Welcome back to our weekly video post, our contemporary ceramics victory lap that celebrates the weekend! Keeping with our themed posts, we’d like to show you some of the studio and process videos we’ve encountered on our travels. There’s something relaxing about watching people hard at work in the studio or, as is the case with one of the videos, a designer sitting at the drafting board as they sketch out a new piece with fine, deft pencil strokes. Take a deep breath and exhale; you’re nearly there!
Our first video this week comes to us from Pewabic, a design and educational studio for ceramics based out of Detroit. This production from Zara Creative, showing the different makers hard at work, is wonderfully executed. The film is crisp and amazing and lingers lovingly on everything from wet clay on a wheel to the old brickwork of the studio. It creates a wonderful presence of sense, which spoke for the organization better than the voiceover did.
Re-Designing Garlic
photoAlquimia did themselves proud with their Ajorí project a few years back. Many designs find their hook and leave it at that. We usually get the “Aha!” moment when we realize the cleverness in the design, but it usually ends there. This project has the clever bit, but we’re invited to go a little deeper as we see how the designers worked on recreating a shape that’s already been perfected by nature. I like watching designers sketch at the drafting board and this video certainly has that.
8 Meters of Clay
Let’s make a massive leap in scale with this process video by Dutch artist Anne Wenzel. This video follows her as she works on an astounding eight meter-tall fountain made out of clay. Projects of this size have to be masterfully executed, because we begin to reach a point where architecture and structure become serious questions that can spell disaster to the piece. You never hear a hint of stress in her voice, though! It’s always reassuring to hear someone who is so paced and confident.
Singing Bowls
I saved the best for last this week with this sound/ceramics installation, Variation, Piscines by French artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot at Galerie Xippas in Paris. I wish I could have seen it in person; I could spend hours listening to these little bowls resonate against each other in a cool, blue pool of water. Such a perfect way to unwind. I’d be completely zen in a week if I had these floating around my office.
Thanks so much for checking back in with me, this week. I hope you have a great weekend and I’ll be back in seven days with more wonderful videos from the worlds of contemporary ceramics and contemporary ceramic art!
Bill Rodgers is a writer for cfile.daily.
Do you love or loathe these works of contemporary ceramic art? Let us know in the comments.
Add your valued opinion to this post.