Indholdsfortegnelse for No. 121 i Ceramics: Art and Perception

Yet again, censorship tests artistic freedom – recently in Latvia. Familiar culture war dynamics were exercised: wedge issues, purity tests, and grievance politics. These tactics are familiar to many today, from banning books and bodily autonomy, to anti-woke legislation gripping the United States. Within the first month of Estonian artist Sander Raudsepp’s1 solo exhibition Afterlife: Dying to Get There at the Daugavpils Mark Rothko Center for Art in Latvia, a controversy erupted in October 2022. Religious leaders condemned several pieces in the exhibition as offensive to believers, conservative media amplified the claims, and a city official demanded they be removed. The Rothko’s administration acquiesced. The censored works were from Your own alternative Jesus. The possibilities of lifeforms in multiverse are infinite. One of four subsets of works in the exhibition,…

Identity is the way we perceive and express ourselves; often it plays a role in defining one’s distinctiveness as it questions how to relate to one’s culture. I posit that women often seek to contribute to a general identity viewpoint by offering holistic, relational and cultural perspectives, particularly from their familial environment. They expand upon notions that emphasize and distinguish elements from their everyday lives, even though traditionalist still question their ability to destabilize social norms. I further posit that the identity of women in contemporary culture, helped by evolutionary manifestations, is considered a type of dynamic art in the ‘art world’. It promotes artistic interaction and expression by blending mirrored reflection, with contemplative, iconic and influential depictions from particular times. In doing so, contemporary culture provides a stage where…

The first striking thing about Los Angeles artist Shio Kusaka’s exhibition at David Zwirner Gallery is the unusual presentation: the pots are placed on the floor on a series of thin square copper plates of varying sizes that stretch down the middle of the warehouse-like space of more than 3,000 square feet, or about 303 square meters. They command the space, both because of their soldier-like order and, of course, because there is nothing else to look at in the vast space except for an attendant sitting in a corner. Order, in fact, may be a key word. Not only do the pots march through the space, they are in themselves orderly, masterful forms – some quite large – with linear decorations that are engaging, yet always controlled. There is…

Once, on a bleak winter’s night, I waited in a lay-by between Wimborne and Blandford. Another car arrived, flashing its lights. A blonde emerged carrying a box with great care. I paid her with cash and a smile as she said, ‘Enjoy.’ I clutched the box containing a 1930’s galleon in full sail made by Poole Pottery in the Carter Stabler and Adams era. When Jesse Carter began his tile and pottery business in Poole in 1873, a roadside assignation, made for the love of his firm’s products, would have been beyond his comprehension. Hailing from Abbots Worthy near Winchester, Jesse Carter’s father and brothers were bricklayers. In 1850 he married Elisabeth Callaway at St Pancras, Middlesex. By 1861, with five children to support, his business acumen had yielded fruit.…

Ann Agee emerged from the prestigious MFA program at Yale University in 1986 − but not making videos or exploring some other of-the-moment medium. She worked in clay, and what’s more she made genre figures of various sorts, wildly different from the political, personal or formal production of her classmates. She is still intransigent. Her summer 2021 exhibition at P.P.O.W. was titled “Madonna of the Girl Child” and consisted of 66 hand-built constructions representing a pregnant woman or, more often, a woman with a naked female child. They were presented on a high platform that filled the center of the gallery’s first room, making a field of figures ranging from about 8 inches to 40 inches in height. A single figure in the gallery’s street-level window, Exquisitely Dressed Madonna (2021),…

Mountain biking began in Northern California in the 1970s, around the time I was born, whereas the art of ceramics dates back millennia and is mostly associated with the Far East. Despite these contrasts, I find a connection between the two practices and my experience of racing mountain bikes at an international level influences and acts as a framework for my practice. Like many, during the first months of Covid lockdown in 2020, the outdoors – and physical activity – became my crutch. I noticed nature more and valued the time I had when going for walks or bike rides. At this time, I started to make connections between two apparently unconnected activities, making in clay and mountain biking. Being immersed in activity allows for the sensation of being in…

