From Mud to Chaos: Precariousness and Self-Organization in Ceramics Practice (original) (raw)

Reconstruction the Artistic Meaning: Destroying As An Action In Contemporary Ceramics

SERES'18 Full Text Booklet., 2018

Ceramic has been known not only as a traditional production material but also art material from the beginning of the 20th century. However, the most important progression and transformation in the field ceramic art are experienced after Second World War. This progression is observed in the artworks created by some important artists such as Hans Coper, Ruth Duckworth. These works, which showed a formalist approach at the beginning, evolves towards critical approaches in the future. Especially this critical approach has been observed in “Pop and Funk” since the late 1960’s and it continues today. Nowadays, everything can be the material of art. In addition to the traditional materials, today art works are created with a wide variety of material such as inner oil, artist’s blood, glass, ceramic or wheat seed and these materials becomes an instrument for artists to express their feelings and to materialize ideas and meanings. At this point, ceramic material is considered by relating physical characteristics, historical ties, rich layers of meaning comes from tradition of production in the art works belongs to modern artists such as Ai Weiwei, Jeff Koons, Charless Craft. In these art works, the most remarkable thing is that artists destroy or broke ceramic sculpture or object. Even that this actions may be interpreted as vandalism. Is it possible to consider that the action of destruction is a process for to create the level of meaning, when it has been take into consideration the art theory of Kant that is based on “aesthetic idea” and the art theory of Danton based on “embodied meaning in the object”?

The Expanded Field of Ceramics Bridging Artistic Practices from Past to Present

This article explores the transformation of ceramics as both an artistic and technological medium, moving beyond traditional definitions to embrace innovative and interdisciplinary practices. Rooted in a rich historical legacy, ceramics has expanded its boundaries through advancements in material sciences and the integration of unfired clay, hybrid materials, and unconventional methods. Inspired by Rosalind Krauss’s concept of the “expanded field”, the article examines how ceramics, by overcoming physical and conceptual limitations, has become a dynamic space for performance art, video installations, and sustainable bioconstruction. Case studies of artists like Anna Maria Maiolino, Adrián Villar Rojas, and Celeida Tostes illustrate the medium’s adaptability, engaging with themes of materiality, temporality, and environmental responsibility. By integrating emerging technologies, eco-conscious practices, and interdisciplinary collaborations, ceramics continues to redefine its role in addressing contemporary challenges, positioning itself as a powerful medium for artistic innovation and cultural transformation.

Ceramics, the environment and ecology ‘Craft arts’ in an age of environmentalism

Journal of Australian Ceramics, 2013

While ceramics in Australia is influenced by many traditions cultivated in other countries (‘Skangaroovian Funk’ drawing from the Californian Funk styles, or the Eastern inspired traditions of Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada), the Australian ceramics cultural landscape brings forth styles imbued with a distinctly Australian essence – inspired by the Australian landscape and by environmental concerns. This article will address aspects of these influences, highlighting some of the ceramics artists who draw inspiration from the Australian landscape and those who directly engage with environmental and ecological issues through their works.

Ubuntu Manifest: Decolonising Research & Curatorial Practice In Ceramics.

PhD Thesis, 2019

This PhD thesis engenders new approaches to the understanding, appreciation, and experience of modern and contemporary ceramic art. It focusses on two recent outputs. The initial, Scorched Earth: 100 Years of Southern African Potteries (2016), a scholarly publication, and the latter, Post-colonialism? (2016/2017), a socially-engaged international exhibition, held at the Benyamini Contemporary Ceramics Centre in Tel Aviv, Israel. The moral philosophy ubuntu was proposed as a component of self-reflexive methodology for research and curatorial projects. The term cryrator was advanced as constituting an approach to curatorial praxis in conflict zones. These concepts make an original contribution to existing methodologies and research that historicise, de-westernise, and decolonise knowledge.

