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Making or unmaking? The Contexts of Contemporary Ceramics - Conference in Bergen, Norway

The Contexts of Contemporary Ceramics - Conference
27th - 29th of October 2011

The opposition between studio and industrial ceramics that has had such a central place in the self-understanding of studio ceramists, no longer seems meaningful. A shift from production to reproduction has taken place. Images and patterns from different sources are appropriated and manipulated. Mass-produced objects, often characterized by disuse, disruption and damage, have come to be increasingly used as raw materials. The relationship between artist and artisan has also changed. The conference focuses on the way in which these changes influence contemporary making, and how they contribute to the unmaking of conventional understanding of ceramics and craft practices in general.

SPEAKERS
Glenn Adamson, Barnaby Barford, Marek Cecula, Nicole Cherubini, Mònica Gaspar, Tanya Harrod, Ben Highmore, Gitte Jungersen, Søren Kjørup,Carol McNicoll, Kevin Murrey, Andrew Livingstone, Michael Petry, Mike Press, Paul Scott, Ezra Shales, Richard Slee, Caroline Slotte, Linda Sormin, Hans Stofer, Clare Twomey, Jorunn Veiteberg and Anne Britt Ylvisåker.

EXHIBITIONS
West Norway Museum of Decorative Art: Thing Tang Trash. Upcycling in Contemporary Ceramics (curator: Heidi Bjørgan); Galleri Rom 8: Kjell Rylander; Hordaland Art Centre: Shot: Textiles and Photography (curator: Glenn Adamson); Galleri Format: The Red Room (curator: Heidi Bjørgan); Galleri Fisk; S12: Young and Loving.

LOCATION
Terminus Hall, Hotel Grand Terminus, Bergen, Norway.

PROGRAM
Thursday Oct 27, 10.00-18.00
Workshop 1: History Lessons

Glenn Adamson (USA/UK): Ten easy pieces: Postmodernism and the found object
Carol McNicoll (UK): Domestic collage
Richard Slee (UK): The way he is sourcing things
Ezra Shales (USA): The museum as medium-specific muse
Clare Twomey: Manufactured not made
Caroline Slotte (FI): Long exposure
Paul Scott (UK): Willows, windmills and wild roses. Recycling and remediation
Tanya Harrod (UK): Memory work: Craft and art in post-industrial Europe

Exhibitions: Thing Tang Trash. Upcycling in Contemporary Ceramics, Art Museums Bergen/Permanenten (19-21)

Friday Oct 28, 9-17
Workshop 2: Object Lessons

Ben Highmore (UK): The poetics of made things
Hans Stofer (CH/UK): ’Biting into a cherry does not prepare you for the stone’
Mònica Gaspar (ES/CH): Craft in its gaseous state: An exhibition report
Andrew Livingstone: The ceramic regurgitant: sustainability and the readymade
Barnaby Barford (UK): Appropriation, narrative and humour
Gitte Jungersen (DK): Place to be lost, materiality and meaning in my work
Jorunn Veiteberg (NO): The Duchamp effect in ceramics

Exhibition openings: Kjell Rylander Rom 8; B.T.2011, Galleri Format (curator: Heidi Bjørgan); Textiles and Photography, Hordaland Art Center (curator: Glenn Adamson); Young and Loving, Gallery S12.

Saturday, Oct 29
Workshop 3: Institutional Lessons

Michael Petry (UK): The art of not making: The new artist/artisan relationship
Marek Cecula (PL): Industrial interventions
Anne Britt Ylvisåker (NO): The museum: New potentials
Linda Sormin (CA/USA): Chinese Take-out
Kevin Murrey (AU): The new do-it-themselves ceramics: throwing out the baby with the mud?
Mike Press (UK): Handmade knowledge. The new challenge for craft.
Søren Kjørup (DK): A philosophical perspective: A new history, a new order.

19.00 Dinner, Grand selskapslokaler.

Reservations

The research conference is organized by K-verdi (www.k-verdi.no) at Bergen National Academy of the Arts, in collaboration with Art Museums of Bergen. Supported by the Norwegian Research Council, Bergen National Academy of the Arts, Bergen kommune, Hordaland Fylkeskommune and Norske Kunsthåndverkere.

Debbie Quick

Debbie Quick’s profile on Ceramics Now Magazine - View her works

“I am a storyteller. Or at least I’ve wanted to be one for as long as I can remember; yet, the verbal telling of situations is not how my mind works. Instead, I physically construct my stories which speak of emotional interactions and reactions experienced during intense social exchanges. Just as social interactions are layered, having a number of interpretations, visual information leads to a multitude of possible understandings as well.  This is why the idiom “A picture is worth a thousand words” describes how I choose to create narratives. Having more than one interpretation of an experience is why I desire to pack multilayered thoughts into every thing I make. Through exploring these concerns I attempt to communicate the numerous nuances of emotion weathered during awkward social exchanges.

