1\/lARDIS NENNC>: C>RIEL There is a Mary Oliver poem, a meditation really, that contains the haunting line "Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?" The poem itself, entitled "The Summer Day," is a celebration of life, a marveling at grassy fields, and an appreciation of a solitary grasshopper. It's a deceptively simple paean to earthly pleasures and ordinary happiness
But without that whisper of mortality,
that reminder that this one shot might be all we've got, the poem would not be as delicately compelling as it is. It's as if a window opens briefly, changing the light and colors of a room so that suddenly everything is cast in stark, bracing high-relief
There is a similar dynamic at work in
the contemporary ceramics of Mardis Nenno. The dual tensions of strength and fragility, limitation and liberation are embodied in her pieces, which have ranged over the years from archetypal human figures to "ordinary" objects - boats, shoes, needles, chairs - that resonate for the artist on a number of levels. In her new show Oriel, the exhibit space is an intrinsic part of the art. The Oxford English Dictionary defines an oriel as "A large polygonal recess with a window, projecting from a building, usually an upper storey, and supported from the ground or on corbels." While this is not a literal description of the Arcade Gallery itsel f- the space is on the ground floor, is long, and is rectangular rather than polygonal- it is a capable metaphor for the way Nenno feels about this work and how the viewer might observe it. She uses the word "oriel" here to convey apetures, windows and openings, and entrances. Constrained as her pieces are by size and glass, they nevertheless convey a sense of transcendence, of reaching beyond physical circumstances.
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For instance the piece Sola, (fig. 4) is a simple clay chair. Its unrefined, hand-molded lines suggest a primitive and earth-bound delight in creating. But the ladder-back of the chair and the fleshy colors of the clay suggest something different.
There is a figurative aspect to the chair and
how it balances on a small circle of light while supporting the miniscule weight of a blue sparrow. The upward movement of the ladder-back and the repose and color of the bird indicate hopeful migration, a tiny moment of catching-one's-breath before moving to higher ground. The fact that the viewer sees this through a pane of glass facilitates an experience of subtle longing Nenno typically uses simple common objects - pillows, chairs, windows, sewing needles, birds - as a visual language to represent that which is both prosaic and otherworldly
The
pieces in the Oriel exhibit are a series of ladders, windows, and chairs, all divulging a narrative of climbing up, out and through
In many cases the feeling is one of stretching, of getting closer to an
elevated realm In others the pieces are heavier, more monolithic. Preguntas, while incorporating the ladder-like shape of many of the other pieces, offers the viewer a solid and implacable presence. Its earth brown tones suggest something very old, as do the pale swoops of script and drips of green glaze on its surface. Inscribed into the surface of the clay is more handwriting, but the words
are impossible to make out; the meanings of the layers of text mystery.
The
words
are shrouded
in
are, according
to
Nenno, questions to her dead father and are deliberately illegible. PregunLas,
(fig. 2) is
one of three similar structures written as "earthbound letters to ones who have died." Personal narrative has been a part of her work for the past twenty
years
Nenno took some classes at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana, as a neophyte potter. but it wasn't until her residency there in early 2006 that she had a space of uninterrupted
time in which
she could focus solely on her work. environment
The
at "the Bray," which Nenno
describes fondly as "anarchy at its finest," meant that she was allowed to follow her own rhythms and work according to her own internal schedule and inclinations. The pieces she constructed at the Archie Bray Foundation became part of the exhibit Seams, which opened earlier this year at the Lorinda Knight Callery in Spokane and on which she collaborated with her former sister-inlaw. The themes of the show had to do with her family history and with the matriarchal legacy of coming from a long line of women ho sew. Other personal, deeply individual themes appearing throughout the body of
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Nennos work include insomnia, a fascination with solitude, and the imperative of the spiritual journey. The ceramic forms in Oriel represent formal responses not only to the space in which they will be displayed but also the physical challenges of the medium itself.
Nenno has practiced
sculptural clay work and taught it at the college level for twenty years and is more than familiar with the technical challenges of her medium, but she refuses to shy away from the fragility of ceramic sculpture or the inevitable losses in the proving ground of the kiln. She enjoys working on a large scale, even when it means making pieces that are impossible to lift or things that break from the gravity of their own heft.
