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Jun Kaneko and the Multi-Discipline Approach

For the final article of the Ceramic Art and Perception assignment for this semester, I’ve chosen an article by Nancy M. Servis featuring a moment in Jun Kaneko’s career in which he was exhibiting at the Rena Bransten Gallery in San Fransisco and had also designed set, costumes and props for a production of Mozart’s Magic Flute for the San Fransisco Opera that was to run concurrent with the show.

The Gallery show features painting, drawing, sculpture and ceramics and points to one of the most remarkable things about Kaneko as an artist, his ability to pursue a wide range of media and still hold together a cohesive vision for his work and produce quality in each media. It is this relentless searching and experimentation that equips him for the challenges of designing for the opera.

The curatorial challenge of staging a show to compliment an opera would be a daunting task indeed if it were not for the consistency of aesthetic in Kaneko’s work. All the various media are united through streaming color and pattern, while the art objects are further unified by surface treatment and mark making. His work is also distinguished by his commitment to the space between works, which he calls ma.

This multidimensional way of working is exciting to see. the potential of the large Dango pieces grows exponentially when the forms are used to costume a character on a stage and the theater calls back to the gallery as those same large forms take on the presence of actors on a stage. This ability to think in the round is the new requirement for artists. Simply making objects is rarely enough, as our culture is too fragmented focus on one thing in one place. Kaneko proves an artist can be everywhere and still deliver a solid, compelling body of work.

https://renabranstengallery.com/exhibitions/jun-kaneko

Judy Onofrio

This piece titled “Flux” by Judy Onofrio is featured in a review of her work in Ceramics Art and Perception issue 92. The work is composed of ceramic forms and found objects, primarily bone, that the artist collects and cleans for this purpose. The assemblages are then unified by paint surfaces that accentuate the feeling that the sculptures are a living thing.

Bone are very particular objects. They are not made, by hands nor geologic process. They are grown, but unlike most living things, they survive death. They are the structure of animals and carry a memory of them, yet taken as objects they evoke another kind of architecture. They can evoke a sense of the undying principles of life, it is this I believe that is behind a cultural obsession with the human skull.

This work then, which combines found objects grown from natural process and artist rendered shapes made from earth and transformed by fire come together to give new meaning to both. The delicate hue of the assemblages pulse with life and point to a notion that the cycles of life and death are part of the creating process, a part of every life.

Inventing the Modern World

Rozenburg Haagsche Plateelbakkerij, The Netherlands (The Hague), 1883-1914. Milk Jug, 1900. Glazed porcelain with enamel. 108 x 40.6 x 33.7 cm. Designmuseum, Danmark, Copenhagen, 793.

One of the best things about the Ceramics Art and Perception assignment this semester is catching up on events in the ceramic community that I missed. One of these that I most enjoyed was the review if the show “Reinventing the Modern World” that was staged by the Nelson Atkins museum in Kansas City in 2012. The show has toured some and so there are other museums that have sites dedicated to the show, but here is the original:

http://www.nelson-atkins.org/art/exhibitions/WorldsFairs/

The intent of these shows when they were first conceived was to showcase national manufacturing and design in a cooperative environment that allowed the spread of ideas globally. There was also a fair amount for showing off, so the bet artists and craftspeople of a country were invited to participate, making it some of the best of the best work that a period had to offer. The show focus’ on a period in which some ceramic was beginning to be designed for exhibition rather than domestic use, so these works have a very contemporary art piece feel.

Miyagawa Kozan, Japanese, 1842-1916. Vase, ca. 1904. Glazed porcelain. 35.6 x 31.2 cm. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Acquired by Henry Walters, 1904, 49.1912 Walters.

Much like the worlds fairs themselves, the show featured many different arts and crafts objects, such as furniture, glass and metal, but there was also a range of styles and approaches to the ceramic work. This vase seems influenced by Paul Gauguin’s experiments with ceramic. Its form and surface have an incredibly contemporary feel.

Pierre Adrien Dalpayrat, French, 1844-1910. Vase, La Mer, 1898-1900. Glazed stoneware. 40.6 x 36.8 x 40.6 cm. Saint Louis Museum of Art, Richard Brumbaugh Trust in memory of Richard Irving Brumbaugh and Grace Lischer Brumbaugh and funds given by Jason Jacques, 7:2010.

