Ceramics: Art and Perception - Ceramics: Art and Perception

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Ceramics: Art and Perception Volume 25 Issue 3

Print Post Publication No. PP255003100105 September – November 2015

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Ceramics Art and Perception

2015 ISSUE

Form in Motion Sculpture by Fujikasa Satoko 9.10.15 - 10.9.15

J O A N B M I R V I S S LT D 飛天 Seraphim

2015

25 x 23 3/8 x 16 inches Stoneware with white slip

JAPANESE ART Antique - Contemporary 39 East 78th Street, 4th Floor | New York NY 10075 Telephone 212 799 4021 | www.mirviss.com

Ceramics

2015 ISSUE

Art and Perception

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INTERNATIONAL

Contents Articles Anthony Merino

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Andy Nasisse

Janet Koplos

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Clare Twomey – Piece by Piece

Gil McElroy 12

Wabi Sabi: Shigemasa Higashida

Craig J Peariso 16

Jacquline Hurlbert

Kenji Ichii 20

Hideaki and Ryoichi Suzuki in Tokyo Biennale Bonanza: Taiwan

Wendy Gers 24

Shirley Dawson 32

Jeff Kell Dinner in Motion – Julian Stair

Stephen Knott 36

Self Portrait – The Art of Hong Wei

Wayne Higby 40

Ginger Geyer: Explorations and Transformations Betty Sue Flowers 46 Léopold L Foulem 52

Paul Mathieu: Conceptual Encounters

Ivan Albreht 58

Art Basel Miami 2014

Anthony Merino 62

Hans Vangsø – Bold Simplicity The Human Condition: The Hootkin Collection

Andy Christian 72

Jason Wason Nan Smith – Mercury: Art and Science Rudolf Staffel – A Restless Spirit

Audrey Whitty 92

Feyza Özgündoğdu – Traces with Layers

Burcu Karabey 98

Glenda Taylor: A Remembrance

Stephanie Lanter 101

Susannah Zucker – Avian

Dr Jerry Cullum 102 Bang Chang-Hyun and Lee Heon-Gook 106

Book Review – Early German Stoneware

Time

Michael McTwigan 86

Centred: An Exhibition of Ceramics in Ireland

Contemporary Korean Artists

Katherine Morling

Glen R Brown 76 Paul Bailey 82

Katherine Morling

Cover:

Janet Koplos 66

Jeff Zamek 111

Editor Elaine Olafson Henry

Office Manager Cheryl Fields

Proofreader Diane Bailiff

Printer St Croix Press New Richmond, Wisconsin, US Designed and published quarterly by Ceramic Art 23 North Scott Street – Suite 19, Sheridan, Wyoming 82801 US Telephone 001.307.675.1056 Facsimile 001.307.675.1057 E-mail 1ceramicart@gmail.com Skype ceramic.art Internet http://www.ceramicart.com.au

Editorial

Advisers:

Linda Arbuckle Jennifer Forsberg Douglas Beagle Tony Franks

Frank Boyden Sergei Isupov Grace Cochrane Les Manning Janet DeBoos Owen Rye Mary Jane Edwards Shira Silverston Jeff Zamek Editorial contributions are welcome.

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Ceramics: Art and Perception (ISSN: 1035-1841) Copyright © 2013 by Ceramic Art is published four times per year by Ceramic Art, 23 North Scott Street, Suite 19, Sheridan, Wyoming 82801-6337 US. Months of issue are March, June, September and December. Business, Editorial, Accounting and Circulation Offices: 23 North Scott Street – Suite 19, Sheridan, Wyoming 82801 USA. Visit www.ceramicart.com.au or call 001.307.675.1056 to subscribe or for information on retailing the magazine.

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Stepping Up, the 14th Australian Ceramics Triennale took place in July at Australian National University in Canberra. It was winter there but that did not dampen the spirits of the attendees. The well-organised and thought-provoking talks and demonstrations centred around the theme of ‘Stepping Up’, or opportunities for the future of ceramics and ceramists. As written by Ruby Cornish in ABC News Canberra, quoting emcee Janet DeBoos, “‘We are stepping up to new technologies like 3D printing,’ she said. ‘We’re appreciating changes in materials and in the way in which we do things.’ She said the issue of how to make money is the ‘elephant in the room’. ‘It’s about finding a way in which we still retain integrity and satisfaction, but can survive and make a living.’” The event was attended by approximately 350 people. The 15th Australian Ceramics Triennale will take place in 2018.

As we are publishing the first of our second one hundred issues of Ceramics: Art and Perception, we are continually encouraged by the quality and range of work that is going on internationally. In this issue, you will see an article on international ceramics biennales by Wendy Gers of South Africa, who was the second curator selected for the Taiwan Ceramics Biennale at the Yingge Ceramics Museum in Taipei City. The breadth of work that was selected for this extensive exhibition (held from May to October, 2014) is indicative of the work that is being accomplished in ceramics throughout the world. By jurying the curator, this museum has raised the quality standard of international ceramics biennales and they deserve to be commended.

The XXIVemeBiennale Internationale Creation Contemporaine et Ceramique Vallauris/2016 has a deadline for entries of 15 September 2015.

