Reading 2

“Feats of Clay” by Peter Schjeldahl

This article talks about how Ken Price uses ceramics to speak about the relationship between painting and sculpture. The forms he uses hint to specific objects or figures. Ken Price subtly layers his paint and sands it off to create different depths that speak to the form as if it was a two dimensional canvas. His forms are created to not be viewed through pictures, multiple views that actually have to be interacted with. The viewer cannot pick up the object through it being forbidden or limited through the size of the object. His art is about the experience of the piece instead of the aesthetic.

I admire this view of thinking because looking at so many galleries, we as Americans suffer from the dreaded “gallery fatigue.” To have a piece that one cannot experience fully through the web or books sounds risky yet quite exciting. I was reminded of the Pompeii exhibit that traveled to Denver and how walking through the ash encased forms enforced that feeling of devastation. It was the experience of visually seeing the forms and walking around and seeing the faint expressions on their faces that drove it home. In Ken Prices’ work, I see the same idea where it is about not just looking at the form but also being a part of the space with it.