I watch. I love to watch. I draw inspiration from the watching. I collect awkward exchanges between people and then sculpt them into stories. My narratives visually speak of uncomfortable social interactions and the intensity of feeling born out of them. The pieces I build depict the slippery quality of emotional intelligence and how it seems to elude explanation. Since there is often more than one side to a story and no singular truth to a situation, my pieces are stuck at the point of experiencing and contemplating uncomfortable and irresolvable situations. I explore the pain and discomfort of social interactions through the visual narratives I make.” Debbie Quick

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Grayson Perry

Grayson Perry’s profile on Ceramics Now Magazine - View his works

Grayson Perry (born in 1960) is an English artist, known mainly for his ceramic vases and cross-dressing. He works in several media. Perry’s vases have classical forms and are decorated in bright colours, depicting subjects at odds with their attractive appearance, e.g. child abuse and sado-masochism. There is a strong autobiographical element in his work, in which images of Perry as “Claire”, his female alter-ego, often appear. He was awarded the Turner Prize in 2003 for his ceramics, receiving the prize dressed as Claire.

Perry’s work refers to several ceramic traditions, including Greek pottery and folk art. He has said, “I like the whole iconography of pottery. It hasn’t got any big pretensions to being great public works of art, and no matter how brash a statement I make, on a pot it will always have certain humility… For me the shape has to be classical invisible: then you’ve got a base that people can understand”. His vessels are made by coiling, a traditional method. Most have a complex surface employing many techniques, including “glazing, incision, embossing, and the use of photographic transfers”, which requires several firings. To some he adds sprigs, little relief sculptures stuck to the surface. The high degree of skill required by his ceramics and their complexity distances them from craft pottery. It has been said that these methods are not used for decorative effect but to give meaning. Perry challenges the idea, implicit in the craft tradition, that pottery is merely decorative or utilitarian and cannot express ideas.

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Vivika and Otto Heino

Vivika and Otto Heino’s profile on Ceramics Now Magazine - View their works

Vivika and Otto Heino collaborated from 1950 until 1995, the year of Vivika’s death. Their work is distinguished by its clean lines and distinctive glazes. Despite getting under way during the Depression, the Heinos supported themselves as potters throughout their careers. Their world was guided by a strong work ethic and a love of clay. Unfazed by ceramic trends, they remained true to their sense of what pottery should be—traditional and utilitarian.

Otto and Vivika were part of a generation that sought to redefine the art of ceramics in relation to modern art and culture. The “potters,” as the Heinos and their contemporaries were proud to be called, were influenced by the Arts & Crafts movement, Germany’s Bauhaus, and the potters of Japan.

Otto and Vivika’s work is collected world-wide and has been exhibited internationally at the Picasso Museum in Vallauris, France; San Francisco’s De Young Museum; Los Angeles’ County Art Museum and Craft Folk Art Museum; New York’ American Craft Museum; Washington D.C.’s Smithsonian’ and Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. Twentieth Century Fox commissioned them to create 751 pieces of pottery for the film, “The Egyptian.”

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Daniel Kavanagh

Daniel Kavanagh’s profile on Ceramics Now Magazine - View his works

“Forms are classical yet contemporary defined by crisp elegant lines and flowing shapes; inspired by ancient Greek pottery and Japanese as well as the art and architecture of South East Asia. The Highland landscape is a constant, ever changing influence in my work, drawing inspiration from the light, space and reflective qualities this vast landscape offers.

Contrast is an important aspect to my work the interplay between control and unpredictability, traditional and contemporary, solid but with a feeling of lightness. Despite these contrasting qualities I always aspire to create something that is both beautiful and complete. I enjoy the interplay of more organic and fortuitous surfaces applied to these controlled forms which create a distinct finish to the work. Work that combines ceramic and bronze materials provide an innovative exploration of the two mediums I am most passionate about. I am beginning to explore the experience of how a thrown form can then be adapted to become a piece of sculpture in its own right.” Daniel Kavanagh

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Nagae Shigekazu

Nagae Shigekazu’s profile on Ceramics Now Magazine - View his works

Nagae Shigekazu (born in 1953), is one of the leading pioneers of porcelain casting and firing techniques in Japan. Casting is commonly associated with the mass production of porcelain, yet Nagae valiantly transcends this stereotype, ultimately elevating this technique to the avant-garde. Casting alone cannot achieve the natural movements found within Nagae’s forms. In fact, the intensity of his gas-kiln fires help mould, shape and curve his delicate white porcelain, thereby giving birth to sleek and razor-thin silhouettes that have become Nagae trademarks.

His popularity and recognition as an artist have skyrocketed, with acquisitions by the V&A in London, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the National Gallery of Australia in just the past 3 years. Also collected by leading institutions such as the Musée National de Ceramique-Sèvres in Paris and the Musée Ariana in Geneva, among others, as well as receiving prestigious awards such as the Grand Prixs at the 1998 Triennale de la Porcelain in Nyon, the Mino Ceramic Festival and the Japan Ceramic Art Exhibition (both 1997), Nagae Shigekazu’s stature and respect in the world of porcelain has reached new heights.

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