About The Studio Potter
Founded in 1972, The Studio Potter is an independent journal of ceramics, published twice a year in January and July. Each issue is organized around a theme, broadly stated so as to accommodate a range of perspectives, and featuring original and striking design. Recent themes have included: Clay and Words, Money, Sustenance, and with this issue, Tangible/Intangible.
Originally launched by a group of New Hampshire potters, early issues of the journal were dedicated to the experiences and concerns of working potters, an alternative to gallery-centered and how-to publications. SP has long since expanded its editorial reach to encompass aesthetics, ceramic history, and philosophical arguments, but it remains grounded 0
in the studio and in what is on the minds of all who choose clay as their primary medium. We encourage lively, thoughtful writing from across the spectrum of contemporary ceramics, and are committed to the elegant integration of visual and written content.
The following pages offer a digital sample of the current issue, with additional out-take images and color images not included in the print version. The digital sample is a complement to the complete 96-page issue which is available in print only. For more information about the Studio Potter organization, or to become a member and subscribe to the journal, please visit studiopotter.org.
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E L E N O R
W I L S O N
A N D
M A R Y
B A R R I N G E R
Keep Reading by Hollis L. Engley
With this issue, a new editor succeeds Mary Barringer, STUDIO POTTER ’s
editor since 2004. It was in the December
2004 issue that SP ’s founder, Gerry Williams formally handed off editorial responsibilities to Mary, writing that under her leadership, SP would be “responsive to the changes in ceramics initiated by a new generation of ceramic artists,” and that he and the journal’s family were “eagerly anticipating the future.”
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Mary made her indelible mark on the journal by centering each issue around a theme and working with each author to elicit his or her best. Nick Sevigney, SP board chair, applauds Mary’s visionary guidance: “She brought a renewed sense of leadership, continuing the mission of the organization. She went beyond the callings of a traditional editor and supported the grass-roots structure of STUDIO POTTER.” Among her accomplishments were establishing the fundraising event of the annual AKAR yunomi show and the partnership with the Artstream Gallery and La Mesa for SP’s fortieth-birthday celebration during NCECA Seattle. A proponent of archival preservation, she set up an ongoing catalog of SP’s raw production material at the Ceramics Research Center of the Arizona State University Art Museum. Throughout her tenure, she continued her work as a studio potter, teacher, and mentor. The past decade and more than twenty issues have flowed steadily past like the Deerfield River near our “world headquarters” in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts. Mary now returns to her clay studio full time, and we welcome a new editor. As Gerry did in 2004, we anticipate an exciting future for the journal. The new name at the top of the masthead represents only the third editor in more than four decades. Elenor Wilson comes to us as a respected clayworker and teacher, a woman with broad experience and an international perspective. She was first exposed to SP as an assistant to potter John Glick in Farmington Hills, Michigan, in 2006. John’s voice was heard in the 1972 inaugural issue, and he has continued as a contributor over the years. At NCECA in Pittsburgh, Elenor’s interest in SP emboldened her to present Mary with the impromptu proposal that SP take her on as an intern. In reflecting on this first meeting, Elenor told me, “[Mary] was game for having someone else involved in the journal. I’m very lucky she was open to that. She did the editorial work by herself, mostly, and she could have protected that. Mary and I ended up getting on very well. She became a mentor to me.” After earning an MFA from the State University of New York at New Paltz, in 2009, Elenor lived, taught, worked, and exhibited in Taiwan until last year. While living abroad, she contributed an article to Volume 41, Number 1, and kept in touch with Mary. In late 2011, when Mary informed SP’s board of directors that she was ready to refocus her energy on her studio career, the board of directors embarked on a search for her successor. Elenor responded to our call, and after an extensive review of several strong candidates, we offered her the job. During the production of this issue, I interviewed our new editor, and she spoke cautiously about how her style might differ from that of her mentor and predecessor. “I know that my approach is going to be different because our generations are different. We think differently about our lives, our work, and our roles, but there will be consistency because she was my teacher.” This editorial change comes about during a time that is challenging for our journal, as it is for many print publications. The growth of digital media over the past decade means that a twice-yearly, hard-copy publication such as STUDIO POTTER runs the risk of being an anachronism. Many of our longtime members treasure their copies of the journal stacked in the studio, consulting them for guidance or joyfully paging through them during a tea break, but newer members are just as likely to Google on an iPad. There is a torrent of information online (blogs, photo feeds, video streams), far more than any single publication could compete with. Our objective is to continue producing a well-designed, carefully edited, and handsomely crafted journal of high-caliber writing, while developing a digital presence that supports and enhances our print edition. “The definitions of publication, journalism, and periodical have changed dramatically,” Elenor told me. “The way forward for us is to take all the things we’re good at, that our members, readers, and authors value, and consider how we can continue doing it while producing a contemporary digital format that reflects the quality of the print publication.” Elenor’s hiring is a vote of confidence by the board of directors in the ability of the forty-year-old STUDIO POTTER to stride forward. We hope you are as excited about the future of the journal as we are. Turn the page, get into Elenor’s first issue, and keep reading.