Relating to Clay: Tuning in to the Workings of the Aesthetic Dimension in Ceramic Practice

Aalto University publication series DOCTORAL THESES, 2022

Through sustained practice, creative practitioners begin to develop a relationship with the material with which they work. This kind of relating to the material accompanies aesthetic qualities that are not only perceived as belonging to the material but also recognised within the body, creating a connection between the practitioner and the material. This research emphasises the role of aesthetic qualities in creating these connections and concentrates on this level of ceramic practice, where the body's role is central in feeling, sensing and extending towards the material world. This research has developed in two phases; the research material was firstly gathered through practice-led research focusing on the subjective experience in ceramic practice, and then, secondly, the research has continued to develop from the topics identified during the first phase within a collaborative approach to conducting research. The first phase of the research included studio work, an artist residency period and a workshop. The second research phase discussed and developed the identified research topics within and through workshops in collaboration with other professional practitioners. The particular interest is in the subtle body that implies understanding a more nuanced level in material work. Here, the bodily perspective in creative practice is examined, and the discussed practice is focused on attuning to feeling and experiencing the material bringing our body's sensuous understanding to the forefront. The aim is to understand how creative practitioners begin to tune in with the aesthetics of materials and their processes within making. The research focus is framed through three directions on the body: the experiencing body, the sentient body and the performing body. The common perception of creative practice is through its outcomes; however, a practitioner's creativity that sustains a material practice is built through experiences understood in the body. What is opened up through this research is the experiential and performative dimension of creative acts in the context of ceramics. One of the main outcomes of this research is the Subtle Ground method that offers an aesthetic-driven direction in making whereby the creative practitioner's attention is directed towards the subtle body and the experiential dimension in making.This research argues that focusing on aesthetic qualities and giving attention to embodied connections can create the basis for a meaningful material relationship in the context of creative practices. Relating to material is a process that engages the body to perform and experience the felt material qualities. These felt and performed qualities in creative material work can also have therapeutic possibilities and thus widen the implications of the research results.

Deconstructing Failure: The Ceramic Works of Peter Voulkos

Peter Voulkos is an American West Coast Ceramist who is best remembered today as an Abstract Expressionist hero. Instead of perpetuating this ongoing narrative however, my paper compares his work to lesser-known creative influences, such as American avant-garde composer John Cage, dancer Merce Cunningham, Japanese potter Shoji Hamada and not least, Zen ceramics. In doing so, I argue that that it is more productive to see Voulkos as a revolutionary figure who strategically employed failure, performance and deconstructive techniques in a way that is medium specific to ceramics. Also, I will examine how Voulkos’ clay pieces employ the notion of paradox in order to complicate and challenge accepted preconceptions of ceramics and its perceived relationship to function. In doing so, he reframed the clay vessel as an aesthetic object in its own right and ultimately, established ceramics as an autonomous medium.

Archetypes of material use and disuse: An art and ecology primer

Cogent Arts & Humanities, 2016

Materialism is occupying the forefront of intellection discourse in fields as diverse as anthropology, architecture, social science, cultural theory, feminist studies, philosophy, psychology, and theology. These disciplines are both defining and redefining humanity's interactions with the materials of the planet. Their shared impulse can be traced to mounting evidence that humanity's unprecedented abilities to manipulate substances, from nanoparticles to global weather, are undermining Earth's ability to support diverse forms of life. The following text contributes to this urgent discourse by applying these considerations to individual behaviors. In order to facilitate personal scrutiny of the environmental consequences of one's material behaviors, it identifies seven archetypes of material interaction: pet, sacred object, hazard, merchandise, specimen, resource, and sensual stimulus. In this essay, each archetype is presented from three vantage points. First, patterns of human engagement with each archetype and their environmental consequences are examined. Second, patterns of disposing materials that are no longer desired or viable are explored. Third, artists' interpretations of these material patterns are presented. Each artwork utilizes dirt as its medium and theme to facilitate comparing and contrasting archetypes. Artists not only manifest each archetype, they warn against objectionable human/material relationships and demonstrate beneficial alternatives.