“The
Ceramics Program is vital because at its center are dynamic faculty who embody
the integrity and core values we associate with expertly handcrafted objects,”
writes Michael Rogers, chair of the School for American Crafts at Rochester
Institute of Technology. The faculty Rogers refers to are Rick Hirsch and Julia
Galloway, whose work is the focus of Convergence
of Temperaments, currently on view at Roberts Wesleyan College’s Davison
Gallery.
The
exemplary work of these two artists is also very telling in terms of
contemporary debates about how particular works — or more precisely, how
particular kinds of work — are
received in our culture. The words “ceramics,” “crafts,” and “handcrafted” have
certain connotations in relation to the arts.
Ceramics
are often synonymous with vessels and are therefore usually considered
utilitarian. (Both Hirsch and Galloway consciously make this an issue in their
work.) Similarly, “craft” and “handcrafted” imply a certain kind of labor, a
labor that is concerned with the making of an object, and is not necessarily
imbued with the conceptual, but rather with utility.
In
the Critique of Judgment, Immanuel
Kant distinguished art from craft, solidifying an already entrenched prejudice.
He declared that “[t]he first is called free
art, the second could… be called mercenary
art.” Free art, or what we sometimes call “fine art” (or “Art” with a
capital “A”), is associated with a purpose that serves itself. Mercenary art,
which we call craft, is seen as labor and thus, as defined by Kant, is
“disagreeable” or even “burdensome” because it reminds us of our everyday banal
existence.
Of
course, the labor that is expressed in a painting or a sculpture is not
technically any different than that which is expressed in ceramics. So, the
difference lies in the way we see the purpose of the object. Are we supposed to
use the vessel or just look at it? It
seems our culture values the contemplative above the useful and, in the
process, associates the former with the privilege of thought and free time and
the latter with work.
Both
Hirsch and Galloway address and confound these predicaments by the physical
presence of their work. Hirsch’s ceramic bodies are definitely containers and
objects of use, as their titles imply — mortars and pestles, bowls and ladles
— sitting on multiple bases. Indeed, even the bases themselves constitute a
specific purpose. The mortal and pestles could be used but their surfaces and presence resonate more as antique artifacts
meant to be revered and cherished (objects of a bygone culture, perhaps?) while
large bowls with shallow interiors defy their use value.
Hirsch’s
work echoes a history of purposeful objects and materials while at the same
time addresses those materials in their natural state. The base for a mortar
and pestle, although ceramic, looks like metal that has been allowed to rust
and the mortar, with its convoluted surfaces, seems as if it were wrenched from
nature itself.
More
obviously functional, Galloway’s vessels are surfaces covered with organic
decorations that wend their way around the bodies of her pots. Additionally,
architectural scenes on a series of cups remind us of the spaces we inhabit and
the things that are kept or manufactured within. In the cup series, the
buildings are literally part of the neighborhood where she lives and makes her
pots. It is a wonderful poetic gesture about the objects in our lives, their
integration with our own bodies, and the rituals we perform daily.
Kant
wanted art to be free of the constraints of the everyday and thus, disconnected
from our desiring bodies. But in the end, all we have is desire. And the
wonderfully handcrafted objects by
Hirsch and Galloway remind us of our need for the everyday, the social, and for
our bodies and minds to be nourished and caressed by what we are and what we
make.
Convergence
of Temperaments: Rick Hirsch and Julia Galloway is on display at the Davison Art Gallery
at Roberts Wesleyan College, 2301 Westside Drive, through
November 6. Hours: Monday trough Friday 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. 594-6000,
www.roberts.edu
This article appears in Oct 27 – Nov 2, 2004.
