I got the travel bug this week and assembled our Friday video post to showcase ceramics from across the world. The theme tying them all together are the exotic locales. I found myself thinking about how this similar activity can create very different emotions based on context. The market stall in India feels charged, with the wares martialed into tight, satisfying lines arranged in a space that is small, yet filled to abundance. This brief interview with Vikas Kumar comes to us from 6Degree.
Iwate Prefecture, Japan
I like these next two videos because they are extremely, extremely laid back. At his studio in Iwate Prefecture, Japanese artist Yukiya Izumita tears and folds paper as the snow hits his windowpane. In the midst of this stillness he begins to shape his ceramic sculptures, scaling up from his paper forms and graduating to a different material. We’ve written about paper and ceramics a few times on Cfile, but Izumita’s process makes us see the link between the two materials in a new way.
Pottery Making in Kalabouyou Island
Tine Worén’s film about a community of potters by the River Niger is as contemplative as the one in Japan, but from a shared space. This group of women, some younger than ten, work patiently and with a supreme confidence as they make beautiful terracotta jars. You can feel the heat of this locale, accented by clever details like a sleeping dog and pots drying in a shaded enclosure before they are finally fired. Worén made a great video about process here, as you can watch the jars come to life by degrees. They make it look so easy. If only that were the case.
A Viking Kiln
I tried going as strange as I could for this last one. Unfortunately my first attempt, “Antarctica ceramics,” has no videos online. That’s a free SEO tip for anyone willing to jump on it. I don’t know what I was expecting to find, honestly. Maybe a research station of bearded guys who turned to the arts in order to stave off cabin fever.
Anyway, I found the next best thing on my second attempt: “viking ceramics.” I don’t know why I reached for that one, probably because pottery seems to be at odds with most of what I know about the historical vikings. It exists, though! The Fotevikens Museum in Sweden looks like a cool place, a village ripped right out of your last D&D campaign. This video shows the Vikings building a small kiln and it’s the earthiest film of the bunch. Fun music, too.
That’s all I have for this week. Have a happy Friday, everyone!
Bill Rodgers is a writer for cfile.daily.
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