Welcome to Spotted, your Monday resource for interesting ephemera from the world of contemporary ceramic art and design!
Starting off this week, we have a video that was recently posted to the rock band Queen’s official YouTube page. Artisans from the English Heritage society are seen making a sky blue plaque to leave at Freddie Mercury’s home in Hounslow. A piano cover of “We Are the Champions” plays, accenting the poetic, thoughtful ruminations of the artisans. Of particular interest are the tiny, precise movements required to make an elegant, yet deceptively simple-looking plaque.
And — what the heck— here’s a video of Mercury’s opera song “Barcelona” set in blue and white with Monserrat Caballe. Enjoy!
Meme Corner #1
Occasionally we come across the rare clay meme on social media. We like how this one sums up a hard truth about the field while using very little space. How much would you pay for the feeling of satisfaction, though?
Ruth Duckworth sells for 5-figures
We “Spotted” this Ruth Duckworth work just a little too late. Featured at the The Nevica Project, Mama Pot it has, if you lust after it, sold. Garth Clark tells me that there’s a story behind this pot, one of the only titled pieces in Duckworth’s body of work. When the two-year-old child of Duckworth’s friend saw the vessel, the girl ran to the pot, threw her arms around it and said, “Mama! Mama!” It spoke to the Mother Earth side of Ruth as you can see in this gorgeous close-up.
Click to see a larger image.
Ruth Duckworth, Mama Pot, date unknown, stoneware and stains, 17 x 20 x 21 inches. Click to see a larger image.
Rafa Esparza at “Made in LA”
Matt Stromberg over at HyperAllergic posted some great photographs of works coming out of “Made in LA” (Los Angeles, June 12 – August 28). We just had to point out this work by Rafa Esparza, Tierra (2016). What appears to be a very minimal showing of some found and altered objects changes when we realize that every brick in the exhibition space was made and fired by Esparza.
Rafa Esparza, Tierra, 2016. Photograph by Matt Stromberg.
Stromberg states:
A different form of excavation characterizes Rafa Esparza’s installation, “Tierra,” that is composed of rows of adobe bricks made using a traditional Mexican technique he learned from his father. Esparza had buried various objects in Elysian Park, inviting others to dig them up, and these recently unearthed items — his father’s old mailbox, a recliner, ears of corn — are now scattered throughout this earthen grid. Visitors can walk out onto this dusty field that infuses the legacy of 1960s serial minimalism with personal narrative.
Bill Rodgers is the Managing Editor of cfile.daily.
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