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L
anguage fascinates me. It can easily be thought of as finite; it has definite, explainable, translatable meaning, which satisfies my analytical side. Yet the ways language has distorted itself throughout history makes it a kind of unquantifiable being; a living tool that tumbles down through generations, adapts to environments, and breathes our desire to communicate. Language is the connective (or disconnective) tissue between histories, generations, cultures, people, and ideas. What are we trying to do as makers and artists but communicate and give voice to the billions of cognitive impulses that generate an idea? With the first squeeze of clay between our fingers, we make a mark. With each new action on the clay, we record time and build layers of meaning. Time is evidenced both in the preservation of one moment as form and in the quiet space between one form and the next; a narrative begins. Recently I met an artist and papermaker who introduced me to the Japanese concept of Ma. She described it as the union of space and time that is the void, rest, or nothingness that occupies the space between things, which seemed paradoxical at first. During my time living in Asia, I had learned that the spoken word ma in Mandarin Chinese has a myriad of meanings, and after my conversation with the artist, I wondered if any of those meanings aligned closely with the Japanese concept. The Japanese written character is 間. I recognized it not as any form of Mandarin ma, but as jiān, meaning “room.” (Actually, I remember it from 洗手間, xǐ shǒu jiān, which means toilet, literally, “wash hands room,” an important term to know.) “Room” logically connected to space, though further investigation proved 間 also has meaning as the adverb between. And when I consulted
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間 Google for a Japanese-to-English translation, the foremost interpretation was “time.” The character itself explains best the Japanese concept that so intrigued me and that is so apt for introducing the “Tangible/Intangible” theme of this issue. 間 is composed of two other words, or characters: 門 is the character meaning “doors,” and 日 (in the center) is the character for “sun.” (Originally, Ma was written with 月, which means “moon.”) Whether the latter comes from the sun or moon, together the characters represent a beam of light that passes through an opening or gap between doors. Thus, perfectly communicating the concept of time (movement of light) dependent on space, and space as allowing the phenomenon of time to be seen. The physical space between narratives in this issue is barely discernible, as it is no more than the thickness of a single page. But it is the evanescent 間 that defines how these voices relate and carry. The weight of the page you are about to turn and its saturation of CMYK inks, along with the symbiosis of typography, text, and image bounded together in the journal, are a language SP has been refining over four decades – a mere blip in time when compared to the whole history of language, but substantial when placed within the scope of modern craft. As we add new language, whether it is as new voices, new imagery, or new formats of presentation, I hope you – who validate the palpability of analog items each time you enter your studio or steep leaves in your favorite pot – will continue to be inspired readers, ardent makers, and devoted SP hosts. – EW
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IN THIS ISSUE
IF
you began your reading of this journal in the traditional way, you know from Hollis Engley’s introduction that SP has ushered in new leadership. As someone teetering on the border between Gen X and the Millennials, your editor is humbled by both the challenge of continuing a forty-year tradition, and the learning curve – steep and perpetual. STUDIO POTTER continues to invite and curate writing on a theme, which urges gestalten discourse, and to cultivate our distinct print design through our veteran art director, Rosti Eismont. As we work to expand our format for presenting our author’s voices, important to us is learning more about who you are and what you value in reading SP. Send your feedback through e-mail, the SP Facebook page, or by following and posting about us on Instagram or Twitter (@thestudiopotter). Mary Barringer deserves significant praise for her contribution to this issue, not only as a personal mentor to SP’s new editor but also as a loyal and integral ambassador of the STUDIO POTTER organization. And with her interview of the owners of AKAR Gallery, who have generously partnered in the annual yunomi show fundraising effort for SP, Mary is a contributor to this issue as well. We are delighted to present several voices that have graced SP’s pages in the past, including gwendolyn yoppolo, whose discussion of feeding and the boundaries of subjectivity in this issue are an intriguing development from her 2009 article in Volume 37, Number 1, about inner senses and “handgineering.” Lucy Breslin and Ezra Shales are recurring voices as well. And as always, SP presents many fresh perspectives from those who are new to writing, and from veteran authors new to SP. We also continue our tradition of including original illustrations and unique cover design with the work of Richard Nickel. During NCECA Milwaukee, the regular bustle of attendees seemed to slow in tempo as we learned of Don Reitz’s passing. His dear friend, fellow potter, and expressive writer Chris Gustin beautifully remembers Reitz’s vivacious life and work. Don’s exuberance can be heard in his own words, in “The Gift” by him, from Volume 15, Number 2, June 1987. We acknowledge our hard-working board of directors, underwriters, and generous Friends of SP who sustain the production of the quality publication you hold and help to facilitate such projects as the development of our digital platform, our internship program, and the cataloging of our archival material. The past few years have seen many professionals and organizations in our field making big moves. These changes make our community a dynamic force of which SP is proud to be a part.
EDITOR
EDITORIAL
PRE-PRESS PRODUCTION
INDEXING
ART DIRECTOR
Elenor Wilson Rostislav Eismont EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Donna McGee PRODUCTION Jeani Eismont CIRCULATION Elizabeth Webber COPYEDITORS Faye Wolfe PROOFREADERS Karin Rothwell FOUNDING EDITOR Gerry Williams EDITOR EMERITA Mary Barringer
PO Box 257 Shelburne Falls, MA 01370 Phone: 413-625-6000 editor@studiopotter.org
Eismont Design 50 Monadnock Highway North Swanzey, NH 03431 603 -283 - 0027 eismont.com
THE STUDIO POTTER is indexed by Ebsco Art and Architecture Index (ebscohost.com). For a listing of past issues and articles, see www.studiopotter.org.