In her surfaces, she strives for a "rich thin skin," a "seamless union
between form and surface." In the pieces for Oriel she employs earthenware and stoneware clays, soda firing, and multiple rounds in the kiln for the actual forms; the surfaces are developed using terra siggilatas, patinas, slips, vitreous engobes, and glazes The clay is both veiled and revealed through the combination of these processes Returning to the interpretations of the word "oriel" and a consideration of these pieces, it's clear that Oriel the exhibit is very much a window, a view of the upper stories, and even a bit of a recessed sanctuary, all at once. The ladders, birds, rich colors, and primitive formations offer a very human narrative; there is both refuge and challenge in the experience of viewing this work. At the same time there is something organic in the pieces, a sort of natural architecture as if built by swallows or wasps. In looking at Nenno's body of work it is clear that she has been making holes, piercings, openings, and windows for some time - even the negative spaces in the ladder shapes of
Oriel are windows defined by rungs. The gaps between the bits of clay, the places where air meets matter, are designed to allow new vistas in familiar gallery spaces and to give shape to the hope of spiritual liberation and migration. Sheri Boggs Seattle, Washington
IMAGES
x
Cover: Migration, 2007 Ceramic (stoneware). 32" 12" X 10". #.1: Needlestack, 2006, Soda-fire (stoneware). 36" X 14" X 8". #2: Prcguntas(detail), 2006 Ceramic, 40" x l4" X 6". #3: Lhasa, 2007, Ceramic (stoneware and earthenware), 60" X 12" X 6". #4: Sola, 2006, Earthenware, 21" X 6" X 6".
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MARDIS S. NENNO 1952
Born Buffalo, New York; resides in Spokane, WA
EDUCATION 1986
M.FA, Washington State University, Pullman, WA
1974
B.FA, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE 2006
Resident Artist. Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, MT
1993
Adjunct Instructor, Fine Arts, Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA
1991-
Instructor, Fine Arts, Spokane Falls Community College, Spokane, WA
SELECTED ONE AND TWO PERSON EXHIBITS 2007
Mardis NenJiO:Oriel, Jundt Art Museum, Spokane, WA
2006 2003
1988 1987
Seam A Family Geography, Lorinda Knight Gallery, Spokane, WA Deep Sleep, North Idaho College, Coeur d'Alene, [D Safe Passage, Spokane ArL School, Spokane, WA Vis~!lA1 Repairs: Seeing Is Believing, Chase Gallery, Spokane, WA ReleJitWurb, Spokane All School, Spokane, WA Betha Gutschej Mardis ThoreSOJi, Alonso Sullivan Gallery, Seattle, WA Domestic Clay, Fine Arts Gallery, EWU, Cheney, WA
[986
M.FA Exhibit, Gallery Two, WSU, Pullman, WA
1999 1994 1989
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITS 2006 2006
Resident Artist Exhibit, Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, MT International Symposium Exhibit, Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, MT
2005
S(iift, Spokane Falls Community College, Spokane, WA
1999
Faculty Exhibit, Spokane Falls Community College, Spokane, WA 19,f,AIi1iuai Norlhwesl International, Whatcom Art Museum, Bellingham, WA Faculty Exhibit, Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA Faculty Exhibit, Spokane Falls Community College, Spokane, WA the story of my life, Chase Gallery Spokane, WA Elitism and Art, Spokane Art School, Spokane, WA Goodwill Art EX(iibit, Goodwill Games, Spokane, WA 100 Years of Washington Art, Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA Faculty Efhibit, Koehler Gallery, Whitworth College, Spokane, WA Chuck Hilides alid Friends, AD Gallery, Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA Faculty Exhibit, Koehler Gallery, Whitworth College, Spokane, WA Sculpture: Escape FromTradition, Alonso Sullivan Gallery, Seattle, WA Refiections Through the Fire, Eastern Oregon State College, Lagrande, OR Lenexa National 3-D Exhibit, Lenexa, KS Ceramic WOdiS Index Gallery, Lewis and Clark College, Portland, OR Ceramic 1Iivitational, EWU, Cheney, WA
1999 1996 1996
1991 1991
1990 1990
1990 1988 1988
1988 1988 1987 1987 1986
This publication was funded by the Jundt Art Museum's Annual Campaign, 2006- 2007 ŠJundt Art Museum, Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA 99258-0001