There’s
nothing new under the sun I was told when studying ceramics. A bowl is a bowl
is a bowl. So there should be no need for status envy among artists. With the
internet any new idea is quickly consumed by Korean or Chinese manufacturing
markets and spat back at us as the new thing.
This year everyone is taken by pastel coloured cups and
saucers in old kitchen configurations and as ceramic artists we can all produce
that style if we want and if the market demands it. There are some who are more
technically proficient at consistent production and I admire them for it and
for their dedication to glaze development and clay research to produce a good
product. They deserve success. Jumping on the band wagon to produce the latest
style is a soul destroying enterprise because there will always be the masters
and then endless look alikes all undercut by mass produced product from Asia.
Recently I held a sale at my studio and I put out an array
of objects that ranged from what I thought the market wanted to some of my
treasures that I have held onto for several years in my studio. I held my
breath as some of my favourite objects were picked up and caressed and replaced
on shelves and part of me sighed with relief that they were going to stay with
me longer, until the buyers returned and gathered them up.
At the bottom of the price range I disposed of smaller items
which were test samples for glazes or foot styles, or miniature dimensions of
bigger forms. They were what I would refer to as my thinking process. Objects
which have been in the studio and handled hundreds of times as I mull over
whether the glaze feels nice or should be on an interior or exterior, whether
it can take colour additions, whether the colour survived a firing etc. These
objects were picked over just as fastidiously and my favourites all went for
coin. So even at the bargain end people are making aesthetic decisions and
recognizing a creative thought process that they want to connect to. It was gratifying to watch people who had the
time to circulate and connect one piece with another and juxtapose disparate
pieces to create a new aesthetic for themselves.
All
my years of teaching were about helping children to know that they had all the
resources they needed for a great life within themselves. The greatest of these
resources was imagination and the other was synthesis. Big corporate entities
work overtime to stamp this out of us. Billions are spent on campaigns to make
us fearful of being different, and at the same time urging us to buy “unique”
and prestigious purchases as seen on the big screen and associated with luxury
and fame. By creating envy of the luxury classes a viral fever can be promoted
that unsettles the human heart and fills us with insecurity
Facebook feeds into this fever with its instruction to “be
the first to like this”. Huh? What for?
Being the first to like something or own something is part
of the consumer virus that feeds the throw away society. Because just as soon
as you have finished paying it off and all those to whom you have passed on the
envy virus have propagated and copied you, what you have is no longer unique
and you need to throw it away, just in case people think you are copying!
So I have decided that my next year’s work is
not going to be about catering to anyone’s taste but my own. There will be less work but with the aim of more exploration. No mass production for me.
The world is
divided into two groups those who want to be uniquely the same as everyone else and those who just don’t fit in. I am going to design
for the second group. They are my favourite sort of people. The odd bods, the crackpots,
the cranky ones, the ones with the most interesting minds. They are the ones
who fill me up.
http://vimeo.com/79207239
No comments:
Post a Comment