Art | Anthony Sonnenberg’s Baroque Sculptures of Fused Tchotchkes

Seattle-based sculptor Anthony Sonnenberg uses clay to assemble vaguely organized piles of found tchotchkes covered in sensual glazes. He received his Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Washington in 2012 where he was also Instructor of Record. Sonnenberg works with a variety of methods including assemblage, taxidermy, performance, and hand-built ceramic sculpture. At first glance, Sonnenberg’s work is difficult to pin down. It is pretty; yet grotesque, functional; yet useless, funny; yet serious, and makes me think of sex with my girlfriend; and lunch with my grandmother. It is horribly, delightfully paradoxical.

Above Image: Anthony Sonnenberg, Totem (moldy pink), 2013, porcelain over stoneware, found ceramic tchotchkes, glaze

His sculptures resemble deteriorating desserts, melting from being kept in a hot room. They involve the layering and stacking of found tchotchkes bound together with elaborately pinched clay. Some resemble decorative trophies topped with a figure, and others are sarcastically functional candelabras. One thing that remains flawlessly consistent is his intense aesthetic, which requires two distinct experiences – observation from afar, and a close-up look.

 

From a distance, the trophy-like forms are muddy and gaudy, concealing the playful details. Up close, specific icons emerge including cartoon models, animals, strings, and beads. All of these are found ceramic objects covered in clay-glaze, transforming them into instant faux-representations of themselves. The found tchotchkes were already false (or false feeling) representations of angelic people, idyllic scenarios, and fantasy creatures. Sonnenberg’s glaze is a cruel and unusual punishment that exacerbates the object’s existing identity crisis.

Sonnenberg embraces the gaudy ceramic aesthetic with disgusting drips, crust, crazing, bubbling, crystals, and metal. The detail in his work is hyperrealistic in that the objects are too specific to be made by nature, but the surface too detailed to be made by the human hand.

 

Candelabra for King Ludwig II uses thick glaze to round every edge like the coating on a candy apple. Other sculptures, like Big Candy accentuate the dryness of the clay surface, an uncomfortable combination of soft pitched clay and the repulsive feeling of rubbing sandpaper. Enough is never enough for these modern examples of baroque aesthetic.

The sculpture Peach Divine is a relieving departure from his densely packed sculptures to reveal Sonnenberg’s keen sense for drawing and composition. This piece is the love-triangle offspring of Betty Woodman; with her domestic drawings, Takuro Kuwata; with is his love for ceramic phenomenon, and Ron Nagle; with his playful sense of humor. It is the perfect ceramic-millennial love child.

Justin Crowe is Writer-at-Large for CFile.