MEMBERSHIP
PO Box 352 Manchester, NH 03105 Phone: 603 -778 - 8217 membership@studiopotter.org
PRINTING
Penmor Lithographers PO Box 2003 Lewiston, ME 04241-2003
Vol.42 No.2 (ISSN 0091-6641). Copyright 2014 by THE STUDIO POTTER. Contents may not be reproduced without permission of THE STUDIO POTTER; contact the editor. THE STUDIO POTTER
is published in January as the Winter/Spring issue and in July as the Summer/Fall issue. Membership: One year US: $70.00 Canada: $85.00 (US) International: $90.00 (US) Student: $35.00 with proof of enrollment. Back issues are available. Postage paid at Manchester, NH. Please send address changes to PO Box 352, Manchester, NH 03105. Centered in studio practice, THE STUDIO POTTER promotes discussion of technology, criticism, aesthetics, and history within the ceramics community. We are a non-profit organization celebrating over 40 years of commitment to the publication of THE STUDIO POTTER journal. We Welcome hearing from potters, artists, scholars and educators with special interests in writing and reporting on topics and events in ceramics. Contact the editor for submission guidlines. THE STUDIO POTTER BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Neil Castaldo, Elizabeth Cohen, Carol Epp, Stephen Grimmer, Brian Jones, Jonathan Kaplan, Nancy Magnusson, David McBeth, Maureen Mills, Nick Sevigney. CONTRIBUTING ADVISORS: Linda Arbuckle, Constance Baugh, Michael Boylen, Cynthia Bringle, Louise Allison Cort, John Glick, Gary Hatcher, Diane Weldon Housken, Robbie Lobell, Paula Sibrack Marian, Mark Shapiro. www.studiopotter.org.
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VOLUME 42 NUMBER 2
S U M M E R / FA L L 2 01 4
CONTENTS COVER AND CONTENTS :
Illustrations by Richard Nickel
IFC Introduction to Our New Editor
by Hollis Engley
2 Editorial
INSIDE FRONT COVER :
Photograph of Elenor Wilson and
4 In This Issue
Mary Barringer by Maureen Mills
6 It’s All in Your Head
by Suzanne Staubach
10 Crossing Boundaries 18 Dining with Makers
by gwendolyn yoppolo
by Nick Moen
26 Thoughts on Authenticity and Interpretation by Anat Shiftan 36 Surrendering Ego: An Apprentice’s Lesson
by Willson Gaul
40 Where the Tangible and Intangible Intersect by Lucy Breslin 42 Clay and Light
by Colby Parsons
49 The Art of Empathy: Experiencing Political Art in Turkey 56 Uniting the Digital and the Real 61 Touched by the Intangible
by Alexis Gregg
by Carole Epp
by Lisa Pedolsky
66 Anonymity and a Secret Afterlife
by Stanton Hunter
72 Where What’s Done Comes Undone (Is a Museum) 77 Sanjay and Jigna Jani: An Interview 88 Memories of Don
by Ezra Shales
by Mary Barringer
by Chris Gustin
93 Donor List 94 Coming Up 94 Underwriters 5
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It’s All in Your Head by Suzanne Staubach
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From the Studio Potter department of humble pie, we apologize for the transposition of captions on pages eight and nine of this issue, which are properly attributed here. Suzanne Staubach's article "It's All in Your Head" wonderfully recounts our consciousness of pots:
From my place at the kitchen table, I see the capacious antique yellow ware bowl I bought years ago; my favorite twelve-pound Guy Wolff flowerpot […]; a large Karen Karnes flameware casserole; a nineteenth-century Albany slip pitcher; the Turkish salt jar I bought in Baltimore; a sturdy Simon Levin pitcher; a lovely medium-size pitcher with a truly perfect shape by Jody Johnstone; a plate rack of my own red and green plates with mugs hanging below. When I admire these, I am merely seeing, yet I know how they feel because I use them. Their tangibility translates to an intimate familiarity. Read more in the full print version of this issue. Become a member of the Studio Potter or purchase the current issue at studiopotter.org.
LEFT :
Jody Johnstone.
Anagama Fired Pitcher, 2002-3. Stoneware, thrown, wood-fired with natural ash glaze. 6.5 x 3 x 6 in. RIGHT :
Unknown Maker. Albany
Slip Gallon Jug, late nineteenth century. This jug so precisely holds a gallon, with just enough space at the top to allow pouring without spillage, it could be used to measure. Wheel-thrown, incised stoneware. 10 x 8 in.
Photographs by Joseph Szalay.
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“The great meal, the long session, where the guests are thoughtfully invi te tradition, patience, and skill and the presence of the earth’s most delec ta beginning and memorable conversation throughout.”
Dining
by Nick Moen Nick Moen is currently a resident at Odyssey Clayworks in Asheville, North Carolina.
236 Clingman Ave Asheville, NC 28801 www.nickmoen.com nsmoen@gmail.com Instagram @nsmoen
ABOVE :
Chef Bryan Kobesky plates
a course in bowls by Anja Bartels during Pairing Elements at the Bull & Beggar restaurant, Asheville, North Carolina. Photograph by Anthony Harden, Alt Media Productions.