The focus of this show is largely a historical one, what was the world like at the time and how were these Worlds Fairs influential in the making of culture, but I see a deeper significance in restating historical shows. Disparate objects become a single work of art through the process of good curation. How interesting then to consider this historical work restaged in a contemporary setting. Bringing these works together again has the power influence a new generation of artists and thinkers in a way that photos in a book or a single example in a museum just can’t do. At the very least, it reminds us working in the field today of our roots and provides inspiration for new ideas.

Algot Erikson, decorator, Swedish, 1868-1937. Rörstrand Porslins Fabriker, manufacturer, Sweden
(Stockholm), 1726-1964. Vase, 1904. Porcelain. 42.3 x 18.4 cm. Cincinnati Art Museum, Museum Purchase with funds provided by Mr. and Mrs. William O. DeWitt, Jr.

Images for this post were taken from this site:

http://arttattler.com/designworldsfairsmodernworld.html

The Geometric Style Pottery of Greece

The reemergence of decorated pottery in the Aegean is a slow refining process of picking up where the Mycenaean left off after inheriting the great pottery traditions of Crete. This early Greek style continued to evolve until the mature geometric style emerged. The circles and half circles of the Proto-Geometric style are replaced by increasingly complex designs and feature patterns such as the meander, the key pattern and the swastika. As with many early pottery traditions, these designs may have been largely influenced by basketry, wickerwork and weaving. in fact the similarity between the woven patterns of the time and designs on the pots have led some archeologists to theorize that many of the painters of these early greek pots were women as weaving was their exclusive territory.

Figures emerge on the work around 800 bce and may have been influenced by eastern arts.

Most of the large vessels of the period were used as grave markers and feature funerary scenes. These are the most ambitious and heavily decorated objects of the period.

While the later periods of greek pottery are far more well know and celebrated, this work is more engaging to my eye. These pots integrate form and decoration to a greater degree than the later work which can seem an exercise is excess in both pot and decoration which the two rarely meet for the benefit of the entire vessel.

I used the wonderful The History of Greek Vases by John Boardman for source material in this post.

Ceramics as Theater and the Necessity of Video

Either by question or comment, people are often curious about the blending of ceramic and video that is at the heart of the Foxy-Wolff collaboration. Partly, it is a simple matter of blending Gabe’s and my skill sets, this is just what would naturally come about from a collaboration of a ceramist and a film maker, but after reading a wonderful essay in Ceramics Art and Perception (issue 92) titled “Is Ceramics a Genre in Theater”, I am compelled to think more deeply.

In the article, the author, Orly Nezer points to a definition of minimalist art that came out of the 1960’s. Theorist Michael Fried identifies minimalist art as “neither paintings nor sculpture, but rather a situation that takes into account the actions of its manufacture, the activities that have preceded it and to great extent, the presence of the spectator”. The author goes on to develop a thesis based on this quote that put the viewer in the center of a work of art for the context that is given through that act, and another from Eric Bentley on the nature of theater, “A impersonates to B while C is watching” This quote establishes the necessity of time in the idea. So we are left with an audience and a measured time of action.

Orly then identifies several ceramic installations that meet this criteria. My favorite is Titled “Signs and Wonders” by Edmund de Waal, it was installed in the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2009. For tis installation, de Waal honors the ceramic collection of the V&A through recreating them in porcelain from memory. The works were then placed on a circular aluminum shelf suspended high above the gallery floor. This placement distorts and blurs the work for the viewer. Orly claims that this placement requires the imagination of the viewer to complete the work.

In each of the works discussed, the audience must participate, and that participation can only occur while in contact with the work. From this keen observation, Orly goes on to include functional pots into this definition, because their use gives them context and meaning and their value is in a collection of gestures that goes into their making. A pitcher is not really a pitcher until its poured.

So then how does this pertain to Foxy-Wolff and our toys and videos? I think it’s an easy jump to view the handmade toys and houses as functional objects that are not really complete until they are played with. It’s true that ceramic is an absurd material for toys but that is, in a way, the point. We act out these strange adult scenarios with toys too fragile for a child. The play is closely regulated with firm rules so that the video has the look and feel that we need, but none of it has any meaning until they are watched.

It is true that the recording of the play removes the necessity of the ephemeral, but perhaps this is not the play of the script that is really being recorded. I begin to wonder if the play that we are really interested in is the continuous dialog of the collaboration itself. Sometimes light and funny and at times a battle with immovable opinions, but always compelling as we continually push for more and more from the work and each other. Maybe that question; why ceramic and video? is at the heart of the entire project. Though for me at least, its one that I don’t really need to answer.

