Let's get together!

Hi - please be in touch with me about meeting week after next for a progress meeting on your final project before the fall semester gears up. I look forward to see you soon! Anna

Research project update

Two important events from NCECA this spring connected in my mind and gave me an idea. First, I attended the The Hermaphrodites: Living in Two Worlds exhibition curated by Leslie Ferrin. Some of the pieces in the exhibition seemed to be only marginally related to the curatorial theme. While it was a very popular exhibition, I left wondering if the exhibition would have been more effective if it included work by artists working outside of ceramics. Adelaide Paul's artworks were mostly not ceramic, but she has a strong relationship and history with the ceramic community.

Later I stepped in for a few minutes of the curating panel discussion. The curator who was speaking, I'm sorry I don't know her name, was talking about her idea for an exhibition about the politics of hair. She said she tried to put together an exhibition around that theme, but couldn't find enough (ceramic) work to fill the show. Her solution was to dilute the theme of the exhibition to include other ceramic artists.

I think curators have the position and power to create and draw attention to the conceptual and cultural connections that can be found across mediums. Surely there are artists in all mediums who focus on the topics of hermaphroditism or hair. These are things that affect us all!

My research project is to curate an exhibition that focuses on an art movement and gives equal attention to ceramics and other mediums. Pop Surrealism is the movement I have chosen. I finally received an important text on the movement, Pop Surrealism: The Rise of Underground Art edited by Kristen Anderson, and I am happy to report that Charles Kraft is in there. Otherwise, there is a conspicuous absence of three-dimensional objects in the book.

It's actually really easy to think of ceramic artists who make work that would fit in the Pop Surrealist camp. So far, the challenge for me is familiarizing myself with the artists who work in other mediums.

Charlie

Long time no hear from!

How are things going with the final projects? Give me an update, please.

In the meantime, as promised, I have added to my blog about the symposium and travel.

Check it out!

http://annaholcombe.blogspot.com/

Hope all of you are well and having a productive summer.

Happy 4th! Anna

Briggs article

I enjoyed this article. It was clearly written, and her language beautifully illustrated the intention around the work. Stephanie took a stance of disgust at our sex obsessed media in a eloquent and matter of fact manner. She was clearly not interested in condemning, as is a popular stance, she accepted it as fact and moved on. Her writing was not dully academic as some of the articles we have read have been. The article instilled a genuine appreciation for Briggs' work, and tied it to a continued interest. I can say, she wasn't critical of the work and I think it would have been interesting to see the work challenged in some way.

Dandee

Nina Hole

After our last discussion I continued to think about Nina Hole's artwork. The video we viewed in class showing the event surrounding the creation of the sculpture in Boone, NC was very much a performance. Nina Hole Video There is no reason to pull the insulating fiber off of the sculpture mid-firing other than to put on a show.

I visited the sculpture today. It has a plaque with the words "Permenent Collection" at the top, the artist's name, the title (Two Taarn), and the medium (Wood-fired Stoneware.) The plaque explains the sculpture was created as part of an international artist residency, who helped build the sculpture, and who sponsored the project. The sign doesn't mention anything about the performance that was part of the creation of this artifact.

Is this performance art that just happens to leave an artifact, is it a sculpture that integrates aspects of performance into the process, or whole thing just a matter of playing with fire to create a public spectacle and whatever remains is abandoned to the weather? I'm inclined to believe the latter. There is no sign to explain the importance of the fire and revealing the sculpture while it was flaming hot. The kiln bricks at the bottom of the sculpture are not hidden, but at the same time they are not integrated into the sculpture. The fact that this structure is now on view seems to be an afterthought. Even the longevity of the sculpture is questionable. It has been outdoors through four mountain winters and is starting to show minor signs of spalling.

I find it hard to consider this a serious sculpture. There are too many unresolved remnants of process. At the same time, if the performance was what really mattered, the whole thing should have been torn down a month or two after it was finished. This object exists between performance and sculpture and has too many loose ends to reconcile to be considered successful in either realm.

Tuesday

Hi all - thanks again Brian, for digging up and posting the article to read. I had put a couple "just in case articles" in your mailboxes. Consider them food for thought over the hot month of July!

You might not have cable - if you get Bravo there is a new reality show - I would be curious about what you think. Obviously, there is criticism involved in the choosing of the winner and loser (who gets tossed off the show) each week.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/09/arts/television/09work.html?emc=eta1

Work of Art: The Next Best Artist

See you tomorrow at 5 - we'll Skype Charlie at 5:30, discuss the article, then eat!

