Contextual Research - Ceramics Artists

Reference to 22/04/2012 in Journal.  Here are some of the Ceramics artists that I liked:

• Yoshikawa Masamichi:

Vase, 1989.

I like this artist's work because of the way he decorates his designs with scratchy drawings.  He uses things like needles and piano wire to achieve the effect

•  Julie York:

Flow, 2006

This was made with a mixture of porcelain, glass and plastic.  What I like about it is that it reminds me of one of the pieces that I've been working on:

•  Enric Mestre:

Untitled No.4, 2001

Mestre does not name any of his pieces, preferring to let the work speak for itself.  Above is a sculpture made from clay.  Like many of his designs, it is large, bulky and very angular - all of these are qualities that I admire.   

•  Mel Robson:

Tiles for the Blue Exhibition, 2010

In many of her ceramic pieces, as with the tiles above, Robson uses text - often her own hand-writing - to decorate the surface.  Text and 3D - need I say more? 

•  Richard Notkin:

All Nations Have Their Foolishess, 2006

I like this piece.  Notkin has created a picture of George Bush using tiles which are all decorated with self-contained images of the destruction that war creates (atomic bomb mushroom clouds, skeletons, broken buildings etc.)  I have no intention of including political messages in my work but I can't ignore the fact that this sculptural piece is very postmodern in the sense that it addresses current issues by using art as a medium.  In his essay about the piece, Notkin quotes George Orwell:

"Speaking the truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." 

I like the fact that this artist draws inspiration from authors, who are artists in their own right.  It goes back to what Kim says about postmodernism being random pieces of information all brought together - a kind of paradigm.