Sensual Artifacts : Review in The Pitch
Our show was reviewed in this week’s Pitch! Nathan and I were excited, considering the number of shows that opened on First Friday and only four reviews were published in The Pitch this week…
“Sensual Artifacts Much of the fired pottery in this exhibit is displayed workshop-style, on faux makeshift work tables built from raw planks, emphasizing the artists’ relationships with their craft. Nathan Brunson’s pottery comments on the interplay of utilitarianism and aesthetics; his salt-fired stoneware tea canisters suggest a practical purpose for which they are unlikely to be used. In “Ritual Hydration,” eight stoneware water cups, a stone dipper, and a matching stoneware flagon filled with water have sharply defined lines and a deliberateness of form that contrasts somewhat with the work of Tyra Forker, whose enigmatic “Self Portrait” series of top-heavy reduction-fired stoneware vases is smoother and more organic. If the sensuality of Brunson’s work comes from the implied tactility of use, that in Forker’s pieces comes from organic, curvilinear designs. Through Nov. 30 at the KCAI Crossroads Gallery, 1908 Main. (Chris Packham)”
Click here to read this week’s reviews on The Pitch’s website…
“The Genre”
We met Paul Greenhalgh again in Chapter Two of The Persistence of Craft. Paul started by saying, “the genre is best defined as a way of working; an established way of making particular products using a set of technologies, processes and materials.”
Paul clearly laid out two different genres, positivist and ironic. Positivist artists, per Mr. Greenhalgh, approach their art on one simple and innocent level with the intent to push their chosen medium to its limit as their vehicle for aesthetic expression. Paul defines the other, “Ironic practice uses art as a vehicle to intensify and improve human experience by questioning the role and purpose of things. It is to do with intellectual deconstruction, with deliberately undermining established or normative values in order to assert the new.” (Page 21)
Essentially, I agree with Paul. Concluding that there are distinctly different types of artists in the world was nothing new. Its was nice to read a well written article on the subject. Our brief discussion about the article in Professional Practice today was entertaining (as they always are), I enjoyed hearing others classify themselves as positivist or ironic artists.
Sensual Artifacts : Press Release
“Sensual Artifacts” on view in November at KCAI Crossroads Gallery
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (Oct. 17, 2007) —Kansas City Art Institute students Tyra Forker and Nathan Brunson will explore natural materials that have been manipulated by the human hand in their upcoming exhibition “Sensual Artifacts.” The exhibition will be on display on Friday, Nov. 2, 9, 16 and 30 at the KCAI Crossroads Gallery, 1908 Main St. in Kansas City, Mo.
An opening reception will be held from 6-9 p.m. Nov. 2, in conjunction with other First Friday exhibitions.
Forker and Brunson described the exhibition:
“Ceramic vessels coupled with interactive, ritual-based sculpture will provide an atmosphere of movement-based dialogue. This exhibition will investigate the connection of humanity and utility. Through spiritual intimacy, the installations present the questions of context and reference; commanding interaction from the viewer’s senses, the works range from intimate vessels to full body installations.”
Forker is a senior in the KCAI ceramics department, and Brunson is a junior in the KCAI sculpture department. Both are also double majors in art history.
About the KCAI Crossroads Gallery: The gallery is open to exhibitions and sales of work by KCAI students and faculty. It opened April 1, 2004, in a building owned by Rick and Betsey Solberg. The space once served as headquarters for Kansas City political “boss” Tom Pendergast and is listed on Kansas City’s register of historic places. Gallery hours are 6-9 p.m. on Fridays. For information about the gallery, call the college’s office of student life: 816-802-3423.
About KCAI: The Kansas City Art Institute is a private, independent four-year college of art and design, awarding the bachelor of fine arts degree with majors in animation, art history, ceramics, digital filmmaking, fiber, graphic design, interdisciplinary arts, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture and studio art with an emphasis on creative writing. The college also offers evening, weekend and summer classes in art, design, multimedia studies and desktop publishing for children, youth and adults. Founded in 1885, KCAI is Kansas City’s oldest arts organization. For more information, visit KCAI on the Web at www.kcai.edu.
