Iowa Collaborative Exhibition at Mt Mercy

I have finally prepared the images from the exhibition at Mt Mercy University in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  Craig and I are back in the studio preparing for exhibitions in November.

Topography, Gallery View

 We wanted to spread the flower and leaf forms throughout the gallery so that they became more of an environment and wanted to use a direct way of presenting them that wasn't too complicated. Craig and Andy set these up in the space leaving room for viewers to walk through them.

Topography, detail,  stoneware, wood, 2013

The wall installation, or Topography 2 includes hand pinched rods or leaves, objects and lattice like forms in porcelain.  When we were doing our residency in Alpena, MI, I was interested in the movement of the grasses and how they seemed to not only be different from moment to moment, but how they both hid and revealed other elements of the landscape.  The wetland was also surrounded by the city and the sounds of traffic or the glimpses of man made forms were ever present in the landscape as well.

Topography 2, porcelain, wood, copper wire, metal brackets, 2013

We toyed with different configurations for the installation and assemblage of this piece, but knew we wanted them to come out into space from the wall so that they could have subtle movement during the exhibition and that the shadows could become a part of the works themselves.

Topography 2, detail

This piece also allowed us to explore the idea of making something that is made from a series of forms anyone can make.  Although I've now gotten carried away with the cage-like forms.

We want to play around with the size and configuration of the piece, but right now there are four sections in the installation.

Marsh, is our series on the second wall.  They are forms containing cast found and natural images and pinched coils.

We are returning to Mt Mercy next week to give a lecture and photograph the work.  The block shapes below are made with the casting of natural forms we collected, mixed in with cast found objects.

 

The pieces are about the intersection of man and nature.

 

They are influenced by the marsh, the movement of the water and organic forms as well as the influence of the people on the land.  This is another piece that we are still playing with and hope to expand in a different configuration. 

We are also giving a talk about our work in the 2013 Wisconsin Triennial at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.  The talk is at 4:45pm, Monday, October 7th at Lawrence University, at the Wriston Art Center in the Wriston Auditorium, with a reception to follow.  Lawrence is in Appleton, Wisconsin. You can also check out the Events section of their site.  http://www.mmoca.org/2013-triennial/events

I hope to be able to update some more, but have been busy with school, Plato is up next, so I may be missing for a while.

Installing the Show!

This past weekend Craig, Hannah and I were in Cedar Rapids to install our show at Mt Mercy University.  Thanks to Andy and Heidi for all their help and hospitality.

Andy helping with the floor piece

The show is open now and though I wasn't able to take any finished photos, I have posted some                     installation shots. 

Thank you student workers!

There will be an Artist's Lecture at 4pm, October 11 and a Reception from 5-7pm the same evening at the Janalyn Hanson White Gallery at Mt Mercy.

These took up most of the time

Porcelain rods or 'leaves', cages and objects

The first in a set of 4

The work is up now and as soon as I get some finished images I will post them.  Thanks to everyone for their help.

Collection- A Collaborative Exhibition

Thanks to Siena Heights University, Klemm Gallery, the art faculty and especially Natalie and Tim for having Craig and I as visiting artists in conjunction with our collaborative exhibition,  Collection.  We started this work at our residency this summer, 2012 at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana and though we didn't come away with many finished pieces, we were able to work through the collaborative process and begin working out ideas we developed further at home in Wisconsin.

Collection, Gallery View

Both of us are interested in how objects act as intermediaries between our lived experience, memory and transformation.  I think that we ultimately found ways to respond and elaborate upon object images in an improvisational way that allowed each of us to follow that pathway to wherever it led.

Collection, Gallery View

Collection, Gallery View

Two of the three pieces in Eden? were really the only finished pieces from the summer.  We made some of the flowers in Floriculture, but never saw it complete until Craig assembled part of it in our garage before we left for Michigan.  We had to assemble the work in the space to really see it finished.

Eden?, stoneware and wood,  2012

The collaborative process forced us to work in a different ways and allowed for the pursuit of ideas that didn't directly correlate with what we had been doing in our individual work.  Eden? was an extension of an idea I had started with in the winter of 2012 that explored color and image as symbol as well as allowed me to play with using the plastic quality of the material instead of subjugating it through craftsmanship.  This piece was a starting point for our collaboration and allowed us to begin working together and thinking out how our various processes and images might function together.

Eden?, detail

Floriculture was an exploration of working with the material in a more direct and playful way as well as a way to define a space without the heaviness that often comes with clay.  Craig, our former student Elyse and I made the pieces together over a period of time and I like the idea of various hands and experiences being brought together under the umbrella of the same idea.  

Floriculture, stoneware and wood,  2012

Sometimes I would cringe at the flowers they were making, but I just had to go with it and once they were finished  we saw how the variation of touch and form in the flowers really made the work more compelling.  The colors act as a counterpoint to the lack of color on the walls and is something that we are interested in expanding as a more participatory element in the work.

