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Title of Abstract:

Reflecting Place - Sustaining Practice (Ref #88)

Date:
30-08-2006 21:46:05
Status:
Accepted
Rating:
8
Details:


?Reflecting Place? traces my making responses through ceramic forms, photographs and poetic writing as I interact with the close environment of my home and workshop on the south-eastern edge of Tasmania, Australia's island state. On the edge of the southern ocean, this is a place of eroded cliffs, refracted ocean swells, rock stacks and the linear natural and human patterning of the tidal zone. It is a place where wildness exists relatively unmasked by a thin layer of human imprint - a space between the constructed urban environment and an idealised mythic wilderness. This is a place where the cyclical forces and dynamic patterns of nature can still be felt.

At the core of the long and rich history of craft making has been a response to the needs of culture expressed predominantly through the use of local materials. This expression of place-based making has resulted in an amazing diversity of utensils for daily and ritual use. The connection to place has been essential to sustaining practice but has also been a case of taking direct responsibility for the sustainability of material resources. In western societies making has moved from the village collective through small - scale workshops to global manufacturing. These developments have fractured the holistic nature of craft making into a world of designers, global manufacturing and industrially processed materials. My paper looks at the place this leaves for individual making as a sustaining practice.

My work is a response to these forces ? a way of making that is based on a direct engaged response to both my immediate environment and that of my materials. This engagement is for me the core of making in the crafts ? in a very fundamental sense they are arts of engagement. The sense of a localised or regional response through indigenous materials to culture is a way of clearly differentiating my work from that of industrial design production. Wherever possible I am using local materials, certainly for my clay bodies but also in my glazes, trying to sense their potential through testing and use. When gathering materials from the source environment or moving through my home environment I record photographic and written fragments as journal entries. These become both a personal resource for the development of form and surface, and a means of presenting what underlies and informs my making.

The poetic writing and photography provide a portal for viewers through to my making world and are an important part of my presentation ? with the visual and poetic imagery providing the opportunity to connect to and reflect on the formal and aesthetic content of my ceramics.



Key Words:
Place, Sustaining, Utensils, Making, Materials, Aesthetic, Wildness


Reviewer Comments:

Review #1 : Left on 25-10-2006 13:37:27 #
This is a very singular type of practice, and it would be good if the debate following presentation indicated how many others work with such autonomy. The paper needs to allow the audience access into this thinking process as a working method for crafts, and whether this traditional method actually generates works of the time or are they reflective of the past.

8
Review #2 : Left on 21-11-2006 14:32:18 #
8

I agree with the comments of the first reviewer.
Review #3 : Left on 23-03-2007 19:34:15 #
This paper is not strong on structured argument setting out clear research objectives where opinions are supported by relevant quotations and findings by appropriate evidence. However this is an interesting pertinent paper giving a personal insight from maker?s perspective into ceramic practice in a unique location. To assist the reader?s understanding of the philosophical position held by the author the following changes are suggested:-
Pages 2 and 3 remove summary
Page 3 remove Introduction and replace with:- Sustaining Practice from pages 22, 23 and half of 24 ending in ? merely designing?.
From page 3 remove ?So? from beginning of the last paragraph and start with ?This presentation?..
Page 4 first paragraph remove ?The use of the term ??until? these are vital questions.? As this has now been covered by the above.
There after the contents are fluid and to conclude on page 22 at the end of the Pipeclay Lagoon poem the three lines from page 24 could be inserted to finish ? This has been?.until?.unchanging needs of being.?
Lastly as this paper discusses sustaining practice the inclusion of information (appropriate inserted) regarding selling of the work would be beneficial.
Is it sold in Galleries as one-off pieces or specialist shops retailing as ranges of different functional tableware designs or what? This information would help complete the cycle from hand-dug clay to discerning client/consumer.


Suggested Parallel Track: Craft Intelligence

Rating: 7

Public Comments:

Comment left by L.D. on 08-11-2006 12:18:55 #
Just what we need for the conference!