Reading 1

1.      In Paul Greenhalghs article “Discourse and Decoration: The Struggle for Historical Space” he brought to light some very interesting points and revealed some connections between ceramics and history that I have never thought about before. I think that even at the very beginning of this article he makes any interesting point when he says “theory without history is tyranny”. This statement holds a great deal of significance from a political standpoint, but also brings up the idea of what type of political and moral effect ceramics has had on history. I think of the book that is on reserve at the library for this class and how they really created a society around the craft of pottery. So many things can be learned about life from learning or practicing a craft that it seems to be very healthy for a society to have some amount of experience rooted in a craft. The part of the article where Paul talks about the difference between and craft is also really good. I think that art is something that should be categorized and divided up as little as possible, because so many things can fall into it. It reminds me a lot of a short video that I watched recently called “Pardon My Dust” in which the artist in the video refers to himself as less of an artist and more of a problem solver. Thinking of art in this way, or any thing in life for that matter, has the potential to eliminate a lot of issues and arguments that seek to arise in everything. Instead of splitting hairs about what category a piece of art might fall under, how much more interesting would it be if we thought about what problem a piece of art is trying solve. I really enjoyed this article as a whole and Paul Greenhalghs wrapped it up phenomenally by telling potters to keep on doing what they do and let the art historians try to define their work.