Anna

Plurality and Necessity

I enjoy the listing of names and brief descriptions of work by these artists. Other than the manner in which they are working in there is really no other insight to the work being mentioned by Mansfiled. The reader gets a short biography in some cases about the artist and maybe some historical context. The article seemed to be descriptive to material and showing more of its diversity in form and in culture. Some of the methods mentioned are still used and are used in American contemporary ceramics. I would have liked to see more information written about these methods and processes and their aesthetic value. I am getting that these artists are using such methods and processes as a tool or vehicle to arrive at a more interesting and complex problem to solve.

Nina Hole

I found a great video of a Nina Hole piece on you tube you might enjoy. Anna

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDCcXLV2un0

Pluralality and Necessity: Antipodean Case Study

In this article Janet Mansfield pretty much gives us the run down on how craft was introduced to Australia and New Zealand, followed by a list of Australian artists, what they make and how it relates to the European or Japanese history of ceramics. I found this article to be for the most part a case study about a ceramics culture that has no history of its own. One could say the same about American ceramics. It makes sense when one tries to explain the diversity within the field in each country. Mansfield cites artist after artist and their European or Asian influence followed by a brief description of their work. Other than a role call of Australian ceramics and a list of their influences, I'm not sure what the point of the article is.

Follow up on class

Hi all - sorry Charlie ( as the commercial used to go) that the sound was so bad - I will look into a mic for next time.

The theme for next week is women critics!

Here is the URL for the one article:

http://ceramicsmuseum.alfred.edu/perkins_lect_series/harrod/index.html

The second one will be xeroxed and in your boxes by mid - afternoon.

Charlie - does the Penland library have Persistence of Craft book edited by Greenhalgh? We are reading the Janet Mansfield article p. 149, too. I can fax you a copy perhaps?

I will send a doodle out for you to sign up for a time to meet next week about abstracts and critiques (Charlie we can call or skype).

NOTE: NEXT WEEK 6/8 WE MEET 2- 4 PM

WEEK AFTER 6/ 15 - 5:00 - 7:00 potluck my house

Keep the comments coming -- does not have to be something we are covering in class. It can be something you find as you research your final project that you want to share.

Anna

New review

From the NY Times this morning. What do think of her writing?

Anna

Creative Debate Among Sculptors, Not Too Loud

By ROBERTA SMITH

Artistically speaking, West Chelsea — land of several hundred art galleries — is a tower of Babel spread on the horizontal. On any given day, scores of different visual languages are being spoken at once, often in raised voices. Arguments made by one show for one aesthetic position are immediately, sometimes violently, countered by the show next door. The effect can be cacophonous and confusing, although the other extreme is probably more disconcerting: when too many shows are talking alike.

Perhaps most interesting are those instances when a few shows speak enough, but not too much, of the same language to have an engaging debate. That’s happening this week among exhibitions of three younger artists working primarily in three dimensions — shows that focus on sculpture and its ostentation in terms of means of production, use of materials and methods of display.

Their efforts offer pointed commentary on the medium, particularly in its most cash-dependent forms: large-scale public sculpture and pricey portable objects that involve complex techniques, skilled artisans, expensive materials and demanding maintenance regimens. Each artist here takes a do-it-yourself, low-budget approach involving found, inexpensive materials and objects, which they simply but deliberately — and at times ingeniously — work, rework or combine. Wit is a common denominator, and in all cases works on paper amplify the cross talk. Otherwise, these artists go their separate ways.

In his second solo show in New York (and at the Zach Feuer Gallery), Johannes VanDerBeek embraces traditional sculptural subjects in nontraditional ways and in cheap materials, displaying a facility and historical awareness that have never been quite as overt, whimsical or physically inventive. The exhibition, titled “Another Time Man,” has about six distinct bodies of work — it’s actually a series of capsule shows — that range across the ages. This is implied by the first large work you’ll see, a partition titled “The Big Stone Flatscreen With Static.” It is cobbled together from pieces of cut-out cardboard, painted fuzzy black and white on one side and smeared on the other with a gray material called Celluclay. It’s television versus cave painting.

