Swarm
Aspects of art and life tend on the whole to be disengaged. We go to the museum to see art; life exists in the privacy our homes. When it comes to eating in the United States we tend to focus on convenience, ease and efficiency. In stark contrast to this is the valuable china with rich traditions found around the world. Formal china demands attentive behavior and etiquette of use. China is brittle and fragile and yet when well cared for it can last centuries. From this standpoint the china is hopeful, beautiful and a symbol of a stable life. What happens when a revered piece breaks or a drink spills? I explore this mutability of life and the objects that populate our lives. Chinaware celebrates social connections but there is also the risk for devastation and loss.
Pieces from the work Swarm are made from porcelain and begin by slipcasting an everyday cup. Through the process of slip casting, altering and hand building the cup mutates into possible spills, splashes and disorder.
Swarm, dimensions variable (each cup form began 4″x4″x5″), 110 slip cast and hand built porcelain forms, 2013
Photographs courtesy of Wes Magyar and Tsehai Johnson
Exhibits
2014 Intense and Fragile, Southwest College of Art, San Antonio, TX (with catalog)
2014 FLOW, NCECA Invitational Exhibit, Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI (with catalog)
2013 Fluent Circumvention, solo exhibit, Plus Gallery, Denver, CO
2013 Mesmerize, Pearl Fincher Museum of Fine Arts, Spring, TX
2012 Melissa Haviland & Tsehai Johnson, Univ. of Wyoming Art Gallery, Laramie, WY