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NCECA Installation in Seattle
The human figure with the head of
an animal is representative of the relationship between humans and the natural
environment and its creatures. This
connection is fortified through the figural likeness to male and female human
forms. The human likeness is a definitive reminder that we (humans) are no more
than a species inhabiting the same planet as these creatures.
The figurines are representative of
native species which are part of the regional ecosystem; they stand juxtaposed
to a human made object: concrete, glass, steel, vehicles, and humans;
Seattle. This can be viewed as a
symbolic gesture suggesting the potential for an answer to the encroachment and
plundering of humans upon the natural environment through technology and knowledge.
This juxtaposition is also a symbolic of
an irony; that these objects are the very man-made objects and inventions which
lead to the creature’s peril.
This relationship between the ceramic
material from which the effigies are constructed and their ethereal
counterpart, the environment, becomes apparent through their degradation by the
erosive weathering processes of nature.
In this way the raw clay bodies show the fragility and vulnerability of
species under the pressure of mankind. In
this way the effigies stand in gesture of submission to the surrounding
metropolis. They are diminutive to further represent their present status in
the current order of the industrial complex.
This
body of work focuses on the relationship between human impact on the landscape
and the preceding environmental consequences beginning with the destruction and
disappearance of the habitats of native animals. This installation considers the present course
of human evolution and its detrimental impacts upon the land and natural environments.
Written by Karl Schwiesow Creative Team
Karl Schwiesow,
Amanda Dabel, Bianca Del Cioppo, Molly Allen, Heath Pierson, Marvin Blake, Shannon O'leary, Flor
Widmar and Evan Cook
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| Waiting to leave Tahoe and start our long journey. |
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| The first site we stopped to find clay, no luck here. |
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| At the bottom of a hill we found some useable clay, at site two. |
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| Clay, sand, and lots of other stuff. |
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| Better clay just up the hill and through the blackberry forest. |
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| Mt St Hellens clay. |
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| Heath and his 200lb bag of clay. |
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| We picked the bigger people in the club to load the trailer. |
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| Finally we arrive at the installation site. Pier 62/63 Seattle WA |
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| Organizing our materials before we start building. |
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| Molly and Flor putting one of the sculptures together. |
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| Heath and Marvin working on a kneeling sculpture. |
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| Found trash and wood with a little chicken wire to hold the clay. |
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| Evan securing a sculpture to it's frame. |
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| The whole club working hard from sun up until sundown. |
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| Large half human half elk sculpture. |
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| Elk |
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| Lynx |
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| Albatross |
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| Gray wolf |
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| Grizzly Bear |
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| After a few days in the rain the clay started to crack and melt off. |
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| Turtle |
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| The trash core exposed. |
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| Time to clean up |
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| Shannon and Karl at the dump. The trash that we picked up along the way needed to be disposed of properly. |
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| Driving home |
Bianca Del Cioppo:
This year at NCECA there were a multitude of artists that I learned from, whether it was lectures, or one on one talks, or just witnessing their work. Since I am so close to graduating and starting the next chapter in my artwork, I wanted to focus on hearing how certain artists got their start, what they worked on when they were in undergraduate and what was most beneficial to them. I wanted to get many opinions on grad school verses residency programs and post bacc opportunities.
NCECA chooses a collection of emerging artists every year to showcase, and they were all extremely inspiring to me. Lauren Gallaspy was one of the most influential when it came to her undeniable passion for her craft and work ethic in general. I have always been told that it takes a ton of time in the studio to make it in this world, but she took it to a new level that even I marveled at. Lauren is both a functional and a sculptural ceramic artist and both captivate me. They are very closely linked to the odd qualities and seeming awkwardness of Egon Schiele, one of my influences currently.
"My work is about that imbalance: the vulnerability of living things and the sometimes violent, sometimes pleasurable, almost always complex consequences that occur when bodies and objects in the world come into contact with one another. I use ornamentation, obsessive mark-making, and decorative imagery as a kind of devotional or transformational act, a way to render interior spaces and intense psychological experiences physically." -Lauren Gallaspy
One thing that I learned, that was very apparent, was the unrelenting drive she has, and how hard she had to work to get where she is now. I already knew that it takes a lot of time and effort, but she talk and our one on one conversation really drove it home for me. My goal is to become an "Emerging Artist" at an NCECA in a few years.
Lauren Gallaspy
Clay, Stain, Decals
Another emerging artist that I found moving was Lindsay Pichaske. She is a sculptural artist, mostly dealing with animals, but with a twist. Instead of using a regular glazing techniques, she goes outside the ceramic world using covering like rooster feathers, sequins, and blonde human hair. Her coverings take these already amazing animal renderings to the next level which abstracts them.
"What separates human from animal? What borders exist between real and imagined, beautiful and repugnant, animate and inanimate?
Through the act of making, I swim in and around these margins, exploring how slippery the answers to these questions are. I create animals that blur boundaries. They challenge the perceived order and comfortable classifications of life. These animals are tricksters; familiar but also alien, seductive but also scary, animal but also human, alive but also dead. In a world where petals mimic fur and hair impersonates bone, even materials upset their expected roles. These creatures are not to be trusted. Once we identify with them, we admit that perhaps the definitions they upturn are not so clearly defined as we think.