One group of works, displayed within a shimmering but flimsy curved wall painted silver, are fashioned from tin cans that have been sliced open, bent, stacked in various ways, welded together and tinted with spray paint; they flit effortlessly among Cubism, Futurism, Modern architecture, totemic figures, tramp art, Calder and toys. Life-size sculptures made of wire mesh offer ghostly depictions of an American Indian, a frontier woman and a hippie as vanished characters, implying some kind of historical continuum. Darkly colored slabs of textured metal could be remnants of an ancient culture or just Rust Belt castoffs, signs of more recent obsolescence; either way, they are aluminum foil colored with ink and pastel and incised with a ballpoint pen.

Eeriest of all are several found aluminum display boxes on pedestals whose interiors, looped with dead neon tubing, have been gingerly spray-painted and outfitted with arresting masks collaged from magazine images — talking heads, Roman portraits or ancient spirits conjured up around the campfire. Mr. VanDerBeek’s vision is darker than you think.

In his physically slightest work, he distracts us with grids of paper towels, stained and splashed with paint: sweet, sophisticated nothings of considerable pictorial power. His next target may be abstract painting.

More exclusively focused on — and dismayed by — the present, Josephine Meckseper continues her meditation on American consumerism in her second solo show at the Elizabeth Dee Gallery. This time she offers a kind of chrome monochrome environment in which the references ricochet among Modernist sculpture, the automobile as the No. 1 object of American male desire and various references to the fairer sex, which might be described as desire No. 2.

Ms. Meckseper’s dazzling surfeit of reflective surfaces takes the animal fascination with shiny and runs with it. “Americanmuscle” updates Duchamp’s bicycle wheel with a chrome car wheel on a mirrored pedestal. Other ready-mades, hanging from chrome display stands and racks, include a tail light, chains of different sizes, fox tails and rabbits’ feet. Gender differences are acknowledged in the display of a nylon stocking and crude approximations of designer handbags made from metal mesh and chain, sometimes with a car logo attached, using a bit of tar- or crude-oil-like substance. “Brillo” consists of a chrome treelike counter display stand, each of whose nine small platforms holds a metal pot-scouring pad, as if it were a precious object, perhaps a feminist hood ornament.

Repeated uses of enlarged watch faces from Cartier ads in wall pieces and papier-mâché forms may be a comment on the work of the key appropriation artist Richard Prince and his extensive use of car culture. Elsewhere, a small photograph of the burning Deepwater Horizon rather heavy-handedly suggests the self-destructive implications of consumerism, as does a small and erratic video of cracked glass — a car windshield or store window.

Haim Steinbach’s Neo-Geo sculptures of the mid-1980s, and the more dour, redneck tack taken by Cady Noland in the late 1980s are influences here. But Ms. Meckseper is no stranger to the store display case; here she creates an environmental one in which we are both pliable consumers and available commodities.

If a kind of Americana prevails in those two shows, Siobhan Liddell turns more decisively toward Europe in “Ordinary Magic,” her outstanding fourth show at the CRG Gallery. Ms. Liddell has always been interested in making the most of fragile, ephemeral materials, with colored string and thread, wire and especially paper high on the list. Miró would seem to be the dominant influence here, although Richard Tuttle and Alan Shields, the 1970s master of tie-dye and the sewing machine, can’t be ruled out.

This show is dominated by a series of exquisitely modest structures, most involving jewel-colored paper, often hand-painted. All rest on tables cobbled together from mismatched pieces of wood that contribute to the works’ charm. There is a sexual undertone to the title of “Pierced Pink Pyraminds in the Round on the Square,” while the honeycombed structure suggests a kind of architectural model on holiday, masquerading as a Mardi Gras float. “Blue and Gold Fold” is simply a small square of shiny gold foil, slightly peaked to reveal the paper’s blue underside; it might refer to similar, larger floor pieces by Roni Horn and Felix Gonzalez-Torres. The tabletop piece “Ordinary Magic” presents a handmade disco ball about to be inundated or perhaps seduced by a multicolored wave in glazed ceramic that exudes a freer sense of abandon.

Ms. Liddell works with many of these same materials in collages on linen, with elegant Dada results. But the outstanding work on the wall here is a large, untitled piece where expanses of small cut-out paper — white on one side and green on the other — create a raised surface that evokes leaves, fur and scales while resolving itself into a large plant form. O.K., it’s not sculpture, but it is consistent with the conviction, palpable in all three shows here, that art is far more a matter of imagination and ingenuity than of materials and money.

