.jpg)
The V&A categorized my
artist in residence as "World Class Maker".
Titles can be a useful way to stake out territory
especially since we can't go around pissing on everything we want to lay claim
to. At first it seemed a bit mocking but one day it struck me to take my
props- embrace and even brandish the moniker. One- why not? B- I realized
it is a literal description of my specific approach as a clay artist, and a
very a useful way to give people some idea what they may encounter - one whose
work in clay includes a serious skill set. It definitely sets the tone- the
only trouble is then you gotta come up with the goods!
There is a strong compelling movement within
contemporary ceramic art that is about NOT making things out of clay- but
making things out of clay things that have already been made or using clay to
define that which will never be made - the temporal shaping and arranging of
clay material creating an impermanent vulnerable momentary tap into the ceramic
cosmos - a kind of alter ego to the earthly manifestations that clay has been
bound to for millennia. A valiant attempt at impeaching this imperishable artifact
from our collective past-a past we can't run away from but one we can perhaps
travel at light speed to escape at least for a moment. I like it! After all
ceramics today is the material of space travel diabolical weaponry and the key
to solar energy!? what? it is as much a material of the future as the past and
one that allows our present predicament an escape to both- sometimes at once.
London truly seems to be ground zero for some
seriously righteous paradigm shifting mind altering endeavors in clay and a lot
of other so called craft and design (ugh). I have like many become swept up in
the dragnet of critical thinkers in the field ambitious to redefine what
and who is art- artist-craft- craftsman design- designer, a back and forth momentum
that has begun to exhaust itself (or at least me) while inching closer and
closer to an anticlimactic balance point- like the mystic tale of the stag
whose mad pursuit of a heavenly scent drives him off the edge of a cliff and
contorted from the fall, his head encircled to his belly, he realizes the
origin of the divine fragrance that compelled him to his death was in
fact emanating from his own navel.
So where better to explore all that we
call ceramics than in the belly of the beast- swallowed whole the undeniable
proof of our karmic china closet and at once the germ seed of provocateur-
the enemy within, laying, navigating, wounding and wounded alike warriors
on the conceptual minefield of art and clay.
In light of this I had a 'senior makers' moment-
the V&A organized a pow wow at the om point for a small diverse group-
whose common ground is clay- to explore the meaning of ceramic art in the 21st
century a high minded pursuit that quickly devolved into playing with Nike Olympic
trainers, London clay and of course tea and cake- it was all very civilized.
.jpg)
.jpg)