Floriculture, detail

Plush has a relationship with Replica/ Echo in that the individual pieces are things in themselves and the shadow of these things.  Most of the materials are stuffed animals that we bought in bags from the thrift store.  These things were sad and bittersweet and seemed to be in the same category of sad miniature teacups left behind in the antique mall.  The dipped and imbedded pieces are really the shadows of the things as the original item is destroyed in the making, while the real bundled objects are the obscured counterpoint to these images.  The undipped pieces are bundled and obscured with yarn and other bric a brac some of which are repeated in Replica/ Echo.

Plush,  porcelain, fabric, mixed media and found objects

I do think that being surrounded by a toddler and their fixation on stuffed animals influenced this work. They carry an emotional weight that is eventually cast away until the animals themselves end up in a big plastic bag in the thrift store.

Plush, Detail

Replica/ Echo started with Craig's coke bottles and other common images from mass culture, like gremlins, gnomes and other objects that are often imbedded in his pieces.  He wanted to use them in the work, but I was hesitant to say the least since a coke bottle seemed to have no gravitas. Once I began to think about it in relationship to drawing, I began to see the possibilities in incorporating and transforming objects that announce their ordinariness.  Craig's individual work is an investigation of the transformation of images, so working with this idea in a different way seemed fitting.

Replica/ Echo, porcelain and found object,  2012

I was struck how these objects that seemed so banal were the same objects I often put together to create a still life for my students.  I thought about how the process of drawing can force the investigation of the mundane object and through that process transform it.  We decided to create a grouping of ordinary objects in a series that explored the thing itself, the cast image and the 'sketched' copy in porcelain.  Craig wanted to use forms from the hardware store as presentation, but instead decided to make tactile replicas that were cast to create multiples.

Most of the objects are from the thrift store or are figurines and images we have used in our work.  I've always had an interest in the idea of ordinariness and was able to incorporate objects that didn't really seem compelling at first, like the coke bottle or the furby, but that become compelling during the process of repetition and drawing.  

Collection, Gallery View

Reclamation Series 3, porcelain,  2012

This way of creating collections and forms with repeating shapes informed much of the other work as well.  The sculptural forms in the Reclamation Series were created with cast found bottles, objects and ceramic waste material from the studio.  The individual forms echo some of the pieces in Replica/ Echo and also play with the idea of function in that they and almost all the other objects in the exhibition share a relationship to the body and need the body or an action to animate them.

Tangible 3, porcelain and string,  2012

These are images of the Tangible Series and for me all of the pieces have to do with touch and the animation of objects.  In my own work I like to use objects that carry implications, such as keys or locks, but Craig has also made tools and other implements that are like extensions of the hand and these can also carry multiple implications.  I began by making the hammer and moved on to the ax or hatchet while Craig cast these images from found objects, I sketched them out in porcelain.  

Tangible 2, porcelain and string,  2012

Tangible 1, porcelain, string and ribbon,  2012

This last piece, Garland was a three way collaboration between myself, Elyse and Craig.  I have been making flower rounds in my own work and Craig and I created a collaborative flower form at the Bray, and though we never used it, it acted as a starting point for these pieces.  They allowed me to veer away from the 'crafted' image and rather explore the direct influence of the hand as well as give over their finishing to someone else.

Garland, porcelain,  2012

Garland,  detail

I think of the work and exhibition as a work in progress and a way to open myself up to different ways of seeing and working.  Teaching drawing and foundations has expanded my interest in materiality and the presentation of objects.  Although all of the pieces are 'crafted' in some way, I am not necessarily interested in craftsmanship and facility with material being the focus of what I am making and am gravitating towards letting the images and material speak for itself.

I will be posting more work on my website after the school term is over in mid November at www.debbiekupinsky.com and you can view Craig's work at www.craigcliffordceramics.com.  His solo show goes up at Pewabic Pottery in Detroit on January 25th, 2013.

Thanks to everyone at the Archie Bray Foundation for all their great support and being as wonderful as ever.

Peter Morgan's- All Aboard

If you are in Philadelphia, check out the last weekend of Peter Morgan's Fellowship Exhibition, All Aboard at the Philadelphia Clay Studio.  Here are images from the show.  Look for an interview with the artist on this blog later in the week.  The installation explores the idea of place and the nature of representation with Peter's playful use of scale and humor.  Also included are paintings that reference the pieces in the exhibition.  To view more of the work at the Clay Studio website, click the link imbedded in the title of the exhibition.

Peter Morgan: All Aboard

The 2011-2012 Evelyn Shapiro Foundation Fellowship Exhibition

October 4 through October 28, 2012

My work is an exploration of issues of perception and representation and how these concerns mold our understanding of the world. I am interested in both actual representations and cultural perceptions of the way things are and what makes each significant. The work examines how much of what we know of the world is through illustrations and representation rather than from personal experience and the difference between “real” versus simulated experiences.