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- Title of Abstract:
Process Art : Towards a Critical Discourse for Contemporary Sculptural Ceramics (Ref #170)
- Date:
- 09-10-2006 10:32:34
- Status:
-
Accepted
- Rating:
- 8
-
Details:
- In the past decade, critics and practitioners have identified the need to develop a model for critical writing in the crafts, in order to connect with wider cultural debates. In this paper, I will explore the extent to which the post-Minimalist strand of process art can provide an analytical template to fill an identified critical and theoretical gap in an area of contemporary ceramics practice. This investigation is part of a practice based PhD project.
In ceramics, silence and an absence of discourse have been identified as key concerns of academics, critics, curators and practitioners. Ceramics has been described as a reticent, conservative field, respectful of its own history and traditions, and coming loaded with its own representational codes, hierarchies and practices. Practitioners appear reluctant to write critically and analytically about their work, and when they do, there is little critical commentary to inform practice and writing as a mode of enquiry, especially when process is part of the content. Making and writing are both objects of knowledge, which under the scrutiny of the artist/author become powerful tools to interrogate assumptions about history, theory, and practice. The absence of discourse appears to be connected to a long tradition of not writing about the crafts. The domestic, decorative and material associations have, in general, determined their absence from the cultural hegemony of art practice. During the rise of critical theory in the 1980's, ceramics, along with other crafts remained largely outside the debate.
In recent years there has been an increase in ceramic work which is process led. Artists use materials and techniques as an alphabet for creating a visual language, capable of engaging numerous questions, including material properties, movement, and temporality. This work is neither functional, nor from a studio pottery tradition, and is difficult to classify. It occurs at a time when the post-Minimalism and process art are the subjects of renewed interest. My research suggests that if the post-Minimalist strand of process art can be re-appropriated to provide an analytical template for ceramics, it will create a discourse which will be of interest to practitioners, writers, critics, and curators. The methodology for this approach comes from Michel Foucault's Archaeology of Knowledge, in which he suggests that a new critical language can emerge through the appropriation of other discourses in order to provide new interpretations and possibilities. Foucault's model of appropriation will be used to create a bridge between post-Minimalism and process led ceramics.
Reviewer Comments:
Public Comments:
- Comment left by Ben Richardson on 29-10-2006 02:17:29 #
- I look forward to discussions that arise from this paper - for me there is a large question mark over the term sculptural ceramics and I can't help but think we need to talk about sculpture that uses clay as the material. I feel that in occupying a comfortable hybrid refuge between utensils and sculpture that we have not
been able to mature and really move forward.
- Comment left by L.D on 08-11-2006 12:13:27 #
- Very relevant to our research
- Comment left by Neville French on 24-05-2007 11:07:34 #
- This is an intelligent concept and I look forward to learning more about Foucaults model and its relevance to ceramics.