Art & Fear, Chapter 2
Chapter Two of Art & Fear touched on quite a few important topics. At times I felt a little deja vu, reading something I had already read or knew- without actually having already read it. (whoo)
One of my favorite parts of the articles discussed Graduation for art school students. The statistic that 98% of art majors would no longer be producing art after five years seemed startling at first… then I thought about it and it is not too far fetched.
The few paragraphs on Uncertainty were everything I needed to hear. I will probably re-read it often.
“Lincoln doubted his capacity to express what needed to be said at Gettysburg, yet pushed ahead anyway, knowing he was doing the best he could to present the ideas he needed to share. It’s always like that. Art is like beginning a sentence before you know its ending.” (page 20)
“What’s really needed is nothing more than a broad sense of what you are looking for, some strategy for how to find it, and an overridiging willingness to embrace mistakes and surprises along the way.” (page 21)
Overall the reading was beneficial, I look forward to reading the entire book on my own time. It was recommended to me a few times in the past and I never jumped on it…now I wish I had accessed it sooner.
Artist Website Review
I frequently visit Deborah Schwartzkopf’s website (www.debspottery.com). Her website design is simple, not overwhelming the visitor with information. Everything is clearly organized and easy to navigate. Once a visitor clicks on her bio, statement, or contact page a strip of thumbnail images is on the right – these are great detail photographs of her pots. The gallery page features an efficient way to display her work, the viewer does not have to wait for images to load and can roll their mouse over images quickly. On the artist bio page, the viewer can find her resume. There is no printable copy available and the different divisions of her resume are available as links, which take the visitor to a new page. The font, text color, and layout of the website represent her work.
Another artist’s website I like to check routinely is Sequoia Miller’s Swimming Deer Pottery (www.sequoiamillerpottery.com). He updates his “Upcoming” page often with entries in his “Studio Journal”. Having pages that are updated often are important to keep interested visitors returning to the site. His design, color, font also fit well with his personality and work. The layout and design do not overwhelm the work, I believe they compliment it.
Jun Kaneko Kiln Opening 09.29.2007
Last Saturday, September 29th, we made the trek down to Pittsburg, Kansas (2 1/2 hours south of Kansas City) for a celebration of Jun Kaneko’s kiln openings and completion of a project at Mission Clay Products. The picture below is of the first space we walked into upon arriving, about half of the dangos in the room are visible in this shot.
The landscape of the factory, with its beehive kilns and piles and piles of ceramic pipes were beautiful in the afternoon light.
Ceramic dust monkeys perched on the top of one of the kilns to enjoy dinner and refreshments…
Thomas and I visited with this large piece. The kiln was still warm!!
It was refreshing to visit southern Kansas for an afternoon/evening. The landscape and drive were beautiful. It was great to see the kilns in which Kaneko’s large pieces were fired. The Kansas sunset was amazing. We even stopped on the drive home to look at a sky filled with more stars than I had ever seen before.
Sexy Salt Firing
On Friday Nathan invited me to put some pieces in a salt firing taking place in sculpture. The kiln was loaded and the door was bricked up on Friday, it candled overnight. The firing started on Saturday. By Saturday around 10pm the kiln had reached salting temperature. To salt the kiln, we organized two people loading the angle iron with salt as two others introduced salt to the kiln via the angle iron through ports on the front of the kiln door. 18 pounds of salt (below) was introduced in two rounds. The photo above is the kiln just after the first round of salting. It was a beautiful night to be outside with the kiln firing! With trees rustling in the breeze, angle iron & intense heat, I was reminded of the wood firings in Hungary at the International Ceramics Studio.
Sunday brought lots of anticipation as we awaited the opening of the kiln. Nathan and I checked out the Plaza Art Fair and distracted ourselves with the free wireless in the Plaza, waiting to crack the kiln. The first peek inside (below) was exciting, but it was waaaay too hot to un-brick any further.