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vi ted, the table has been carefully set, where the food is a culmination of c table textures and tastes, where there is an invocation of divinity at the
– Robert Farrar Capon, The Supper of the Lamb
with Makers
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The kitchen door swings open to reveal arms carrying handmade vessels presenting a thoughtful arrangement of food. As the plates are set on the table, an aroma fills the restaurant. Before the clink of utensils begins, the diners’ eyes absorb the chef’s composition of food placed within a vessel in front of them. Guests lift the food to their mouths to taste the layers of flavor and texture. The restaurant resonates with awareness in this moment: handmade tableware meets the finest cuisine. Though we all must eat, we seldom take time to meet. By meeting to dine, we share the act of nourishing body and mind simultaneously through meaningful interactions, increasing our capacity for empathy. Dining together encourages us to be present and to celebrate the poetry of the meal. In this arena, handmade vessels act as catalysts for conversation and direct our attention toward the food and how we consume it. For the past year, I have spent time collaborating with chefs and artists to create dining events incorporating handmade tableware. These dinners hold a personal importance to me because they define my relationship to
ABOVE :
Nick Moen. Ice Tray and
Bowl, 2013. Slip-cast porcelain. 1.5 x 9.5 x 6 in. Inset photograph by Anthony Harden, Alt Media Productions. Large photograph by Nick Moen. PREVIOUS PAGE :
Nick Moen and Mimi
McPartlan. Cheese Trays, 2013. Slipcast porcelain trays, cherry boards, each 2 x 12 x 5 in. Designed in collaboration with Chef Nathan Allen for Cup & Plate at the Knife & Fork restaurant, Spruce Pine, North Carolina. Photograph by Wes Stitt.
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art as a participatory practice; I make tableware for use. The generous gesture of serving food becomes illuminated in the moment when handmade tableware and culinary art converge. As an artist, I have the opportunity to share my awareness of materiality in everyday tasks. Dining with the handmade necessitates the inclusion of visual and tactile senses that can easily be neglected when food is served on commercial tableware. I create objects that remind their users to slow down, to consider their environment and interactions with each other. By making pots to serve food, I challenge myself and my guests to implement handmade tableware when dining. As do most makers of functional work, I collect the handmade and integrate thoughtful objects into my everyday routine. The ritual of bringing useful things out of storage and into use accumulates in our memory. The story of a pot, in particular, draws value from its repeated integration with the preparation and consumption of food. The culture of the table has garnered attention because of an invigorated farm-to-table movement. The core ideals of sourcing local food parallel the essence of practicing craft. Both farmers and makers cultivate beauty
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and anticipate an experiential enrichment from their labor. Both are aware of the interplay between humans and environments. Chefs share a similar mind-set when considering the source of their ingredients, especially when they choose to connect with local farms, and focus on defining the context in which their ingredients are presented. Their strongest compositions are a reflection of the thought and labor that they devote to their discipline. The most cohesive collaborative dinners that I’ve organized have happened with chefs who are attentive to the craft of their culinary practice, who promote the ceremony of food, whose thoughtfulness about the meal begins with the raw ingredients to be prepared and transformed for the table. The table becomes the pedestal where the vision of the chef meets the canvas of the potter. An effective theater for showcasing the performance of handmade tableware is a restaurant. The event becomes an orchestrated dining experience, involving the senses more fully than would a standard gallery showcase. The space has been designed to mediate the rhythm of the meal, and the mediation becomes intelligible and translucent when the handmade tableware brings food into focus. My collaborators and I have composed dining events in a series of themed courses to provide a framework within which a chef and an artist have a conversation. At the most recent event, Pairing Elements at the Bull &
ABOVE :
Plating the “earth� course of
roasted marrow bone, mushrooms, olives, and black garlic at Pairing Elements, Bull & Beggar restaurant, Asheville, North Carolina. Photograph by Anthony Harden, Alt Media Productions.