From the Neolithic period to the present day, Asia Minor, including Azerbaijan and Anatolia, has been an important location for ceramics, and many sites hold archaeological value. Ceramics are important for revealing the cultural, sociological and philosophical characteristics of the lives of numerous civilizations who have inhabited these lands over thousands of years. The fact that Anatolia includes the oldest ceramic production centres in the world, and that ancient methods of production are still used in numerous parts of Asia Minor, makes the region a place of special interest. Shäki Province in Azerbaijan is typical of locations that have produced ceramics using the same methods for millennia. As in many other locations in Asia Minor, pottery continues to be made in Shäki, and as a result, the city has also…

We are born. Then we die. Between the gooing and the gloaming, artists are active. I have been involved professionally now for sixty years. What is it like to be here? Before getting to that, let’s go way back and start at the beginning. My early ambitions were simple enough. There were not many potters around. To become one, you took the route outlined by satirist John Clarke, in his role as Fred Dagg the New Zealand farmer. You bought a chicken shed at the remote end of a lane, and turned it into a workshop. You dug up clay to make pots and glazed them after crushing rocks down fine as flour and fired the pots in a kiln you had built. I had learned and understood the technical…

It all started with my neighborhood friend Barry Hand’s mother Donna Hands, who let Barry and me make some clay dragons at their house. Mrs. Hands was a high school art and ceramics teacher at Davis Senior High school and would fire the pieces we made. Later, I took several classes with her and fell in love with working with clay. My parents grew up in Manhattan, NY after they and their parents immigrated from Greece. Every summer, while I was growing up, our family would visit relatives in New York City. A wonderful aspect of these visits was the opportunity to go to amazing museums. At this time, the 1960s and 1970s, Pop Art was of major art interest. I remember going to the Whitney Museum of American Art,…

Heidegger said “The thingly element is manifestly the matter of which it consists. Matter is the substrate and field for the artist’s formative action.”1 The artist recognizes the medium, acts and thinks with it. In works where the process is presented directly to the audience, they can also get involved in the flow, establishing a different connection with the material than with ‘finished’ works in object form. Works that are produced with unfired ceramic clay are important due to being in a state of flux, the viewer witnesses many phases of the material and can build a bond with it. As Ayşe Kurşuncu notes: “[…] the relationship that the artist establishes with the object and allowing this relationship to transform into a dialogue paves the way for the art object…

My evolution, or ‘re-evolution’, as a ceramic artist was steered into new, more promising horizons in early 2023 when I went on to create the Piedra Escrita ceramic tile series that was inspired by the La Piedra Escrita petroglyph stone in Jayuya, Puerto Rico. Carved by the Taino people, this prime example of prehistoric rock art is a visually rich testament to the legacy of Puerto Rico’s indigenous origins. I had visited the huge boulder that rests in the tumultuous Saliente River, Coabey, Jayuya, in central Puerto Rico with my brother and his wife and their son decades ago on a family trip. I had not given the petroglyphs much thought over the years since then until, just recently, when I became more ‘primitive’ in my own approach to figures…

In Japan, there is an ongoing balance that takes place involving the cultivation of wild and untamed nature. For humanity and nature to survive together the landscape and its elements must be shaped, leading to a sense of symmetry. Similarly, the practice of ceramics is also part of a centuries-old art form that is deeply connected to the cultural identity of Japan. Ceramics, moreover, comes from clay found in the soft space between water and land. As an aside of earth, wind and sky, clay is the most resonant symbol of a region and its topography. While it is part of a centuries-old tradition, the medium of ceramics is always connected to a context that begins as contemporary before changing over time. Painted Clay: Wada Morihiro & Modern Ceramics of…

Looking at a collection of Reuben Ugbine’s ceramic sculptures displayed in a gridded rack in his apartment is like watching a panoramic array of news events unfold sequentially in three dimensions. From one chamber of the rack to another, they seem to open up, yielding their contents gradually. Taken together, they become what Michael Wilson has described as “an encyclopaedia of variations on a theme.”1 Each piece represents an opinion, a situation, and an event. Ugbine is a master storyteller who believes in making narratives that are stripped down to the point where every detail is relevant. He has the knack for translating human experiences into visual forms that read like drama and poetry, which describe different scenarios pieced together as fragments of a creative history. Although his ceramic sculpture…

