conceptual concerns and studio practices

alright - i can't put it off forever - here's the fun bit where i get to tell you WHY?????

what a bloody good question. dirt, dust, long hours, then more hours, breakages, tears, poverty, hair-pulling, nail-biting and did i mention the long hours?

why in god's name would anyone work with clay? surely it is the most contrary and least glamorous of all artistic mediums - hah! and therein lies (at least part of) the answer - contrary and unglamorous - that's me all over!

but seriously, i've just come back to this post (maybe i can't put it off forever but i managed to for a little while longer) from an afternoon spent decorating (yes another eleventh hour task for assessment TOMORROW!!) and i've been having the best time - good light, the place to myself, (just me and radio national) painting / problem solving, in the zone and my goodness where did those four hours go?? - i can't think of a time when four hours in a classroom (or at any of my other places of work) passed in such an enjoyable fashion.

so is that what it's all about then? the purely self-indulgent, sensory pleasure of working alone making pretty things.

yeah.

nah.

sure, i love that bit, but is it enough, really?
[sounds awfully masturbatory to me].

goddamit - i wish it were enough - i'd start keeping sensible hours, stop breaking things and heaven forbid maybe even earn a bit of money - hah!

but i can't. i want more. i want to be moved. i want to make art with a capital A -
and i don't think that's as simple as giving a pot a title and wacking it on a plinth!

the trouble is, i'm not entirely sure what it does mean...
looking to the example of the art world 'proper' offers little in the way of guidance - if i, as a vaguely literate member of the art appreciating audience am left cold by / completely alienated from a lot of contemporary art practice, then what in god's name is it doing for mr and mrs punter on the street?

and what about those pots on plinths? whilst some (wood-fired) pots i've seen lately would bring tears to my eyes if i tried to drink from them, i question their capacity to move / enlighten / inspire...

phew - big statements - bound to get me lynched - and what have i got to back them up?

not a whole hell of a lot really - hah!
but then that's the fun of it hey? make the big call and see who takes the bait...

but you still haven't answered the question dee,
why???

the short answer, because i love ceramics - and more broadly, i love the crafts.
(and no, i'm not going to get into the whole art / craft argument here - it's big and worthy but i'm already doing quite a lovely job of talking myself into a knot thankyou very much)

they're familiar - we're accustomed to touching and holding them - they sit comfortably in our everyday / domestic lives and they're not (immediately) intimidating or threatening. what better way is there to confront / enrol / enrage / delight / provoke / captivate a punter, than to catch them while their defences are down?

more than this though, i believe the power of crafts is that we are so accustomed to relating to one another with / through / around them.

in academic art speak it's relational aesthetics - and from the little bit of reading that i've done - that's where it's at! i want my (capital A) art to reach out and grab people - by the heart, the throat, the balls - (whichever bit's relevant) and drag them into a conversation, with me, with ideas, with each other and with the world at large.

yeah yeah!

so, what does all of this mean in terms of my studio practice?

i guess it means going where the ideas lead.
i work primarily with clay - it's history, it's nature and the culture of ceramics inform every aspect of my work

and then there's all the other stuff, the contextualising information...

think of Mistress Huacca - without the performance and the tent, her ceramic good luck charms would never have been elevated (in the hearts and minds of the punters) to the status of fetiche.

maybe it's about taking the ideas where they need to go.
sound / photography / performance - i have quite a weakness for performance in particular - (which is quite perverse when i think about it, being the person who will never tell a joke for the dread of having all eyes upon her) - like ceramics, it's hard to avoid, sucks you in before it slaps you in the face!

hah!