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Beggar restaurant in Asheville, North Carolina, the theme was the five elemental forces of nature. Six ceramic artists designed a serving vessel to correspond with an elemental force. The tablescape also included handblown glassware. Artist Kathryn Adams curated the array of glassware from stemless wine glasses to cocktail glasses. Each course was paired with a beverage that complemented the course’s look, taste, and feel. Our design conversations with Chef Matt Dawes of Bull & Beggar consisted of how to present each themed course with an appropriate yet unique interaction. We proposed new methods for tasting in each course, using the language of the objects created for the corresponding theme. My design challenge was how to serve a beet sorbet with the element of ice in mind. I chose to constrain the size of the portion to respond to the chef’s desire to refresh the palette during the third course. I designed a small bowl, and a complementary pedestal, which acts as a resting place for the bowl when it is not in hand. The translucent porcelain bowl has a texture that stimulates the fingertips. When the bowl is lifted, the user feels the chilled sorbet through the thin vessel. In contrast, Asheville potter Josh Copus responded to the element of earth, using a “wild clay” blend to create a deep and rich surface as a backdrop for a cow’s femur, with a bed of finely chopped roasted olives that vaguely resembled soil. Tina Councell, of Iron Maiden Studios, forged spoons to scoop the marrow from the bone. To complement this course and showcase a Loire Valley Cabernet, Kathryn Adams and I created stemware with a clear glass top that reveals the color of the wine and a faceted white porcelain stem to elevate the drink from the tabletop. Last December in Minneapolis, Chef Tanya Siebenaler of Sapor Café hosted five tableware makers for an evening of tasting cuisines from around the world. The highlight was David Swenson’s curry service. Swenson stepped away from the single-plate model. Instead, each pair of diners shared a majolica-glazed earthenware set including a curry boat, naan server, rice server, chutney server, and two plates. Dining with the curry service was a progressive moment for me in understanding the possibilities of designing handmade tableware for a specific setting. This opportunity for collaboration encourages makers to explore the potential for combining mediums to augment the chef’s vision, while the chef is allowed the opportunity to experiment in unfamiliar culinary territory. The novel moment when the final arrangement of food and pots is complete is fleeting, but it creates a shared memory for all of the guests. The first dinner that I was invited to participate in was Cup & Plate, at the Knife & Fork restaurant in Spruce Pine, North Carolina. Elisa Di Feo, of Two One Ceramics, started a conversation with chef and owner Nathan Allen, in which she shared her interest in bringing handmade pots to his restaurant. At our first meeting, Chef Allen proposed a theme of “foraging.” He suggested vessel designs that presented food as if it came straight from the soil and soaking in the sauces of the earth. Di Feo used these cues to create large flat porcelain plates with tall walls to contain the saucy courses. I collaborated with ceramic artist Mimi McPartlan to create a tray for cheese, a softly contoured porcelain vessel that holds a cherry wood slab. Nathan Allen introduced a new vocabulary that inspired the creation of unique and unexpected objects. Participants left the restaurant with memories enriched with the offering of food made potent by both the visual and culinary feast. This experience served as a platform to illuminate the conversation of conscious
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THIS PAGE :
Sorbet Dishes made
by Nick Moen, 2014. Slip-cast porcelain. 1.5 x 9.5 x 6 in. Photograph by Anthony Harden, Alt Media Productions OPPOSITE INSET :
Nick Moen and
Kathryn Adams. Stemware, 2014. Slip-cast porcelain stem from 3D printed model; glass-blown top from cherry blow mold, each 9 x 3.5 in. OPPOSITE :
Postcard designed by
Marisa Falcigno of Open Door Design Studio. Top plate by Josh Copus. Bone marrow spoon by Tina Councell. Bottom plate by Lindsay Rogers.
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dining in everyday lives. Writer and philosopher, Albert Borgmann states this idea most eloquently, “The dish and the cook, the vegetable and the gardener, tell of one another.� Future events include a dinner at Dakota Bar and Grill in Minneapolis to be held on October 9 and hosted by Chef Derik Moran. Co-curator David Swenson and I are excited to work with Chef Moran, who has a background as a visual artist, in a setting where jazz music will also be incorporated. On September 10, Executive Chef Bryan Hunt and Chef Sisha Ortuzar will host a dinner at Riverpark Restaurant in New York City. Chefs Hunt and Ortuzar use fresh ingredients from Riverpark Farm, one of the largest and most urban farming models. Organizer Kathryn Adams and I are excited to introduce handmade tableware as a unique aspect of the farm-totable movement. Events such as these will encourage cohesion between farm, table, and makers of the handmade.
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One day at the age of six, I walked with my fat found fossils and flowers such as Anemone and Narcissus cycl into our pockets to take home and arrange later on a bookshelf, and my father
Thoughts On Authentic Still Life with One Fig, 2008. Porcelain, stoneware, tile, hand built. 8 x 11 x 5 in.
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ather in the valleys and hills of Jerusalem.We yclamen.As we wandered in the landscape, the fossils went her, with a botanical guide at hand,pointed out the flowers,showing me each by Anat Shiftan
Anat Shiftan is an associate professor at the State University of New York at New Paltz. Born and raised in Jerusalem, Israel, Anat Shiftan received her BA in English Literature and Philosophy from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and her MFA in Ceramics from the Cranbrook Academy of Art and Design in West Bloomfield, Michigan.
shiftana@newpaltz.edu
icity and Interpretation
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one’s image, Latin name, and common name in the book. That day we wandered in the landscape looking and seeing, holding and touching the objects of nature, I was satisfied with the concrete and visceral sensations of nature and was puzzled by the extra systems of knowledge that my father introduced. Even as a child I saw the ineffable space between what we see and how we think about what we see, between our experiences of the senses and of the mind, objects and words, reality and rational systems that organize it, intent and result. It all made sense later in my youth: the expulsion from Eden is a story of the loss of nature and of knowledge and is reaffirmed in the experience of our world the way I sensed it. It is a world where object and thought
Export Tea Pot, late nineteenth century. Porcelain hand pressed into mold forms, colored clay, enamel. Japanese Banko – Yaki Blue Kyogen Theatre Mask Decoration Pottery, signed/produced for export. Finger marks of maker on bottom of tea pot with masks. Polychrome with rattan handle. 8 x 6 x 5 in.