Q: What is Spodumene and why can't I obtain Spodumene from my ceramics supplier? Spodumene is a lithium-based feldspar frequently used to facilitate melting in cone 6 (2232°F/1222°C to cone 9 (2300°F/1260°C) glaze formulas. Spodumene is also used in flame ware clay body formulas. As frequently happens in ceramics, a favorite raw material used in a clay or glaze formula goes out of production. In this case, Spodumene is still being produced, but the price has increased significantly (current pricing US dollars $25.00 to $30.00/lb. vs. 2020 pricing at US dollars $2.00/lb.). Similar price increases are noted with lithium carbonate. Often both materials are unavailable from ceramics suppliers at any price. The suppliers have determined potters cannot afford the higher prices. Both minerals are used in car batteries. Here, larger…

Arecent exhibition at the Henry Art Gallery of the University of Washington in Seattle sought to trace ceramics’ origins, in primordial mud and dirt. This is done by spot-lighting several artists making objects and installations that explore ancestral and indigenous associations to their respective cultures. Founded in 1923, the Henry Art Gallery is the oldest public art museum in the State of Washington. As such, with its ties since 1927 to the University of Washington, ‘the Henry’ has a history of displaying innovative works of ceramic design and sculpture largely associated with faculty and students at the School of Art on its campus. Associate Curator Nina Bozicnik assembled works by eight artists, five of whom have ties to ceramics. In artworks ranging from fired clay to tapestries, installations, and video,…

“We need the funk, got to have that funk.”– George Clinton (1975)1 Funk is more than attitude. It’s about rhythm, finding the groove, and getting down. A musician locked in on a bass, tearing through a riff, gets down as people dance and gyrate to the pulsating beat of the music. Yeah, that’s the funk. Open the space up a little. Move and groove. Make it a little edgy. Take that sense of playful exploration and break-the-rules adventure into the world of ceramics and what do you get? An intriguing exhibit entitled Funk You Too! Humor and Irreverence in Ceramic Sculpture, at the Museum of Art and Design (MAD). The show, curated by Puerto Rican/Miami native Angelik Vizcarrondo-Laboy, presents a variety of figurative ceramics born out of, or inspired by,…

At the core of the Daum Museum’s practice is the effort to engage community members in the creative exploration of a shared cultural dialogue. The Daum strategy is to enhance the quality of life across the Midwest by showcasing our collection, providing opportunities for artists, and facilitating outreach programs. Through this pursuit, Daum acts as a steward of the arts and champions their role in the formulation of a shared sense of place through creative learning and connectivity enhancement strategies. Over the years, this evolving and flourishing organization has found support from a phenomenal group of individuals far and wide. Thanks to this ongoing community engagement, we have an amazing collection of work and a beautiful facility from which we can teach, inspire, and engage our rural community. Daum Museum…

The book was published for the exhibition Daniel Pontoreau: Before the Landscape at Keramis, La Louvière (Belgium) which ran from 11 February to 20 August 2023. Pontoreau thinks of the sculptural act as a manual raising and mixing of natural elements, keeping in mind that human beings can only find their truth if their action manages to combine with elementary strengths. This is a praxis that tends to recall the original importance of what we call the ‘artistic act’, namely to perceive our surroundings based less on scientific rationality than on our ability to change our view and sensibility regarding our environment. In this, Pontoreau’s making is a process of correspondence, rather than interaction. His aim is not to impose an already determined form, but to keep looking for a…

Shuo Chen, a contemporary ceramic artist from Fujian Province in east China, grew up steeped in the spirituality of traditional Chinese art. His disciplined creative practice and rigorous self-criticism have helped him break the shackles of these conventions, step by step. Having developed a firm basis of craftsmanship over the last 20 years, Chen is now pioneering new horizons in ceramics. His exploratory and innovative approach deconstructs, recreates and regenerates ceramics. A process of continuous repair allows his work to transcend the limitations of ceramic materials, forging a new aesthetic language. Chen studied ceramics, sculpture and installation, and now boldly attempts to transform the tradition of ceramics through technology; paying particular attention to the relationship between ceramics, space, and spiritual connotations. Chen’s spiritual beliefs lead him to describe his creations…