This video comes from Ayumi Horie, a studio potter in Portland, Maine. In White Pots, Horie works on various projects in her studio while she talks about her relationship to clay in the form of touch and its ability to preserve a moment between the potter and her clay forever. Her poetic, measured narration seems instructive when it’s set against video of her working in the studio.
Ayumi Horie is a full-time studio potter from Portland, Maine who makes functional pots, mainly with drawings of animals. She is the first recipient of Ceramics Monthly’s Ceramic Artist of the Year award. She has taught workshops and given lectures at many universities, art centers and residencies in the U.S. and abroad, including the Archie Bray Foundation, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Greenwich House Pottery, Penland School of Crafts, Peter’s Valley, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, the Northern Clay Center, and the International Ceramic Research Center in Denmark. She served on the board of directors at the Archie Bray Foundation for nine years, where she was a resident for two years between 1996 and 1998, and is now on the board of the American Craft Council. Her work is in various collections throughout the US, including the Museum of Art and Design in New York City. Currently, she is collaborating on a public art project, Portland Brick, in Portland, Maine and just started a worldwide version of Pots In Action.
Any thoughts about this post? Share yours in the comment box below.
Ayumi Horie
I do not know about this ceramic artist of the year award….I mean I get it, A. Horie’s is a great self-promoter, her website is a good resource, ‘Pots in Action’ is pretty interesting, but I feel like she has been doing this same thing for a number of years, and has received credit for doing so. In this I just do not see her as ceramic artist of the year. Is there really no other ceramic artist who has made a large contribution to the field, or whose work and ideas have contributed and broaden the field recently, especially in a new way? How about Del Harrow or Anders Ruhald who have helped pioneer what amounts to the minimal, raw plywood, neon-istic sculptural trends that are abound. If it has to be a potter – what about Doug Peltzman, Mel Griffin, Lauren Marbry, Peter Pincus, who all seem to be impacting what and how things are being made, and here I am trying to only include Americans. How about Amy Santoferraro, Tyler Lotz, Mathew McConnell or Nathan Proudy? Each of whom are impacting what and how things are made, or are at least in the thick of new visual conversations. I am not trying to downplay Horie’s influence or impact here, but I do think there are more interesting conversations happening…Anyone for Chris Antemann, Ai Wei Wei, Kristen Morgin, Ron Nagle, or Nick Cave?
Enjoyed this entirely. Especially liked the comment about not having to be uncomfortable to be sensitive.