Johannes VanDerBeek’s “Another Time Man” runs through June 12 at Zach Feuer Gallery, 530 West 24th Street, Chelsea; zachfeuer.com. Josephine Meckseper runs through June 26 at Elizabeth Dee, 545 West 20th Street, Chelsea; elizabethdeegallery.com. Siobhan Liddell’s “Ordinary Magic” runs through Saturday at CRG Gallery, 535 West 22nd Street, Chelsea; crggallery.com.

Bruce Metcalf's Blog "Craft Gadfly"

Here is a link to Bruce Metcalf's blog:

http://www.brucemetcalf.com/blog/

It is really worth looking into.

dp

Is ceramics' stature affected by perceptions that it is a feminine medium?

In the case of pottery, I would say yes. I'm going to speaking in gross generalizations. While there are many men who collect and love pots, as a society we still hold on to the idea that the selection of dinnerware for the home is the woman's right or duty (depending on how you approach gender roles.) I've had to fight for my right to choose what goes into the kitchen cabinet.

Early in my education I perceived that male potters were more likely to be interested in form and female potters were often more interested in surface. Again, a gross generalization, but my perception nonetheless. In the last 18 years I have noticed a diversification of interests in both directions. The Santa Fe Clay shows at NCECA this year and last year were both full of pots whose maker embraced both form and surface.

I hope producers keep moving in this direction, and I hope male consumers become more involved in homemaking...and become interested in handmade ceramics.

Charlie

Great thoughts and comments

Something Brian mentioned has me thinking about the fact that in many societies, pottery making was relegated to the women. Does this possibly affect its stature in today's society?

Keep them coming, Anna

Identity Crisis

As it has been said, this article seems like a skimming over of Postmodernist Ceramics, and it is. This might be due to the fact that it is a excerpt from De Waal's book. I found a greater depth from the article by reading up on the artists he highlighted and I came across an interesting quote from Grayson Perry where he says pottery is the perfect medium for his social commentary:

"Pottery is not shouty. They're small, and you have to get close and examine them. People get seduced; they see a pot across the room and have an idea of what a pot is, but the pots are not as benign as they think."

The first time I came across Perry's work was not through a ceramic source. I would like to pose the question, does ceramics "claim" Perry? I don't see a cross dressing, decorator of earthenware pots rubbing elbows beside a wood kiln with some of ceramics' "greats". Invite me to that party.

De Waal & Schjeldahl

I've been on a search for a nice tidy definition for Modernism and for Postmodernism. De Waal's article is an excerpt from his book 20th Century Ceramics. I agree that is doesn't explain why these artists are considered postmodernists. There are hints, winks, and nudges...but he doesn't give a good sense of why. I often think I missed out on the definitive book that lays Postmodernism bare for all to understand. The assumption seems to be that I know what Postmodernism is and therefore understand why these artists and their ceramic artworks fit the label so well.

Postmodernism is defined as a reaction to Modernism. Modernists said "let's forget history." Postmodernists said "let's bring back history but separate it from its original context." In that sense Postmodernism is just an extension of Modernism.

Sure these artists De Waal describes are roughly contemporaries. The five artists (a mix of ceramicists and mainstream artist) in Schjeldahl's quote of Garth Clark were in the same period, and were in the same time period as the Modernist movement. Throwing Duchamp and Ohr together doesn't make sense to me. Duchamp was making a direct and public attack on the art ideals of the day, and Ohr was squirreling away oddball pots he made apparently for fun. The artists De Waal describes have similar dissonances. I'm forced to wonder if Modernism and Postmodernism in general, and especially in ceramics, are not so much movements but catchall groups for things that are quite different but made during a certain time period.

I have to question what Galen wrote "Mixed media, theatrics and collage are postmodern." Mixed media and collage are media and not ideas. Movements are ideologically based but can sometimes be related by medium. Some Postmodernists addressed theatrics, but I don't think theatrics defines the whole movement. I would even say that Duchamp was strongly concerned with theatrics, and he sits in the realm of Modernism. What is Postmodernism?

---

Schjeldahl's 4 zones are an interesting idea. I don't believe ceramics exists entirely within the fingertip to body zone. For all the talk about use, only a few utilitarian items really enter that realm consistently. Cups are welcome to come even closer. They regularly violate the inside of our bodies when we drink from them. A large percentage of functional ceramics are really made to be looked at from a distance. Oversized or marginally functional pieces are made as Art for exhibition. They are made with more concern for how they will look when they are photographed or viewed from the side more than how the hypothetical user will experience them.