Material and process are the tangible means through which I contemplate the space between these opposing worlds. I sculpt and articulate animal forms to generate a semblance of life. The fleshy coverings are meticulously and lovingly applied, allowing me to both control and understand the figure as it comes into existence." -Lindsay Pichaske
Lindsay Pichaske
Low-fire ceramic, 26190 sequins, paint, adhesive, steel bracket
Low-fire ceramic, rooster feathers, flocking, paint, adhesive
Low-fire ceramic, sunflower seeds, beet dye, acrylic paint
"As humans, we have a long history of engaging our sense of touch in ceramics, and we are never far from ceramic objects within our lives. We touch them daily, even if it is only to clutch our coffee mugs as we sit at the computer or lean against the edge of the sink as we go through our morning rituals. In fact, ceramics is an almost universal medium. This gives us an innate and intimate sensitivity to fired clay. We understand it; there is a sense of the familiar when we handle ceramic objects. This familiar quality lends itself to developing the sense of comfort and quiet excitement that I seek to elicit through my work.
Touch is the most direct and least analyzed of our senses; it is the grounding sense, the sense of tangibility that places us in the world. As the full proverb states, ‘Seeing is believing, but feeling is the truth.’ Yet, in our western culture a hegemony of vision often erodes our tactile sensitivities.
My sculptural work challenges the dominance of sight by more fully engaging the body’s sense of touch through physical interaction with the objects I create. The work is textured and invites the viewer to become the toucher." - Bonnie Kemske
I am combining the ideas from both Lindsay Pichaske and Bonnie Kemske to explore the world of textures more. I have in the past, but my pieces still didn't have the draw that I want the viewer to feel when they look at my work. I want them to want to touch my work, make it inviting and initiate a dialog between my pieces and the sensation of touch that the viewer experiences.
One artist that I came across was Carol Cook. She was showcased figurative artist, at a gallery opening for the University of Dallas. I was completely fascinated with the texture and surface treatment of her work. When I looked closely her work just melted away into these quick gesture lines combined with meticulous details to convey emotion and movement.
Carol Cook
"Housekeeping"" to Room 13"
Cone 04 clay, Engobes, Low Fire Glazes
One piece that totally blew me away was this 4 foot long porcelain hand emerging from the wall. This piece was created by Ovidio Giberga. I am drawn to the extended fingers and how they seem to reach towards the viewer. I am also intrigued by the scale of this piece and others that he makes. It asks the viewer closer, both with the way he shows his work and the small details that make it humanistic.
Ovidio Giberga
"Prime"
Porcelain
Other work by Ovidio.
This piece tested my perception. It was interested how Colby Parsons isolated the projection to specific parts of the ceramic wall piece. I especially liked how different each projected clip was radically different.
Colby Parsons
"Bedroom Floor" 2012
Ceramics with Projection
This piece by Nicole Carew Merkens was probably one of my favorites among the gallery shows. I am in love with the surface treatment, the addition of wire and other misc objects.
"Psychic Energy,
Mental energy such as thinking, perceiving, and remembering.
Mosby's Medical Dictionary, 8th edition. © 2009, Elsevier.
Psychic Energy,
N, the subjective force responisble for causing change and motion in the nominal world. Also called mental energy.
Jonas: Mosby's Dictionary of Complementary and Alternative Medicine. © 2005, Elsevier.
This piece is entitled "She was a Sender". She is from a body of work called "The Psychic Energy Series". It is about the psychic energy and my fascination with the possible ability to mentally send thoughts, images, emotions thru the mind in psychic vibrations.
The wires in her hair help depict the brain waves she is sending out. Her hand to her forhead; for concentration on zoning-in on her subject. I believe everyone has the ability to either be a sender or receiver. She is a sender, I personally think I am a receiver. What are you?" - Nicole Carew Merkens
Nicole Carew Merkens
"She was a Sender"
Clay, Underglazes, Engobes, Wax, Wire
Walter McConnell was one of the lecturing/demonstrating artists that I truly loved. He is doing with his work, what I am just touching the surface of. He creates these masterpieces of intricate scenes and presents them in the raw state. I want to do this and now he has put this fire in my belly to make me succeed at this new raw work. I watched him create these enclosures for his work, that makes an air-tight case for these pieces to live and create condensation from the wetness of the clay.
Walter McConnell
Clay, Plastic, Plexi Glass, Wood
Gerit Grimm was also a lecturing/demonstrating artist that I watched. She was a co-lecturer with Walter McConnell and it was very interesting to see them both together. Gerit throws and alters to create figures. This was interesting for me because she was very meticulous about the proportions of each piece and that they were adjustable. This was very important to create a sense of freedom in their movements. I want to try this technique of having sections of a figure, then mix and matching each piece in order to make a whole. I haven't done this at the life-size scale, but I have learned how to with a smaller figure from Michelle Gregor. This is my goal for the immediate future.
This NCECA was the most beneficial conference I could have attended thus far because it has given me all the tools for further my art work.
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