🎧 More Clay: The Power of Repetition Lilianne Milgrom

Appears in the September 2023 issue of Ceramics Monthly.

The audio file for this article was produced by the Ceramic Arts Network staff and not read by the author.

Walking into the expansive space that houses the group show “More Clay: The Power of Repetition,” at the Katzen Arts Center at American University, Washington, DC, one is immediately struck by the necessity to ditch any preconceived notions of what clay is capable of. Or, in curator Rebecca Cross’ loftier terms, the exhibition of eight ceramic artists “transcends the structural limitations of clay and abandons the material’s traditional association with function.” 

Obsession and Commitment 

Walter McConnell’s site-specific tower of molded, luster-coated objects occupies a central position in the exhibition hall. From a distance, McConnell’s ceramic assemblage brings to mind the crenelated silhouettes of Thai temples. Upon closer inspection, the multitude of objects that make up the gilded, cupola-like structure references famous personages, consumer icons, art history, gender roles or identities, and more. There is a lot to unpack in McConnell’s work, and the artist himself acknowledges that the glut of information can be both “entrancing and overwhelming.” 

In her catalog essay, Janet Koplos notes that “repetition makes us feel at ease and at home,” yet each of the works on display overwhelms to a more or lesser degree—that is, after all, the underlying leitmotif. The artists demonstrate an uncommon level of obsession and commitment to their time-intensive, repetitive processes. One is reminded of a production potter’s daily grind, producing hundreds of like bowls or mugs every day, except the glaring difference being that the works in More Clay, though composed of multiples, attempt to create an aesthetic whole out of often discordant and chaotic elements. 

David Hicks’ Poly Panel Triptych is a perfect example. Hicks’ genius lies not only in his cornucopia of pseudo-organic forms, but also in the complex and elegant mounting structure that suspends his evocative pieces on the museum wall. We might imagine a drone’s eye view looking down on a field of crops ranging from artichokes and gourds to eggplants. Here and there, Hicks introduces wooden shapes among the ceramic forms glazed in a palette of neutrals, aubergine, and orange. The artist grew up in an agricultural community that defined his visual understanding of the world. He describes his massive installation as “a collection of moments” that represents a substantial sliver of his life. 

Zimra Beiner’s fabricated instruments find their roots in the artist’s love of still life and early model making. However, Tools with no Purpose, Beiner’s tabletop arrangement of nonfunctional tools, falls short of a cohesive intention. By displaying his creations in a manner that mimics haphazard tools on a workbench, he intentionally sidesteps the traditional plinth presentation and makes a statement about the many over the individual. Yet the individual objects themselves lack the aesthetic quality of Hicks’ invented natural forms. Perhaps that is the point—machine-made objects (real or contrived) cannot hope to live up to Mother Nature’s creations. 

Despite its many, many components, Bean Finneran’s Orange Ring stands out for its dazzling simplicity. It could just as well be titled Ring of Fire for its saturated orange and red coloring. The scale of Finneran’s dynamic, tactile ring is irresistible. The artist estimates that Orange Ring is made up of over 14,000 hand-coiled, curved rods—lending support to author Haruki Murakami’s opinion that “repetition itself becomes the important thing.” Like some of legendary artist Sol LeWitt’s work, Finneran’s rings can be assembled by non-professionals, one curved rod at a time until a spiked circle emerges on the ground, like a welcoming campfire or a giant bird’s nest that has fallen to earth, intact. 

Craftsmanship and Dedication 

Shifting one’s gaze off the floor of the gallery toward one of the far walls, a ghostly apparition takes shape in the form of a gossamer gateway, as linear and weightless as a pencil sketch. This is Kate Roberts’ suspended Gates to Nowhere, a remarkable work created from fiber, fishing line, and dripped, unfired porcelain, measuring approximately 16 feet in length. Gates to Nowhere is Roberts’ chimerical interpretation of the entrance to the Petit Palais, whose filigreed iron gates were a source of inspiration. The artist is drawn to the notion of temporality and finds delight in the fact that her gates can be taken down and crumpled into a bucket after the exhibition. She has found a solution to the unwieldy and costly problem that plagues all installation artists working in clay—transportation. 

Vanessa Ryerse considers herself the outsider artist in this group show, but her work nonetheless conforms to the theme of repetition and adherence to a labor-intensive creative practice. Ryerse’s background as a vintage seller informs her work and is evident in Rend and ReMember—a seven-panel work encrusted with broken shards of blue-and-white china. Rather than build upon a collection, Ryerse un-makes her collection of vintage souvenir ware and Mother’s Day plates by breaking them and reconstituting them in a fresh body of work imbued with references to violence and motherhood, subjects that have been at the forefront of the artist’s mind following the El Paso shootings. 

J. J. McCracken’s mixed media Fruit for Geophages (Hunger) is likewise politically and culturally motivated. Her disturbing video depicts clay-covered figures moving about in a trance-like state, stopping now and then to bite into unfired clay food. Clay—a material used to make the vessels that hold the food we eat—has been subverted into a vehicle for exposing the inexcusable and inexplicable fact that hunger persists in our midst. 

The real outsider art in this show is District Clay’s community project, playfully entitled Homage to de Waal Wall. De Waal’s storied groupings of immaculately formed, delicate porcelain pots resonate with whispered stories and are an inspiration to professional and amateur potters alike. Here, in Homage to de Waal Wall, the stacked and shelved pots give voice to underrepresented youth who have discovered an outlet for creative expression through the collaboration between Washington DC’s District Clay Center and George Washington University’s outreach program. 

Kahlil Robert Irving’s [STREET & Stars | (Memories & Matter) fair and FREEDOM] Black ICE uses multiple, oversized stoneware tiles embedded with detritus to create the illusion of an asphalt roadway or an urban sidewalk. Gracefully supported by a wooden substructure, the field of dark-gray tiles only makes an impact upon closer scrutiny of the elements embedded in them— printed material, decals, and recovered trash that speaks to racism and inequality. Despite its size (9×14 feet) and its message, [STREET & Stars | (Memories & Matter) fair and FREEDOM] Black ICE has the quietest voice in the show. 

As curator Rebecca Cross points out, there are no shortcuts to be found in the works represented in More Clay. What there is to be found, however, is dedication, obsession, patience, craftsmanship, and above all, clay. More and more of it. 

the author Lilianne Milgrom is a multimedia artist, writer on the arts, and award-winning author of L’Origine. To learn more, visit liliannemilgromauthor.com.