Janet Mansfield

I was attracted to the article in Ceramics Art and Perception on Janet Mansfield (issue 92) primarily because I admire her contribution to contemporary ceramics. She has been so very dedicated to the spread and growing acceptance of ceramic art as a respected medium. Her legacy as a writer and editor and publisher, including the launch of this very magazine in 1990, is one that will be felt for generations.

This article had little to do with these achievements however, it was a conversation about her favorite pot. It seems amazing to me that she could choose one, having made so many, but according to the article, she chose without hesitation. In her discussion of why she loved it so, she discusses the form, the handles, the salt accumulation and the ash, all to be expected from someone who helped the world understand what good pots are, but she went on to note its imperfections, and to include these in the reasons that it was her favorite. She said it’s like people, everyone has a flaw.

It is this accumulated wisdom that I carried away from the read. Her life was spent in clay, and it was her passion. Through making objects she seems to have made herself, and her view of the world. A simple wish to be useful, that carried itself into so many lives and influenced so many others. In the photos she cradles the pot like a beloved pet or a happy baby, it reminds me of the simple pleasure in making objects and the wonders that a life making has to offer.

http://www.janetmansfield.com

Wall-Paper: An Installation by Aurora Hughes Villa

Wall-paper has a pretty bad reputation among contemporary house proud decorators, yet it has so much appeal for artists. Being passé and completely decorative is just one of the reason to use it for inspiration. Another wonderful feature is that its broken symmetry and patterning work so well in backgrounds. Additionally, wall-paper is loaded with symbolism, both within its own images and culturally as metaphor for the times it has been popular.

The installation “Wall-Paper” by Aurora Hughes Villa that was displayed in conjunction with the 2012 NCECA in Seattle WA and reviewed in issue 92 of Ceramics Art and Perception, picks up on all these universal themes, but manages to be a work that is intimate and personal. Part of its ease of communication is in the meticulous craftsmanship of each of the pieces. They are created using a mixture of new tech and reliable technique. The vintage wall-paper designs are scanned into Photoshop, where they are manipulated, and then turned into screens for silkscreen, which is applied using colored slips and underglazes. The surface of the clay is formed using a combination of carving, stencils and free painting. The medallions are then fired several times. Each medallion is unique and features cameo images of women, medical drawings of body parts and architectural drawings of Victorian houses.

The overall effect of these well placed, well-organized images is controlled and possibly a bit predictable, as is expected of wall-paper, until considering the strong shadows cast on the wall by the heavily top lit medallions onto the dark painted wall. Those shadows blur the edges of the entire piece and break up the uniformity and control. The metaphor for shadow in a calm and ordered environment brings this work out of the Victorian, where the ideals of domesticity created a prison for women, into the contemporary mind, and suddenly the colors are reminiscent of a Martha Stewart Living magazine, also proclaiming the joys of quiet and controlled domestic living. On the opposite wall from the medallions are two strips of wall-paper, tacked up, with the edges loose and bulges by the tacks. These pieces of paper stand in stark contrast to the well placed order on the other side of the room.

Hughes Villa is a wife and a mother, and I do not believe she is making a statement that rejects either of those occupations, but rather acknowledges what all wives and mothers sometimes feel in the quest to create well-organized lives.

Her Website:

http://aurorahughesvilla.com/Artist.asp?ArtistID=28980&Akey=MND4MRXE

Minoan “Snake Goddess” Figurines

The Minoan culture, Lasting from approximately 5000 bp to 3450 bp is commonly thought of as the beginning of the group of cultures commonly referred to as Western Civilization. Located on the island of Crete in the Mediterranean sea, the Minoan culture is known today by the many wonderful artifacts left behind following the cataclysmic end of the society. We must know them through their art, for although the Minoans were literate, their written language known as Linear A has yet to be translated, and so the writings of the culture are unknown to us.

So it seems we know the Minoans largely by what we do and do not see in the archeological record. Though it is commonly understood that the Minoans were a great sea power of the time, through records of other cultures, and the ruins of palaces left on the island are spectacular in their luxury and beauty , we find no evidence of a large military presence on the island and the island itself bears very few markers of fortification. Rather than military might, the artifacts and ruins point to a prosperous culture with a love of beauty and art.