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are not one, where nature is there to be seen and touched, a world we can try to organize into systems of knowledge, yet it is not really understood. A few years later on a very sunny spring day, I found myself alone outside. My family was in Gedera, a small town south of Tel Aviv, and the adults were preparing the grand Passover meal, the seder. There were so many weeds along the sidewalk, and they were large and beautiful, with perfect warm yellow blossoms. I know now they were corn marigolds: Chrysanthemum segetum, Glebionis segetum. Trying to unite vision with thought, thought with object, and myself with nature, I picked one blossom. Eyes wide open, lashes touching petals, I held the blossom as close as possible to my eyes. The floral structure dissolved into a color field, and I saw only yellow. The house in Gedera had many magical objects that my great-aunts had brought with them from Germany in the 1930s. I have one object from their collection, a nineteenth-century enameled-porcelain Japanese import teapot. The bottom of the pot has the marks of the fingers that pressed the porcelain into a mold. It traveled from Japan to Dusseldorf, Germany, and from there to Israel. Now it is with me in Stone Ridge, New York. I attribute much power to this teapot; it is a reminder of my connection to my family stories and to the many people who have worked with clay and handled and collected ceramics throughout history. We all have strong memories of formative childhood moments that inform our actions as mature people. The sensual and epistemological moments of my childhood remain a source of wonderment and a catalyst for creative action. Since 1986, when I graduated from Cranbrook Academy of Art and Design and began my career, I have focused on the viewer, color, nature, and the art object in one’s living room. In the mid-1980s, I responded to the status of art objects as commodities in a consumer-based art world. I wanted to create an art experience that in the end would exist as something abstract, possibly just as a memory, rather than as an object. I designed and installed works where objects on the floor were juxtaposed with drawings on the wall, a construct that suggested the viewer have a reflective, analytical experience and stimulated neither a singularly visceral, nor a singularly intellectual experience of the installation. The seemingly disparate entities – objects on the floor and images on the wall – asked the viewer to make a connection by shifting her attention back and forth between the two components. The space in between was essential to the work. The eye wandered from floor to wall, and the mind from image to thought. The temporary nature of the
In The Beginning There Was the Word, 1999. Press mold, stoneware cone 10. Floor 16 x 100 x 80 in., wall 120 x 80 in.
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LEFT :
Still Life with Collapsed Arrangement, 2007. Tile, hand formed stoneware cone 6.6 x 6 x 4 in.
BELOW :
Still Life with Figs and Lemons, 2011. Tile, porcelain and stoneware. 22 x 11 x 7 in.
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OPPOSITE PAGE :
Nature Illustrated, Flowers, Plants, and Trees
1550-1900, by Bernard McTigue. Ruth A. Peltason, Ed. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York, 1989. p. 21: “ Xylon. Cotton.” Engraving. In Institutiones Rei Herbariae by Joseph Pitton de Tournefort. BELOW :
Cotton Flower, 2006. Glazed tile with cobalt
brush work. 16 x 15.75 x 0.5 in. LEFT :
Blue, 2010. A ruffled-style, matte blue stoneware tile.
16 x 16 x 3 in.
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installation rendered the work as one that existed eventually as an image in our mind, as a memory. It was very important to me not to participate in the commercial cycle of making art. Later, in reflecting on how objects play a role in one’s history and in my life, I realized that objects, object making, and the possession of objects, define our identity and that interacting with objects is a human need. I saw the power of the object in my family story. I saw how the object and the art object are vital to the human experience. In her essay, “A World of Things in Between,” curator and designer Patricia Phillips examines Hannah Arendt’s description of how both “objects” and “things” create “situations of engagement and articulation” where “objects help us navigate and relate in a world of people and phenomena” and where “objects of art and craft function as relational resources.”1 Phillips argues, and I agree, that objects hold content, are communicative, define personal and cultural identities, and create historic continuity and value.2 This notion of the powerful connective aspect of the things in our life gave me permission to make work that focuses on the power of the object. In 2006, with my childhood experiences in mind, I began making objects that reflect the way we see nature and the way objects define life. Looking for established perspectives of nature, my gaze focused on historic studies and depictions. In the paintings and botanical drawings I examined, the representation of nature was formalized, distorted, interpreted, idealized, and made symbolic. In still life painting, too, nature was stylized. The still life is an image of an artificial arrangement of elements of nature that code affluence as self-portrait, religion as spiritual metaphor and corruption of the riches as social criticism. The traditional European banquet centerpiece functions in the same way as it uses fruits and vessels and other objects of culture to create a spectacle of abundance and power. I accepted the history of translating nature as an attempt to clarify its meaning, but the attempt to clarify has paradoxically created yet another barrier between nature and how we see it. My effort to get closer to nature manifested itself in translating still life scenes into centerpiece-size porcelain sculptures. I continue to make objects that will occupy that “in-between” space Patricia Phillips describes. The porcelain still life centerpieces I create recall the traditional European centerpiece on a table. Virginia Woolf describes the role of the centerpiece in her novel To The Lighthouse, when Mrs. Ramsay’s and Mr. Carmichael’s attention aligns on the dish of fruit at the center of the table.3 This experience, in Ms. Ramsey’s view, unites the characters. The object suggests a space of possible unity, and by doing so connects two minds, two visions, and two thoughts. As I translate the pictorial still life into a sculptural still life, I advance the paradox that arises when we desire to connect with nature and discover that at best we can only interpret it. I embrace the notions that many human activities, including art making, have a profound impact on nature and that when we explore nature, we change it and corrupt it. My tile piece, Cotton Flower, is based on the seventeenth-century botanical rendering of the cotton flower by Joseph Pitton de Tournefort. His schematic and formal display reflects an attempt at scientific control of plant and nature. Cotton Flower, a cobalt blue interpretation of Tournefort’s botanical rendering, is my effort to reconnect image with nature. My gaze is on the botanical rendering as I redraw the plant in its various appearances and bring it to life. An authentic natural cotton flower is not available in my world. The print mark becomes a brush mark, the black and gray inks become a saturated, cobalt blue–glazed line, and the diagrammatic nature of the print