Pete Pinnell defined the relationship between Art and function in the context of cups) incredibly well in this video: Pete Pinnell Video

The simile calling kitschy things to casual sex is fun, but kitsch is often defined by its relationship to art that is currently situated in the moral high ground. The barrier between popular art and Art is permeable. If you keep making something that has gone out of style you will are in danger of slipping through that barrier to become part of what has become generally acceptable to general society.

IMPORTANT ITEMS RE: CLASS TUESDAY

Hi everyone! We are on for Tuesday at 3 pm. I will have to run about 10 minutes before 5 but we should be ok for time. I have only received a couple posts on this blog - everyone should put at least one post a week up, related to the readings, your final project or just something related that you have come across.

We will be skyping Charlie for the class.

Prior to the class please take some time to look over the work of Ken Price

http://www.kenprice.com/

Also,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monterchi

This site is on the pregnant Madonna - I happened on this very painting in this very town while driving around Tuscany on a Piero della Francesco pilgrimage (everyone has to do this at least once in their lives) and it was an amazing experience.

Here are Garth Clarks list of objects:

http://www.therussianshop.com/russhop/lomonosov/malevich.htm

amazing how cheaply you can buy this important piece.

Oppenheim's Fur -lined cup

http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A4416&page_number=1&template_id=1&sort_order=1

The above is an interesting site on MOMA's collection.

One of Gaudi's buildings:

http://www.casabatllo.es/

http://www.sfmoma.org/multimedia/interactive_features/37

for Duchamp's Fountain - another interesting site.

And as far as Edmund De Waal is concerned -

he has publications listed on his site

http://www.edmunddewaal.com/publications/publications.html

and this site

http://www.thinktank04.eu/page.php?2,41,103

Lists him and many other good ceramics critics.

Lots to investigate.

I look forward to receiving your critiques and your first draft abstracts on Tuesday as well. Bring your calendar - we will try to set up a time to meet individually re. the abstract.

And of course - more articles to read - found one in the latest CA+P to read but we need another one, someone we have yet to read either on the list or someone totally new.

One more thing to consider - having the June 15 class which is the last before I leave and you begin work on your final projects at my house and later as a pot luck?

See you Tuesday. Anna

Marginal Powers: Ceramics and the art world.

Peter Schjeldahl's lecture is about understanding the role of art and how to look at it objectively. Although this lecture is aimed at ceramic artists I believe his approach is about all aspects of art, not simply those pertaining to ceramics, and that's a good thing. I believe the point of this lecture is to make artists question their understanding of why we make art, what is the significance in our own culture as well as it's relationship to history. Other questions he raises are what is value, why is art necessary, and to whom. I don't think he is making a point as much as he is raising awareness and trying to make his audience more responsible artists.

Identity Crisis

I find myself wondering why this article is titled "identity crisis." There is no argument about any kind of identity crisis, and I find myself hard pressed to see much of any point of view. It's a summary of works that the author arbitrating into post modernism, but the works discussed don't seem very post-modern. Mixed media, theatrics and collage are postmodern but these works are just happening after modernism--they aren't a part of the post-modern movement.

Identiy Crisis

"Edmund DeWall highlights the ironic and unsettling Postmodern ceramics of the 1980's and 90's" is correct, and by that I mean highlights. DeWall skims over this topic so quickly that I still am not sure of the point of this article. What he does is simply describe what Postmodernism is, without reference to how that is significant to ceramics, or if it's a good or bad thing. The article is way to short for a topic of this depth. Without photos, it is just over a page long. He jumps around briefly describing each work, makes one point and moves on to the next. He raises many points by fails to come to any conclusions.

Voulkos Dilemma

Before I respond to this article I will have to say that it is the best one yet. The writing reads well, is articulate and insightful without the verbal masturbation that plague other writers we have addressed. I hate to be a "yes man" for this author but I pretty much agree everything that he had to say. In ceramics so often opinion and popularity take the place of critical analysis. Yes I believe that Voulkos' reputation is firmly rooted in ceramics, but what of the greater art world? Does it diminish his legacy that he rode the coat tails of abstract expressionist painters, by doing the same with clay? Deconstruction of form was not a new concept when he did it to a pot, it simply hadn't been done in clay. Acknowledging this does set a different standard for the field of ceramics. Which leads me to question, is that what we're looking for?