Among these treasures are fragments of 3 figurines collectively knows as “Snake Goddesses”. Discovered by Sir Arthur Evans in 1903 in a storage pit beneath the central court at Knossos, The figurines are typically dated at the time of their destruction around 3600 bp though it is likely they existed before this time. The objects are ceramic with a faience finish. Faience is among the first true glazes know to western culture and is composed primarily of ground and tinted quartz. The figures that we know so well today are largely reconstructed, and much of that was speculative, so for example, the hat of the figure known as the “votive” (above) may or may not belong with this figurine, and the head and left arm were reconstructed using the images on frescoes and symmetrical matching rather than anything found on site.

Without written language to point the way, all concepts of meaning and identity of the woman are speculation, but it is commonly held that these figurines represent priestess’ rather than a goddess, and in fact, the costume that they wear are seen represented in other media as well. Here are examples of frescoes and gold work featuring similarly dressed figures.

There is also a strong presence of women and snakes among more simple clay figurines that have been discovered in more common burial sites on the island which does point to some religious meaning for the symbolically charged figurines, though there are almost no examples of this image in a domestic context in the archeological record.

What ever her purpose was then, these figurines have captivated the minds of the west since her discovery. A google search titled “Minoan Snake Goddess” shows historical and archeological images mixed together with contemporary sculpture, painting, performance art and cult writing centered on these ancient images. I love them for their strength and strangeness, all the more for knowing they are so heavily reconstructed. The objects have become a collaboration of the distant past and the recent past, with modern science continually reviewing the connection. As theories change, our concepts of meaning and symbology can evoke as well, yet her mysteries will never be full penetrated. It seems then she has everything a good muse needs.

sources:

I did consult books for the writing of this article but was not able to use much of what if discovered there as it was not specific enough. those books were: The Art of Crete and Early Greece by Friedrich Matz 1962 and Minoan and Mycenaean Art by Reynold Higgins 1997. My main source for this piece was a wonderful website, Art History Resources by Christopher LCE Whitcombe. A link to the extensive section on my subject is here:

http://arthistoryresources.net/snakegoddess/discovery.html

Ceramics of Dolni Vestonice

The woman of Dolni Vestonice was discovered in the present day Czech Republic in 1925 at the site known as Dolni Vestonice. The site is located in the Pavlov hills among concentrations of loess with small amounts of clay and sand. It is from this material that the 11.5 cm figurine (Just over 4.5 inches) was made. Concerning her composition, she is among artifacts from the oldest known ceramic production in the world. She was discovered broken in two pieces in the midst of an ash deposit, the remaining section of her legs were never found. Accompanying the figure in the ash deposit were several animal figurines, also of ceramic and several unknown ceramic fragments (Verpoorte). The object was dated between 31,000 and 27,000 BP (Cook 66).

This period occurs at the LGM or Last Glacial Maximum of the Ice Age, though the site in question was among the most temperate in the region due to favorable geographic location and geologic features. It may have been for this reason the the site was occupied for so long. Some of these favorable conditions also led the site to be along a major animal migration route, especially mammoth, which would have provided food, clothing and shelter for the people, which would have been another reason for the concentration of archeological sites in the area.

This image is of the region in present time. The settlements of Dolni Vestonice and the surrounding areas represent some of the best studied and documented sites from the Gravettian period. Excavation began in 1924 under the direction of K. Absolon. These digs are the most extensive and provide much of the basis for modern scholarship on the area. Two digs occurred around the Second World War and then again in the early 1990’s, primarily to attain materials for carbon dating of the sites (Verpoorte 38).

As stated above, the material that composes the “ceramic” objects of the region was primarily loess found on site (windblown silt) comprised primarily of alumina and silica with trace amounts of quartz and muscovite mica (Verpoorte 98), mixed with water. The material had a very low clay content. The objects were created by an additive process of pressing and sculpting major body forms and and attaching legs, and tails etc. According to electron microscope analysis, there was no post creation attention given to the objects in the form of smoothing, burnishing or pigment additions (Cook 147)

The majority of the ceramic objects found in Dolni Vestonice relocated in and around ash layers in large hearths. These hearths also contained burnt bone fragments and charcoal, pointing to types of fuel used in the firing process. The dark color of the ceramics points to a reduction atmosphere in the hearth like kilns that fired the work, though some fragments colored red and orange point to some oxidation. This indicates that either the work was fired within the fuel used to heat the kiln, or a layer of ash was used to protect the work as it fired. Average firing temperatures were between 500 and 800 degrees C (932-1472 degrees fahrenheit), though it is cautioned that works fired below these temperatures would not have survived the the span of years and do not appear in the fossil record. Firing times are estimated at a few hours. (Verpoorte 98)

Contemporary thought on the anatomy of the “kilns” is one of caution. While it is true that ground features surrounding the hearths point to an advanced understanding of fire and heat, the region of the sites is one that has been subject to a great deal of geological turmoil over the last 30,000 years and so little knowledge about placement is absolute. The hearths were large kettle shaped depressions, this area is where most of the fired material was discovered. In front of the hearth run two separate gullies. Many archeologists believe this points to a partly covered (likely with clay and limestone) kiln with two channels for the movement of air (Verpoorte 59).

