Anthony Sonnenberg: Selected works, 2021-2024
The most consistent underlying motivation that has guided my practice since its beginning is to advocate for the underdog. I am always looking for the things I encounter in my life that from the dominant heteronormative perspective seem to be the most unimportant. Once I find these things, I then work hard to make more visible why they matter.
Still lives (especially with flowers), fat bodies, femme queers, being extra, bongs and other domestic artifacts, are all prime examples of the types of underdogs that I fight for in my practice. But for many years the most important and all encompassing underdog I fight for is Decoration. There is, in my opinion, no force in our society that does more work and receives less credit than decoration. For proof, I turn to the timeless phrase: To see is to believe. I believe decoration makes visible all the innumerable intricate structures of social hierarchy. Decoration provides all the visual contexts that let us know who is favored by our current society and who is not – who is a president, a priest, or a prisoner.
The challenge for me is that this visual system is so effective and pervasive that we hardly notice it and so we are often unaware of the effects of its power. To counteract this, I try to focus on those areas of decoration that accompany the edges of normal everyday social life such as those objects associated with death and funerary processes, or the expression and delineation of queer identities and histories. In these areas, the rules of how things are supposed to work are not so clear, which then makes the cracks in the system more visible, which in turn makes questions and alternative suggestions that challenge the status quo more possible. Once these challenges are allowed in the world, possibly only as a whisper at first, they begin to grow louder and reverberate. They then echo from the out skirts of society all the way through to the center of things; to those aspects once so certain as to be thought impervious to change.
When over the years I have been pushed to be introspective and clarify the underlying motivations in making this work, e.i. why do I return to the studio day after day when the reasons to quit are always so abundant? I come back, again and again, to the belief that this work is about empowerment. Both by centering the margins and by showing that the ability to affect change in how we see ourselves, our place in the world, and how the world could work better does not belong only to the currently rich and powerful, but also to those who are intelligent, sensitive, and pay attention to the things that don’t seem to matter.
Captions
- Double-tier polka-dot Chandelier (Ode to Peak Bottom Culture), 2021-2023, Porcelain over stoneware and found ceramic tchotchkes, glaze, steel, electric lights – 40 x 27 x 27 in
- Pall (We Should Be Home By Now), 2021-2023, Steel, glazed porcelain, glass beads, found fabrics, wire – 15 x 28 x 67 in
- Golden Epergne, 2023, Porcelain over stoneware and found ceramic tchotchkes, glaze, premium gold luster. 13d x 19x x 20t in
- Personal Monument with Pipe (Will You Always Be There?), 2022, Porcelain over stoneware and found ceramic tchotchkes, glaze. 33 x 23 x 9 in
- Candelabra (To Know the Magic), 2022, Porcelain over stoneware and recycled tchotchkes, glaze. 19t x 15w x 7d in
- Urn (Get Back to the Garden), 2023, porcelain over stoneware, found ceramic tchotchkes & glaze. 27h x 9w x 9d in
- The Bunny Vase, 2023, Porcelain over stoneware and found ceramic tchotchkes, glaze. 14d x 17w x 21t in
- Pair of Candelabras (No Way to Control It), 2023, Porcelain over stoneware and found ceramic tchotchkes, glaze. 6d x 10w x 16t in
- Candelabra (To Hell and Back), 2023, Porcelain over stoneware and found ceramic tchotchkes, glaze 8d x 14w x 17.5t in
- Basket (a thousand years between), 2024, Cone 10 fired porcelain over stoneware, found porcelain tchotchkes, underglaze. 18h x 10w x 10d in
- Vase with Handles (Backstage after the show), 2023, Porcelain over stoneware and found ceramic tchotchkes, glaze. 12d x 12w x 19t in
- Blue Monday, 2022, Porcelain over stoneware and found ceramic tchotchkes, glaze. 16.5t x 11w x 12d in
- Double Gourd Vase (filling up my senses), 2024, Porcelain over stoneware and found ceramic tchotchkes, glaze. 22t x 10w x 10d in
- Epergne with Candelabra and Vases (museum commission) 2024, Porcelain over stoneware and found ceramic tchotchkes, glaze. 40t x 17w x 10d in
- Peace Pot (Anxiety Relief Bong), 2021, Porcelain over Stoneware, Found Ceramic Tchotchkes, Glaze 20.5 x 9.5 x 10 in
- My Eyes are Starving for Beauty, 2024, digital video. Dimensions variable