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is disrupted by a decorative composition. As once I held the marigold close to my eye, I render the scientific botanical illustration decoratively with color saturation. Connecting the botanical theme to ceramic production creates a channel into the nature of the authentic experience. Ceramics is a world closely connected to nature. The ceramic process interprets nature’s chemistry; soft natural materials are formed into hard objects of art and artifice, and the common ceramic subject matter of decoration and ornament interpret the world of botany. Does that make my ceramic art object a part of nature? Rather than accepting all our experiences as authentic, people define or own experience as a shadow of the real. We take our place in an endless search toward resolution and the unity we assume exists. Because the tangible experience of the senses is finite, we prefer to stay in the space between object and thought, the authentic and the interpreted, a place where our path is endless, demanding, and elastic: there will always be room for one more interpretation of nature. Thinking about this conundrum, I am intrigued by the intellectual perspective suggested in Albrecht Durer’s print Adam and Eve.4 Durer and his family distributed the print throughout Europe to advertise his work. Interestingly, in that print he contextualized his artistic research of humanity and nature through the lens of the expulsion from Eden, and thus, while advertising his talent and skill, also commented on the limits of his work as an authentic reflection of life. It is both inspiring and frustrating to see how, as creative beings, we oscillate between our relentless desire to know and our ability only to interpret. So Adam and Eve, Durer, I, and perhaps you, will always be in that place of recreating an interpretive view of the world and of nature.
Dead matter, natural and artificial, changing and unchanging, depends in its being, that is, in its appearingness, on the presence of living creatures. Nothing and nobody exists in a world whose very being does not presuppose a spectator. —Hannah Arendt 5
NOTES
1
Patricia Phillips examines the role of “objects,” and Hannah Arendt refers to “things” in her writings; the difference is that
“objects” brings us closer to the crafted object and to crafting, which are the focus of Patricia Phillips discussion, whereas Arendt’s “things” are all things. However, Hannah Arendt does distinguish between things that are constructed objects, or “artifice,” and consumer objects that are “expendables.” Patricia Phillips is interested in the observation that Hannah Arendt makes on the agency of the “object in between” as paradoxically separating and connecting people. Phillips widens the conversation to the topic of “craft” as both object and verb and argues for the connective, hybrid, and interdisciplinary aspects of it. 192. 2
Phillips, Patricia C, “A World of Things in Between,” The Nature of Craft and the Penland Experience, (New York: Lark Books,
a division of Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., 2004), pp. 192–197. 3 4 5
Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse, (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1927). http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/336222. Adam and Eve, Albrecht Dürer, 1504. Arendt, Hannah, The Life of the Mind (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1978), vol. 1, p. 19.
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LEFT :
Kiln Loading, 2013.
Changing hands: Elise Teixido’s plate is passed into the kiln. Whoever does the stacking will be responsible for how the wad marks, ash, and flame paths interact with Elise’s carved design. LEFT :
Slip Bowl, 2014.
Wheel-thrown woodfired stoneware with slip. 2.5 x 9.5 in. Strips of wadding placed in this bowl created markings that echo the linear slip decoration.
Surrendering Ego: An Apprentice’s Lesson by Willson Gaul
As an apprentice to potter Simon Levin, I am committed to learning through doing: I do things, I make mistakes, I learn from them. Participating in the communal firings of Simon’s large, wood-burning kilns offers me a chance to erase the distinction between learning from my own mistakes and learning from others’. The comfortable distance that I feel learning from a fellow potter's error disappears, and I’m forced to take ownership of all manner of blunders that occur when a team of professional, apprentice, student, and amateur potters tackle the week-long task of coaxing the internal temperature of a box of bricks up past 2000ºF using wood and air, with the goal of turning bare clay into finished pots. Read more in the full print version of this issue. Become a member of the Studio Potter or purchase the current issue at studiopotter.org.
more)
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Clay and Light by Colby Parsons
Without the interaction of light and material, nothing could be seen, so in general, seeing is ordinary. But certain ways of using light paired with form draw attention to the act of seeing itself. My interest in pairing light with form is to use light in a way that changes how we see that form or makes us consider how we understand the forms we see. Read more in the full print version of this issue. Become a member of the Studio Potter or purchase the current issue at studiopotter.org.
suited to
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THIS PAGE :
Bike, 2013. Glazed stoneware with projected video. 22 x 42 x 9 in. OPPOSITE PAGE :
Materiality of Light (with detail), 2013. Glazed stoneware with projected video. 56 x 18.5 x 5 in.
