Ceramics, Multiples, Justin Novak, and Gabriel Orozco

Tea Pot I made for my mom

This week Brian Gillis spoke to us about ceramics and the concept of multiples. I have always had an obsession with ceramics because I think it is such a beautiful medium to work with, and it is very hands on. It a medium that is very interactive because you do use tools, but it all has to deal with how you shape with your hands to mold the clay. An aspect of ceramics that I never really thought about is the concept of multiples. Gillis told us that a multiple is a three-dimensional work that is intended not to be a unique work of art but an editioned original. I interpreted this to mean that although the original is made, it isn’t made to be unique because it is going to be made over and over again. Because it is going to be multiplied it loses its purpose to be unique, but it gets a new purpose to be an edition of what was original. He also spoke to us about concepts of being a multiple. For instance Marcel Duchamp and his ready-made art. The idea behind ready-made art is to take an object that was already produced and turn it into your own art. For example Duchamp took a urinal off of the wall signed his name on it and put it in a gallery setting. It isn’t the object that is more important it is the idea behind the object. He also spoke to us about how the industrial process used to make something makes it a multiple. I find this to be very interesting because the object doesn’t necessarily have to have copies to be to a multiple. Just the fact that the process used to make it has the potential to make more copies makes it a multiple.  This connects to the first artist I am going to talk about, Justin Novak.

Justin was a student at the university of Oregon. He is an artist in that mainly works with ceramics. When asked why he likes ceramics so much he said, “ I love ceramics because there is the possibility to make more. There is a certainty of one but the possibility of making more.” I find this very interesting because it has to do with what Gillis talked to us about the industrial process. I think that it is a very profound statement because you wouldn’t think that to be a reason to love ceramics, or any medium of art for that matter. When I hear that it makes me think of the potential that any art has, and the potential that anyone can make art. That’s what makes art so beautiful, the potential that it has. An idea that Justin Novak plays with in his art is the idea of bringing tragedy into beauty. He makes typical and traditional porcelain ideas but then adds something really strange to it. For example his beautiful sculpture of a woman cutting her skin with scissors. He explores sad ideas and adds them into something beautiful. Another aspect of ceramics that Justin Novak explores in his work is the element of interaction. Ceramics is a type of medium that you can hold and touch, and something that you can play with. Another artist that explores this idea is Gabriel Orozco.

            

 Gabriel Orozco is considered a contemporary artist but he goes against the typical serious mindset of most contemporary artists because he is very playful. He likes to provoke space for thinking and he does this playfully in his Ping Pond Table where makes a four sides ping pong table with a pond in the middle of it instead of a net. The piece of artwork makes you want to touch it and play with it, just like ceramics. Its like when you see little figurines in your grandmothers house of little cats, or women or shoes. You don’t just look at it, you want to touch it and hold it, and interact with it. He makes things that you want to play with, such as his art in the super market. For instance he took cat food cans and placed them on the extremely organized pile of watermelons. He felt that the super market is a perfectly organized place and when you move something you can feel that something is wrong. He wants to interact with the world and ask questions, and this is what contemporary artists do.

            Understanding contemporary media is something that someone can never fully do. No one has the answer to all of the questions, because everyone has there own questions. I feel that we start to understand it when we understand why artists choose their medium, and how mediums can cross over. Through out this class I have learned just because you claim yourself to be an artist in a certain medium, you can actually be a jack-of-all-trades. Contemporary media to me is making art in the medium of your choice to make work that can inspire people, can be interpreted in many ways, and a piece of artwork that provokes thought and questions.