africans, especially in developing countries, who strive to cope with scarce job opportunities and high unemployment rates. Frank Dei is neither a potter nor a trained painter in the academic sense of the word. His first experience with colour occurred in an automobile body workshop where he trained as a paint sprayer. However, Dei has found in…

New York-based Gerard McCarthy’s stoneware sculptures can be read two quite different ways. In the general context of art, they are modest-scale reductive architectonic forms, marked by windows, doorways and stairs but filled, one might say, with emptiness. Their surfaces and the frequent imperfection of the openings gives them an aura of age: they signify wear and bleakness. They offer no color but tones of white terra sigillata, and only basic details, no ornament or personality. The lonely streetscapes implied by the structures recall the empty plazas of De Chirico or the impersonal warehouse-like spaces in which George Tucker painted interchangeable people. They are often facades rather than fully-enclosing structures, which may bring to mind a variety of images, from cowboy-town or movie-lot false fronts to the kind of precariously…

The British poet Alfred Lord Tennyson provided the title for an exhibition at Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis that presented contemporary ceramics from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The phrase comes from the melancholy poem Maud, written around the time of the author’s more famous The Charge of the Light Brigade. It was not chosen as a description of the current state of the Baltic countries or Baltic ceramics, but it does point to the dark passages in the history of the Baltics and the depth, that is, complexity and profundity, of the issues surrounding their existence.1 The three Baltic republics are often grouped together, whether in relation to the nightmarish events of World War II and the Cold War, or to their current situation as former members of the Soviet…

What does the sale of custom made cupcakes have in common with selling pottery? Both businesses depend on profits to continue to exist. They also have other similarities in terms of product, production and marketing. Many times both enterprises are focused on technical details without considering the long term financial essentials. Frequently the true costs of production and low profit margins are not noticed until the business is failing. It is often said that people with previous business experience who become potters are successful. Potters who do not have business skills either have to acquire that knowledge or fail at some point. Perversely, the lack of technical ability in producing functional pottery often does not inhibit sales when a superior marketing plan is in place. Quality Not Quantity I love…

In the Song Dynasty (AD960-AD1279), royalty as well as scholar-bureaucrats pursued a simple and peaceful life. Ceramics, during this same dynasty, demonstrated equally harmonious elegance through monochrome-glaze. Jian Zhan (Jian is the city name, while Zhan means tea-bowl) is a type of rich black iron-crystalline glaze. At times, the crystals create flecks of silver, deep blue, yellow and other colors that when looked at closely resembles a mystical hypnotic universe. Today, there are examples of Jian Zhan pieces in many of Japan’s reputable museums. They are considered national treasures and their true Zen qualities are revered by collectors all around the world – even Seto Yagi’s origins are in Jian kiln firings. Generally, there are three classifications of Jian tea-bowls which are categorized based on crystalline speckles: An introduction to…

This large exhibition, which travels to the Fitzwilliam Museum in the U.K. (March 20-June 18, 2018) after its December 3 2017 closing in New Haven, is the kind of show you learn more from – and see more in – with every repeat viewing. It is a substantial show in the sense of comprising nearly 150 works, in the sense of including an impressive number of large-scale works, and in the sense of being very carefully thought-out in selections, installation and catalogue – and the catalogue is commensurately huge. The show is co-curated by Martina Droth, curator of sculpture at the Yale Center; Glenn Adamson, senior research scholar there and formerly at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London; and Simon Olding, director of the Crafts Study Center in the…

It is 8 am and as you turn from the main road into Tudor Lane, it feels as though it has already been busy for hours. The run of small independent businesses are open for trade; the sound of air-tools and revving engines from the local garage filter from the far end of the street, providing an on-going muffled backing track; the smell of lightly burnt cut wood seeps beyond the joiner’s door, hitting your nostrils surprisingly hard with a sharp, eye watering tingle; the newly opened coffee shop, adopting the old brick work as nostalgic aesthetic, rides the wave of the area’s regeneration, attracting the movement of people that might not otherwise have taken the detour. It is down this cluttered little lane that we find the blue door…

Dean McRaine creates a magical, visual world of ceramic objects filled with beautiful Hawaiian and abstract motifs. These works of art are made with kaleidoscopic bits and pieces of colored clay. McRaine’s fascinating ceramic surfaces reflect his interest in the dramatic millifiori technique that was assimilated by polymer clay artists from glassblowing in the late 1980s where the entire surface of an artwork or a space is filled in with detail. Since March 2018 when a Facebook video about McRaine's ceramics went viral, he has been overwhelmed with demand for his work. For the lamination process, McRaine presses colored clays together to create a 40-kilo block of clay measuring about 12 x 12 x 12 inches. A block such as this with its incredibly complex, colored patterns is painstakingly assembled…

While this is a health related question there is an additional economic point that involves the potters time and labour in the studio. When loading a kiln often shelves are moved away from the body resulting in possible back strain. As shelfve stacking progresses the body can torque into different positions with the extended weight of each shelfve inducing further muscle strain. There are several options to eliminate or reduce back pain such as exercise and correct lifting techniques. When loading a kiln often shelves are moved away from the body resulting in possible back strain. Another method to reduce back pain is the use of lighter kiln shelves. At present there are three types of kiln shelves in use, (cordierite 12”x 24”x 1”weight 21 lbs, silicon carbide 12”x 24”x…