While reading "Feats Of Clay" By Peter Schjeldahl, many questions came about that I find pertinent to the assignment the class is focusing on. He speaks a lot about how Ken Price's work can bring about a sense of "pure pleasure" to certain viewers. His work seems to be all about color. The work is not coated in color in the way that many people view glaze on a ceramic piece. The works are created entirely around the concept of a color. For example, a sculpture that is intended to be blue in it's finished state, should read as "blue" even in it's plain and unglazed state. I think this is important for many of you to keep in mind as you come up with concepts for the color project. Some of the key questions that this article is trying to ask are:
-what color would be considered "small" when expanded on as a ceramic form? And large?
-which colors read as a heavy form, being weighed down by gravity? What color would grow upwards as a form, unaffected by gravity?
-when viewing specific colors, what words come to mind that you could describe them with? And how do the colors make you feel?
When talking about color applied to Ken Price's work, Schjeldahl say's "it belongs to the work as matter-of-factly as eye color belongs to the eye's of somebody that you happen to be mad about." I like this in relation to the color project. The pieces that you create should have the color that is applied seem matter-of-fact, in the same manner. (No possible way it could be any other color!)
I am very interested in colors that are associated with shapes as well as sizes, weight and emotions. I wonder how colors interact with geometric shapes such as a cube, sphere and pyramid, how colors evolve the emotional implication when they are placed with other colors and how marks on the surface change the psychological properties of colors.
ReplyDeleteIt is very helpful to think of creating the pieces for this project from the angle that they could not be any other color. This is really helping me think about the choices I am making and if they are arbitrary or really derived from the concept of color I am after. It is also interesting to be learning better articulation with color, like when you mentioned describing each color emotively and naming which color(s) would be large or small. It is exciting to think about being able to bring colors together once that articulation has been refined and see what we can create, like a "large" color next to a "small" one.
ReplyDeleteI see this article from a totally different perspective. My immediate response to the article, Feats of Clay; Ken Price's Art, was, "Where did this writer come from?"
ReplyDeleteThe first paragraph rambles on and it is too long. It should have been written as two and possibly 3 paragraphs. Secondly, there isn't a tie-in to the second paragraph. He states, "The objects that occasion these thoughts...." Which thought is he referring to? He stated so so many previously. Its disjointed and confusing.
Thirdly, he writes like he is filling space. What's this, "aesthetic quiddity of ceramics?" In another few sentences he states,"Painting exercises... into that of touch." It isn't relevant and it isn't correct. Painting actually exercises the eye/hand connection. His next statement, "Sculpture echoes the body." What is this? Does he mean the body of work? Is it that the only objects made out of clay is a figure form? Is he implying that the whole body is used to make sculpture? Sculpture ecercises the mind, eye, and hand connection. Finally a creation in ceramics is not only the use of hands, but also body and mind.
This is a simple article, a critique of an art show. Articles like this are meant to inform the average reader in addition to people in the art world. Because he used superflous language, and useless phrases and sentences, it detracted from the message and interferred with a congruent read.
The message of the article I perceived was that despite Price's pieces being painted, displayed on pedestals, and encased as in fine art, they had the quality of hand made.
My immediate response to the article, Feats of Clay; Ken Price's Art, was, "Where did this writer come from?"
I think your way in thinking about color and how it relates to the surface of the piece is evident in your work. I can see that through reading this article and rearticulating some of the key points you have a good understanding on how this applies to you. I can see the way you see color as a "matter of fact" through your application and descriptions of the work. I think it is really exciting to see you and many other people in the studio really take this on and treat it as an equal component it building pieces.
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