The objects themselves are primarily of 3 types, figurative (including animals) structural and small unformed pellets, and nearly all these objects are broken. The most well known of these are the figurative works, two of which are pictured in this post and whose making has already been discussed. The structural ceramics appear to be incidental, possibly resulting from the accidental burning of structures in the settlement. These objects are formed from slabs of conjoined strips and often contain prints of cordage, knots and woven plant fibers (Verpoorte 98). The last type, the rough formed clay pellets are possibly the most thought provoking and point to an intriguing theory about the ceramic production at Dolni Vestonice.

An estimated 99% of the ceramic taken from the hearths was broken. the most common of these breaks appear along joints in the construction of the objects. Of these fragments, half of the breaks are due to mechanical forces, such as being crushed, and half are the result of thermal shock, due to firing the object while still wet (Verpoorte 98). Given our understanding of kiln technology at the time, it is theorized that the ancient ceramists knew enough about firing to understand how this might be prevented (Cook 148). That these fragments are the primary type of ceramic found at the sites and that there is almost no ceramic outside the hearth areas, indicating that it was not removed and used for later purposes, a prominent theory among archeologists is that the explosions that occurred in the kiln served some community or ceremonial purpose and that this was the sole purpose of the ceramic production (Verpoorte 100)

While we will never truly know the motives of people that lived so long ago and all the science is in some ways speculation, the exploration is meaningful. It connects us to a time when art was just begging, it is the first influence in that all art proceeds from that which came before. Looking at these early pieces and the techniques by which they were made can be a sort of reset, to cleanse the palate of all that is being made in contemporary art and connect to what is fundamental in the urge to create.

Works Cited

Verpoorte, Alexander. Places of art, traces of fire: a contextual approach to anthropomorphic figurines in the Pavlovian (Central Europe, 29-24 kyr BP). Leiden: Faculty of Archaeology, University of Leiden ;, 2001. Print.

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Clay Slab Sculpture

Slabs are the most versatile method for building in clay. Dropping “slab built clay sculpture” into a search engine brings us a dazzling array of ideas, approaches and techniques. As a ceramist, I feel somewhat comfortable working with any technique in clay, but I return again and again to slabs because they allow the greatest possible speed and control for constructing asymmetrical forms.

Slab building is usually divided into two categories, the first is soft slab construction. Here, the clay is pressed into slabs, either by slab roller, hand rolling or throwing. since we don’t have a slab roller at the PCC studio, we will be using hand-made techniques. Here is a nice video to get you thinking about the process.

http://www.ehow.com/video_2377003_hand-making-clay-slab.html

Once the slab is created, soft slab construction begins immediately and uses the plasticity of the wet clay to create sensual organic forms. this piece, made a just before Foxy-Wolff started, is entirely soft slab constructed except for the head, which is made from pinched forms. Please note the strong texture on the body of the lion, this is a great potential of the soft slab and can add a significant dimension to the piece.

The slab can also be used as an independent sculptural element, to define space or communicate an idea in relation to form. This vessel straddles the figure and architecture with the addition of the gate/shrine at the top of the torso.

The second type of slab construction is stiff slab. Here slabs are created and sometimes pressed into molds and then allowed to dry so that they may retain their rigid forms and hold strong angles. This is the method of construction for the doll houses made for our film series “The Magic Box” In this project, each wall was made and cast in plaster, then soft slabs were pressed into the molds and allowed to dry, when all the pieces were “leather hard” we assembled them into the structure of the first floor of the “Empty Room” house.

Another form to consider in using slabs, are tiles. While this may seem very obvious, tiles do not need to be boring or predictable. The use of sculptural relief and texture in both body and surface can create engaging and dynamic works of art. This tile by Gabe began as a soft slab that was sculpted, including the addition of the sea shell elements which were pressed in using a mold made specifically for the purpose and the addition of the spiral shells. the entire form was then cast. This allows us to create this piece again and again using various images and glazing schemes.