Gabe, Nathan and I headed back over to the kiln a little over an hour later. The kiln was un-bricked and we finally got a good look at all of the work. The contents of the saggar box at the bottom of the kiln remained a mystery.
18 pounds of salt and a cone 11 down (it was the last one in the pack) provided some pretty amazing results. Homeboys were excited with their results, my pots were in the very back, out of view.
As the kiln was unloaded I got a better view of my vases that were in the firing. I had dipped one of my vases (back left in above photo) in a grolleg terra sigilatta, it turned out to be the best of the flashing slip options I tested in this firing. Grolleg TS surface is silky and smooth, I love it in salt or soda firing.
The saggar box ended up reaching a much higher temperature than they guys expected. All the cones in the pack located in the saggar box were flat and melted (11 was the last cone). Although some of their pieces were fused to the floor, a lot of them survived and are amazing. Check out Gabe and Nathan‘s blogs for more pictures of the firing!
“Craft in a Changing World”
In chapter one of The Persistence of Craft Paul Greenhalgh discusses craft in regards thirteen different issues. The points he made regarding gender and quality caught my interest.
Greenhalgh describes how gender has played a key role in crafts over the last decades. Crafts have been used by artists to explore the ideas of gender. In the 70s, feminist artists used their practice to change the perception of the role of women. I am especially interested in the way historians and makers have “begun to explore the way that craft objects of various types carry gender connotations.” Imparting a sexual identity on an essentially ungendered object. Although the domestic environment is naturally the woman’s domain, only within the last century have women taken over the role as “cultural producer.” Greenhalgh states, “in the last two decades, the demographic trends in some countries have seen a powerful shift whereby women have come to dominate certain practices.” This is something that I see happening now. A group show I recently helped curate will feature the work of nine women and two men. There are a lot of female potters who are emerging and successful artists.
As Greenhalgh was wordy in his thirteen different discussions regarding aspects of craft, below is his comment on quality and craft…
“Quality is an a priori condition of art. Art is the realization that material has the potential to be raised into a higher state. None of us should tolerate the absence of quality. None of us should tolerate the sophist verbiage that allow those who are against standards for political and economic reasons to equalize the world out into a cheap, uniform mediocrity.” (page 16)
At one point in his essay, Greenhalgh makes a connection between poetry and craft.
“The great poets are the ones who ready poetry.” (page 7)
New Pots
Sundays are my favorite days to work in the studio, my goal is to always get up early and spend the better part of my day there.
This past Sunday was productive. I began working on the flask form. The two above are the strongest from the series. They are completely new to me but reminiscent of elements of form I have worked with previously. They have already given me new ideas. I am intrigued by their asymmetry, and plan to continue exploring it in flasks and other forms throughout the semester.
Firing No.2
Here is a kiln shot of the second firing of the semester.
I wanted to test the use of a black underglaze under a grolleg terra sigilatta on the different clay bodies that I am currently using. I am satisfied with some of the results, especially the cup at the bottom of this photo.
A few of the pots I am not satisfied with, the glaze over took the images; Clyde or Morty, the sandblasting guns, may have some work lined up for them. Plus, I think it is time to move away from these drawings, as much as I love them.
Gabe had a tile and some chopstick holders on the top shelf that turned out really nice. The tile bloated in a couple of spots which creates a nice break in the repetition of stripes.
Firing No.1 (September 6)
On September 6, I fired a cone 10 soda kiln with a neutral atmosphere. It was primarily so I could get some glaze and clay body test results. Julie helped me during the firing so she could learn about firing Badda Bing, and she got some great soda texture on her porcelain cups. We added one pound of soda ash to the kiln through a garden sprayer.
Results of my clay body tests, (l to r) red stoneware, dark brown, and stoneware with yellow ochre addition. I am happy with these results, especially the YO Stoneware in the soda.
Below are some glaze tests from this firing. They are on a different red stoneware body than the one I tested above. These three turned out the best, yellow and lavender have some potential.
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