Eligible candidates must be nationals of a member country of the European Union (http://www.vallauris-golfe-juan.fr/-XXIVemeedition-2016-.html). Further in the future, the annual conference of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) will be held in Kansas City, Missouri, US in March of 2016. This is the 50th conference held and promises to be a memorable event with demonstrations, lectures, panels and extensive exhibitions.

Going ‘Down Under’ (or any international travel, for that matter) can alter our perspectives and give us new ways to look at our own cultures. As publishers of international journals, we work to understand the global differences and not the least of those differences is in knowing that we can not refer to the seasons in any article or review. Often we need to change ‘winter’ to ‘July’ or ‘spring’ to ‘October’ and vice versa. Travel and/or exposure to the ceramics world through Ceramics: Art and Perception lets us know that we are not the centre of the universe, no matter where we are and that we are more alike than we are different.

With Paul Davis, Jacqueline Clayton, Grace Cochrane, Tanya Harrod at Bennelong’s Restaurant at the Sydney Opera House. Dinnerware by Clayton and Davis, cuisine by Chef Peter Gilmore.

Wabi Sabi Shigemasa Higashida A Review by Anthony Merino

T

I always try to make my works released from preconceived concept.

Shigemasa Higashida

he shape, colour and texture of kiseto vase #15

evoke bees. A compressed wonky sphere, it looks like a skep. The dulled opaque amber is similar to the colour of unprocessed honey. The glaze’s texture, which appears to sag along the sides of the piece, reinforces this association. This work fits closely to what I would expect from a certain style of Japanese ceramics. It seems like a slightly ‘Funked’ up version of the work of Toshiko Takaezu. Both Shigemasa Higashida and Takaezu create forms that,

while not illusionary, refer to nature. Their works reflect nature in a metaphorical way. Specifically, these pieces fit into a distinctly Japanese aesthetic called wabi-sabi. It is an aesthetic of inversion based on combining two almost contradictory beauties. It is the embracing of imperfection and the celebration of the warp, drips, cracks, chips and carbon spots as the sources of beauty. Simultaneously, it is an emphasis of economy of form. To a Western modernist mind that envisions nature and austerity of form as Oribe Square Platter. 4 x 12 in.

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oppositions, wabi-sabi is a bit of a paradox. Kiseto Vase #15 stands out among all of Shigemasa Higashida’s works included in his exhibition Accidental Beauty at LaCoste Gallery, Concord, Massachusetts US. Perhaps the most compelling thing about the exhibition is that Higashida breaks away from tradition. He grounds his work in two opposite directions. Seemingly, Accidental Beauty is a veering away from the purity of the wabi-sabi tradition.

Wabi-sabi developed out of a Zen embrace of a metaphysical kinetic austerity. It is not too far removed from modernist concerns with reduction. It refers to an aesthetic of absence.

Modernism casts the sublime in moments, while Below: Kiseto Vase #15. Stoneware, 15.4 x 11.4 x 11.4 in.

Facing page, top: Oribe Rectangular Platter. 4 x 15 x 11 in.

Facing page, below: Oribe Futamono #11. Stoneware. 7.5 x 8.7 x 8.3 in.

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Buddhism casts it in movement. Most modernist reductionism deals with stripping art down to its most essential elements. This is a point where everything superfluous to the art is culled away.

What is left is the ideal, perfect embodiment of that material. In Western Modernism the object is reduced down to a static point. The Buddhists who dictate wabi-sabi also try to reduce an object down to a movement. Followers of the philosophy recognise that the essence of an object is the essence of life – everything is in flux. In talking about this quality, to still the flutter of a butterfly’s wings is to lose their essence. This is reflected in the writings of Buddhist Priest Yoshida Kenkō who wrote (Tsurezuregusa, 1332): “To long for the moon while looking on the rain, to lower the blinds and be unaware of the passing of the spring – these are even more deeply moving.

Branches about to blossom or gardens strewn with faded flowers are worthier of our admiration.”

This quote reveals two primary virtues of wabisabi: embracing the imperfect and movement. Both of these are central elements of Higashida’s work. He creates a crescendo of imperfection and uses textures to create movement in Oribe Box #13. The high gloss,

transparent glaze pools, puddles and drips on the pot.

The cracks and scales along the work act as markers to document the force applied to the drying clay in order to shape it. In this work, Higashida captures Kenkō’s assertion that what an object was and what it is becoming are as beautiful as the object itself.

The second part of the term sabi is a pun. It is

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derived from the term sabireu, which means to become desolate. From this, one can see the emphasis on economy of form that figures prominently in the aesthetic. Considering how ornate Higashida’s works are, he seems to be breaking away from tradition. Sabi also refers to a word that means rust.

The term captures an ethic of wisdom coming from experience. In contrasting the Japanese aesthetic with the Western novelist, Tanizaki Jun’ichirō

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(1886–1965) states: “We do not dislike everything that shines, but we do prefer a pensive lustre to a shallow brilliance, a murky light that, whether in a stone or an artefact, bespeaks a sheen of antiquity. . . . We love things that bear the marks of grime, soot and weather, and we love the colours and the sheen that call to mind the past that made them.”

Jun’ichirō’s statement echoes Kenkō’s embrace of objects being as important as relics and