Pots for the People
Artist Statement
My function based clay work is informed not only by a general appreciation of Japanese aesthetics but a direct tie to the Karatsu tradition of the Nakazato family. Some fourteen generations ago a number of villages on the Korean Peninsula were raised to the ground and the villagers rounded up to be resettled on the southernmost islands of Japan with the task, under penalty of death, to make ceramic wares pleasing to the Emperor of Japan (Toyotomi Hideyoshi). This was the origin of the Karatsu potters; and each time I sit down at the potter’s wheel to make a pot I can’t help but think about displacement and struggle but also durability and growth. As a person of African-American descent, I recognize that this history resonates with and parallels the transatlantic slave trade. Translocation and its gruesome repercussions have revealed stories of beauty, growth, and development that are transcendent.
In this way, wood firing has become a transformative means by which I record my contribution to the greater ceramic tradition. My pots serve as a receipt of the mixed and mashed up historical milieu that is part of our modern American landscape. A stack of wood, a pile of clay, a little water and some time are transmuted into pots that tell my story as well as bring joy to people using them. My labor becomes a form of veneration because I believe that a shared meal or a full cup is a form of celebration.
Clays and Processes
Symco Stoneware
The surface clay of Symco, Wi is predominantly terracotta. It is classified in the county soil survey as glacial till/sand-clay-loam. When blended with porcelain and some Nepheline Syenite the result when fired to cone 13 is something like the bottle you see on the left. The same clay formulation minus the Symco clay results in the bottle on the right when fired in the same kiln.
The use of a white burning secondary clay called XX Sager in each of my clay formulations prevents me from calling the resulting standard studio clay body a porcelain. So Stoneware it is.
I also use wet prepared clay from Continental Clay of Minneapolis Minnesota. Specifically B-mix blended with low-fire red.
Wood Fired
Modern woodfired practices have evolved from their bonfire origins but our reasons for using clay and fire to create water tight stone vessels and sculptures remains connected to the smoke, fire, and magic that our ancestors experienced during their discovery.
Common kiln types include centenary arch, sprung arch, bee hive, tatami arch, and corbel arch varieties. Regardless of the type of wood kiln there are a number of principles that are common to them all. The kiln refers to the entire structure used to “cook” pottery. The chamber is the space in which clay objects are placed in order to be transformed. Air intakes provide the oxygen required to burn the wood fuel while flues and the chimney remove the resultant smoke and gasses. In addition to the various wood kiln structures there are a number of types, styles, and approaches to wood firing.
Sculptural
I also work with ceramic sculpture and mixed media installation. Unlike the domestic and recognizable utilitarian qualities of the pottery I produce, the hybrid sculptures and installations introduce an element of minimalism and repetition to investigate the dynamics and composition of groups and populations. My ceramic sculptural installations connect to identity, groups, and belonging. I use ceramics as an investigative medium to probe how individuals, particularly those of color, fit into our heterogeneous society. A study of clay and surface that is analogous to flesh and skin. The work becomes an allegory for human interactions – the relationships between individuals and the larger whole.