A View To A Kiln

Hello,
I apologize for the lengthy hiatus I took from my blog; but work piled up, as it tends to do. Here, in addition to the three projects I was assigned throughout the semester, I put up photos of two of my side projects.

Assignment 1: The Platter
"Untitled"

Assignment 2: The Sacred Vessel
"Untitled"

Assignment 3: Mixed Media/Found Objects
"Untitled"

The following are my first thrown piece and my first piece done using high fire porcelain, respectively

"Untitled"

"Untitled"

I had mixed feelings about the pieces Viola Frey exhibited in her show at the Nancy Hoffman Gallery (http://www.nancyhoffmangallery.com/about/nhg.html). Though I was intrigued by the sheer scale of her pieces, their construction and glazes didn't appeal to me. Imposing as her enormous figures were (one, titled "Stubborn Woman, Orange Hands," rises just over six feet, even with its subject sitting down), their rough texture and under-finessed glazing simply seemed, in many cases, rushed and lacking subtlety. This, however, was not the case universally. A piece sticks out in my mind. Titled Rooster, this four foot fowl was perfectly balanced, being both wonderfully detailed and remaining in accord with the tone of timber of the rest of the show.

Ingo Maurer’s exhibition, Provoking Magic: Lighting of Ingo Maurer, raises the question of where the distinction between designer and artist occurs. The characteristics that separate an artist from a designer lie in the treatment of the work both as it's created and as it's sold. Whereas an artist both creates the art him- or herself, a designer comes up with the idea for the art and allows others to execute the idea. By this token alone, Damien Hurst (the second most expensive living artist) is a designer rather than an artist - a statement I have neither the motivation nor the credibility to defend at this time. Hurst, unlike Maurer, resists being labeled as a designer by defying the field's second criterion: the replication and sale of works of art on a (relatively) large scale.
Maurer, despite the uncertainty of regarding him designer or artist, is certainly a fantastic innovator. His work revolves around light fixtures and installments. That which sets his fixtures apart from the rest is the way he treats the light they put forth. As opposed to considering his materials solely the components that make up his works, Maurer uses light as expressively as he does paper, metal or plastic. He treats light as a transformative medium that, according to his blurb on the Cooper Hewitt website, “not only illuminates what is seen but changes how it is seen”. In light of this, you’re able to understand some of the motivation for making a chandelier out of shards of broken porcelain buddahs or paper lamps reminiscent of carnivorous pitcher plants.


Attending his exhibition offered me a new way of looking at sculpture in general and my ceramics in specific. Only now can I see how violently lighting can change a piece of art, creating and eradicating its depth and shadow.

Original photo contexts:
http://biladesign.wordpress.com/2005/12/
http://www.einrichten-design.com/product_info.php/cPath/75_76/products_id/2441