This Present Moment
This Present Moment
MARY SAVIG with Nora Atkinson and Anya Montiel Foreword by Stephanie Stebich and contributions by several artists
Crafting a Better World Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum Washington, DC in association with D Giles Limited
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Fig. 6 Toshiko Takaezu’s closed forms, including Anagama, Canary Yellow, Cobalt Blue, Full Moon, Sophia, Zeus, and three Untitled, 1978–2002, stoneware or porcelain with glaze, ranging from 59 5⁄8 × diam. 22 3⁄8 to 19 1⁄8 × diam. 7 in. (irreg.), Gift of the artist, 2006.26.1–.8, and Museum purchase and gift of the James Renwick Alliance, 1989.36.2
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Fig. 7 Takaezu with closed forms in her garden, 1989
One of the best things about clay is that I can be completely free and honest with it. And clay responds to me. The clay is alive and responsive to every touch and feeling. When I make it into form, it’s alive, and when it is dry, it is still breathing! I can eel the response in my hands, and I don’t have to force the clay. The whole process is an interplay between clay and myself, and often the clay has much to say.26 Indeed, ornithologist David Allen Sibley explains that many species of birds, like
mallards, communicate with each other before they hatch: “the young start peeping and clicking inside the eggs about twenty-four hours before hatching, and this may help synchronize hatching. It is usually just a few hours from the time the first egg hatches until the entire family is ready to leave the nest together.”27 Takaezu often arranged her closed forms in a natural setting (Fig. 7), marking an important artistic shift from mere representations of nature toward the process of nature itself. Like chattering eggs, these forms conjure new imaginings about the tenderness of home.
CAT. 19 Roberto Lugo, Frederick Douglass and Anna Murray Douglass Vase, 2021, glazed ceramic with enamel paint, 30 ½ × 15 ½ × 17 5⁄8 in. CAT. 20 Roberto Lugo, Confederate Graffiti Teapot 2, 2015, porcelain with glaze, china paint, and luster, 9 × 7 1⁄4 × 5 in.
CAT. 21 Lisa Holt and Harlan Reano, Untitled Pot, 2021, earthenware with acrylic paint, 14 1⁄8 × diam. 13 5⁄8 in.
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CAT. 28 Tanya Aguiñiga, Metabolizing the Border, 2018–20, analogue VR headset, breath distiller, sound amplifiers, Maglite border torch, “Saint Juan Diego and Our Lady” cloak, water backpack, and huaraches made of blown, cast, and sculpted glass with rusted metal pieces of US-Mexico border fence, leather, and cotton twine; neoprene wetsuit
Aguiñiga walking along the US-Mexico border fence
threaded with barbed wire, caution tape, and yellow cotton into many of her weavings. The monumental work Run, Jane, Run! (CAT. 27) pays homage to the migrants killed on the highway and makes visible their humanity. Artist Tanya Aguiñiga affirms alternative stories about the border fence. Her project Metabolizing the Border (CAT. 28) explores the corporeal and psychological experiences faced by migrants while crossing the borderlands. In 2019 she gathered rusted fragments of the steel fence between Tijuana, where she grew up, and San Diego, where she traveled to school every day. Aguiñiga brought the fence fragments to an artist residency at the Pilchuck Glass
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School in Washington state and embedded them in several blown-glass and mixed-media wearable elements for a 2020 performance at the border fence. The wearables processed the border through her five senses. The headpiece, its design inspired by a virtual reality headset, focuses the sense of sight through the ocular lens, the sense of sound through the ear amplifiers, and the senses of taste and smell through the breath distiller. Huaraches, a border torch, and a “San Juan Diego and our Lady” cloak exaggerate the sense of touch and movement. The cloak references the tilma of San Juan Diego, a significant spiritual and national symbol of Mexico. The sandals are modeled after tire-soled
CAT. 107 Guillermo Bert, Mapuche Portal #3, from the series Encoded Textiles, 2014, wool with natural dyes; QR code to digital audio files of Mapuche Traditional Stories narrated by poet Graciala Huinao, 80 1⁄2 × 58 1⁄4 × 2 1⁄4 in. CAT. 108 Shan Goshorn, Song of Sorrow, 2015, watercolor paper splints with ink and acrylic paint, overall: 9 × diam. 8 1⁄2 in. CAT. 109 Roy Superior, Peace Missile, 1985, oak, walnut, laurel, and hardwoods with brass and music box, closed: 7 × 20 × 12 in.