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Sanjay and Jigna Jani: An Interview by Mary Barringer
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Although the Internet is now a common vehicle for discovering, displaying, and selling pots, it was not that long ago that such a disembodied medium seemed incapable of adequately representing ceramics. A gallery in the Midwest that grew out of an architecture practice was a pioneer in the digital presentation of pots. AKAR’s website remains one of the most vibrant and extensive places to see pottery online. SP editor emerita Mary Barringer recently spoke with owners Jigna and Sanjay Jani about how they came to Iowa City, and the web as a showcase for pottery. Read more in the full print version of this issue. Become a member of the Studio Potter or purchase the current issue at studiopotter.org.
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COMING UP
Volume 43, Number 1 Winter/Spring 2014-15
+
COMMUNITY KINFOLK LINEAGE LEGACY Deadline for submissions: September 15, 2014 Contact editor@studiopotter.org for submission guidelines.
CONTACTS
editorial: The Studio Potter PO Box 257 Shelburne Falls, MA 01370 editor@studiopotter.org
circulation: The Studio Potter PO Box 352 Manchester, NH 03105 membership@studiopotter.org
website: studiopotter.org
COMING UP
SURF A C E
Volume 43, Number 2 Summer/Fall 2015 Deadline for submissions: February 15, 2014 Contact editor@studiopotter.org for submission guidelines. AKAR GALLERY 257 E. Iowa Ave Iowa City, IA 52240 w: akardesign.com e: gallery@akardesign.com t: 319-351-1227
AKAR in Sanskrit means forms and shapes. That in many ways explains what we do at our Gallery and Architecture Office – we deal with function in sculptural forms.
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brent WHEELS AND EQUIPMENT 6060 Guion Road Indianapolis, IN 46254 w: brentwheels.com t: 800.925.5195
SHEFFIELD POTTERY Box 399/US Route 7 Sheffield, MA 01257 w: sheffield-pottery.com e: sales2@sheffield-pottery.com t: 888.774.2529
Built for life™ is more than a slogan. brent is the only wheel with a ten year warranty.
We buy pots. Professional potters who use our clay: We want to buy your pots for our showroom. We’ll make the clay, you make the pots!
SMITH-SHARPE FIRE BRICK SUPPLY 2129 Broadway St. NE Minneapolis, MN 55413 w: kilnshelf.com t/f: 866.545.6743 Advancer ® shelves in Warren MacKenzie’s Kiln
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CERAMICS ART AND PERCEPTION 23 Nor th Scott Street – Suite 19 Sheridan, WY 82801 w: ceramicar t.com.au e: 1ceramicar t@gmail.com t: 001.307.675.1056
With these journals, we strive to provide serious and thought-provoking forums at the highest standard for international ceramics artists, curators, writers, collectors, teachers and students.
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PLINTH GALLERY 3520 Brighton Blvd Denver, CO 80216 w: plinthgallery.com e: gallery@plinthgallery.com t: 303.295.0717
Plinth Gallery is a pristine exhibition venue for ceramic art in Colorado. Located in Denver’s River North Art District, the gallery features works by both notable and emerging ceramic artists.
BAILEY POTTERY EQUIPMENT PO Box 1577 Kingston, NY 12402 w: baileypottery.com e: info@baileypottery.com t: 800.431.6067
Bailey builds superior energy efficient gas and electric kilns. We pride ourselves on excellent customer service and great prices on thousands of items for the pottery studio and classroom.
Pictured: Dana Shearin and Jill Birschbach, Midwest Clay Guild
NORTHERN CLAY CENTER 2424 Franklin Ave E Minneapolis, MN 55406 w: nor thernclaycenter.org e: nccinfo@nor thernclaycenter.org t: 612.339.8007
NCC celebrates the 16th year of the American Pottery Festival, our annual fundraiser and celebration of the art of the pot: twenty-six artists, workshops, lectures, Collector Adventures, and more.
JUSTIN ROTHSHANK Decal ceramic wares and w: rothshank.com wood fired potter y made for w: rothshank.etsy.com function and decoration. w: instagram.com/jrothshank w: facebook.com/justinrothshankceramics e: jrothshank@gmail.com t: 412.478.3105
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SKUTT KILNS 6441 SE Johnson Creek Blvd Por tland, OR 97206 w: skutt.com e: mike@skutt.com t: 503.774.6000
MEDALTA 713 Medalta Ave SE Medicine Hat, Alber ta Canada w: www.medalta.org e: aaron@medalta.org t: 403.504.4653
We help people make great things.
Medalta is a vital working museum, education centre and contemporary studio facility. The studio experience is one of cooperation and creativity. Artists from all over the world share their techniques and ideas with each other to expand their own practice.
Skutt offers a broad line of kilns to correspond to just about anyone’s specific needs. Our kilns are available in a large range of sizes and electrical specifications with the option to add a multitude of accessories and upgrades.
STANDARD CERAMIC SUPPLY COMPANY 24 Chestnut St., Carnegie, PA 15106 w: standardceramic.com f: 412.276.7124 t: 412.276.6333
Standard Ceramic Supply Company is a manufacturer of moist clays, casting slips and dry glazes. Custom mixing of moist clays, casting slips and dry glazes is available. We also supply materials, chemicals, frits and tools.
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