I find it interesting to ponder the possibility of Voulkos being absorbed into history as a whisper. As of now, he stands as a legendary figure to me--a mysterious one at that. I can honestly say I don't know much about his art, besides the fact that it was very influential. I know it was vessel oriented sculpture and that he liked to wood fire, but I don't really know what it means. I don't have any objections to what Clark is saying. Clark states accurately that at it's worst canonizing someone is "about power. At its best it's about seeking truth, finding aesthetic bedrock and perceiving cultural meaning." This seems to be a statement about politics, which nothing is free of. So how do we find those genuine people willing to take up the job of furthering aesthetic discourse? And what do we do about this sweeping fad of recent days that is rejecting critical theory in art?

making meaning response

In Howard Risatti's Article "Making Meaning: a Dialogue between nature and culture" the basis for his argument seem to be based on material and the parameters of function. I think that he is talking about functional pottery being accepted as fine art rather than the field of ceramics. At no point in the article did he address anything other that functional works. He points out that the parameters of function put the emphasis on the physical rather than the optical. With any material there are limits and boundaries, be it clay or not. A sculptor working in marble has to be equally aware of the limitations of his material. It might make the task at hand a little more difficult with set parameters but it certainly doesn't issue the field of ceramics a "pass" because of it.

On the last page of the article he comments on "machine made objects". He states,"Moreover, as machine made objects there is no actual maker to conduct a dialogue between culture and nature via material and technique- the machine simply imposes its will on the material." This statement would lead one to believe that that there is a population of mindless machines arbitrarily mass producing work. It seems that he has ignored the fact that these products are designed by designers. Designers conduct the dialogue between culture and nature, and even saying that is oversimplifying the case. I believe that he has missed his own point. I believe he is talking about the importance of the handmade object, and the intimacy between maker and user. It seems that the author is looking for the art world to acknowledge academically these human comforts, but I think he might be barking up the wrong tree.

Voulkos and William Bouguereau

The reading Voulkos' Dilemma: Toward a Ceramic Canon reminded me of the problems I found when I was researching for a paper on William Bouguereau. Bouguereau was an extremely successful French Academic artist during the second half of the nineteenth century. He received many awards, was an officer in the Academy, he painted over 700 paintings during his career, and his work sold very well. He was also an influential teacher. He was a contemporary of the Impressionists, and is often cast as the face of the Academy that rejected and repressed Impressionism.

After his death in 1905 many historians swept Bouguereau aside as insignificant and installed the Impressionists as the progenitors of modern painting. Many museums put his paintings in storage, or sold the work. As a group, French Academic painters fell from public favor and their paintings sold for cheap.

In the 1980's and again as recently as 2007 there has been a renewed interest by art historians, curators, and the public in Bouguereau's work. The topic of Bougeureau' rehabilitation is the subject of many passionate arguments both for and against. My personal conclusion after reading several books, a dozen academic essays, and viewing and analyzing his work in person at the Appleton Museum was this: Bouguereau's work is a significant window into the culture in which he lived and he should be studied and celebrated in that context. I just can't bring myself to say I love the paintings or I think they are a source of influence for today's artists.

It might sound blasphemous to compare the avant-garde ceramics of Voulkos to the conservative Academic art of Bouguereau. Both enjoyed commercial success during their lifetimes, but similarities seem to stop there. In the end, both will be judged by subsequent generations of critics and historians.

One hundred years after his death, and one hundred and fifty years after he began producing significant artworks, Bouguereau's importance is still the being debated. Only fifty-plus years have passed since Voulkos began making significant ceramic artworks, and only eight years have passed since his death. After everyone who was awed or charmed in person by the charisma of Peter Voulkos the man has passed, what will be the consensus on Voulkos' work when it is judged by what it is in the context of the time it was produced? Will the work exert continuing influence in the field of ceramics? Art history takes lifetimes to unfold and we may not live to see the final verdict.

