EARTH, WIND, AND FIRE When Objects Become Sculptures By Wendy Cromwell
Ceramics by Kathy Butterly, Out of one, many / Headscapes, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Sept 3, 2021 thru Feb.27, 2022. Photo by Dusty Kessler.
I’ll never forget mushing my hands into a lump of clay that my art teacher plopped in front of me in fourth grade. Everybody received the same lump, but what we all did with it was wildly different. The kid in all of us comes out when we play with clay, and that’s part of its enormous appeal. Today, a new generation of artists is pushing the boundaries of art-making through ceramics. Inspired by practitioners such as Betty Woodman, a bonafide “trail-glazer” who recently passed away at the age of 88, artists are experimenting with unpredictable kiln effects and challenging the status quo by elevating ceramic to the loftier realm of sculpture. For many would-be collectors, Contemporary art can be mystifying and expensive. Ceramics offer an easier point of access, both visually and economically. The medium is literal in form, organic in makeup: the simple combination of earth and water baked at very high temperatures yields straightforward results. There’s comfort in the tactility of ceramics and delight in beautiful glazes. Asian porcelain (a type of ceramic) has long been collected, validating the viability of a lasting market for ceramics. For artists, ceramics offer an approachable entry into the world of making, unlike painting and sculpture, both of which are steeped in history and weighty biases. The practice of ceramics provides a communal maker space for artists to work alongside artisans. 20 slmag.net
Universally, ceramics engender a comfort factor that Danes call hygge: surrounding ourselves with warm materials and tactile objects to create a cozy sense of well-being Circa 3,500 B.C., before the invention of paper, scribes relied on clay tablets to write. These tablets were a mix of water and earth left to bake in the hot sun and could be “wiped clean” by rehydrating in water. When burned by fire, they remained fixed forever. Sumerians and Egyptians were experts at firing and glazing clay, which they used for architecture (tiles and bricks), decorative purposes (beaded jewelry), and funerary objects Greeks and Romans used ceramic to store grains and wine, but also as ceremonial, painted trophies. By around 1,500 B.C., China was producing porcelain, a highly refined type of ceramic, which later made its way into Europe over the Silk Road. Persians also used refined glazes, creating exquisite tiles that covered mosque interiors. Through a cross-pollination of cultures in medieval Spain, clay innovations traveled into Portugal and Italy. By the early Renaissance, Florence was the center of ceramic production in Europe, where exquisitely formed and glazed dishes and bowls were all the rage. Ceramics were also used to make sculptural reliefs that were embedded into the facades of buildings and church interiors. In the early 20th century, pioneering Modern artists like Picasso and Matisse came to the South of France to escape chaotic city life.