all quiet

No one had an opinion this week? Anna

Domestic Stereotype Conflict

The statement that stuck out most in this article- " On one hand, she portrays the beauty within the stereotype and on the other side she struggles with its contradiction, that is, the stereotype does not reflect today's complexity and that perhaps that stereotype is not so bad." After reading this article and the posted artist statement i come to some confusion as to what kind of eyes i should be looking through when looking at Anita Powell's empty dress figures. I think she is making an attempt to create an initial attitude of nostalgia of her figures, but when looked upon more closely, there are conflicts and issues at hand that might not be so nostalgic. The visual aesthetic of her line work for surface decoration and the modern curves of the empty dress forms bring this feeling of nostalgia. This is similar to "the 1960's idealization of the 1950's" I think powell is using this time period and aesthetic as a vehicle to gently brush up against more modern issues of gender domesticity and responsibility. They are visually active and work together to tell a larger story. I cannot see these figures working alone outside from groupings. The empty dress form is what leads me to believe that Powell is looking at issues for the contemporary viewer. The fact that the dress is empty allows the viewer to embody what is missing, the flesh, the hair, the eyes. We have to recreate what might be inside. We are persuaded by the imagery to create a certain type of character that is missing. We can come more closely to these issues because they are not directly displayed through the literal figure. They are more in character form with less emotion and obvious persona's. The viewer must make this assumption.

Anita Powell Review

Here is Anita Powell's artist statement:

"My work is the visual manifestation of an authentic response to life. It is a way to detach myself form existing notions of inferiority associated with my gender through the process of owning them. This way I can use beauty, sentimentality, domesticity, cooperation, quaintness and femininity as devices to confront those who perpetuate negative or prejudicial attitudes about these traits. I can also validate and encourage the reactions of those who see beyond the surface to find a message of tenacity, power, perseverance, resourcefulness and transformation of limitations into strengths."

I look forward to discussing the differences and similarities of the artist's presentation and reviewer's interpretation of the sculptures.

Additional images of Powell's work are available here.

I like to catch up on the arts section in the NY Times on line in the morning, skimming for good critical pieces. Yesterday, Holland Cotter. Today, Robert Smith. I mentioned I did not think she was a good speaker in class. Today I am beginning to have the same opinion of her writing. Today she reviews two fashion shows, one at the Met and the other at the Brooklyn Museum. I excerpted one paragraph and want you to read it and see what you think.

Anna

Which brings us to the often delirious yet discomforting unreality of most museum exhibitions devoted to high fashion. These shows almost invariably chronicle the lifestyles and shifting, usually unattainable ideals of femininity of the leisure class. But they also reflect larger, historical trends in taste, mores and wealth, while encapsulating the technical innovations, artistic sensibilities and fantasies that perpetually trickle down to the less expensive, more utilitarian designs most women wear.

I don't know much about fashion, or these shows, but the writing seems watered down. What does "delirious yet discomforting unreality" mean? Delirium is discomforting--for me at least. I'm not sure if fashion shows even belong in a museum setting. It seems to perpetuate things like sensationalism and celebrity. Yba anyone?

Be sure to post your comments to the blog - not the email sent so we can continue to dialogue. Galen, I saw your comment on email, but not here. So, please repeat it. Thanks, Anna

verbage

I like to catch up on the arts section in the NY Times on line in the morning, skimming for good critical pieces. Yesterday, Holland Cotter. Today, Robert Smith. I mentioned I did not think she was a good speaker in class. Today I am beginning to have the same opinion of her writing. Today she reviews two fashion shows, one at the Met and the other at the Brooklyn Museum. I excerpted one paragraph and want you to read it and see what you think.

Anna

Which brings us to the often delirious yet discomforting unreality of most museum exhibitions devoted to high fashion. These shows almost invariably chronicle the lifestyles and shifting, usually unattainable ideals of femininity of the leisure class. But they also reflect larger, historical trends in taste, mores and wealth, while encapsulating the technical innovations, artistic sensibilities and fantasies that perpetually trickle down to the less expensive, more utilitarian designs most women wear.

Garth Clark Lecture Link

Hello Everyone,

Here is a web-site link for the Museum of Contemporary Craft's podcast site. The Clark lectures are on 10.16.2008.

http://www.museumofcontemporarycraft.org/programs_podcasts.php

See you soon!

Dandee

test post

I hope this now works to send you an email whenever something is posted - you should all be set up to post as authors. Others can read and make comments but cannot post.

Give me a heads up if you receive this.

welcome to the class blog

I hope you all get this and will use it actively. See you Tuesday at 2:30 pm in FC 102. By the time we meet you should have read and be ready to comment on the articles I have in your mail box and to come with at least one article/chapter to consider for a future reading.

See you Tuesday, Anna