This is a piece of writing I’ve just completed for my group studio class with David Garneau. He asked us to write what he calls a “civilian artist statement,” by which he means “a clear, non-poetic, communication. It explains your art work and practice to an intelligent reader who knows nothing about your art and little about the art world or theory. It is the base for longer, specialized, and creative versions.”

It was very difficult to write this statement because I have just barely scratched the surface of my exploration into “non-material” art making. For one thing, I am still struggling to know how to talk about the participatory work that I have experimented with, mostly because I’m still grappling with its definition. I’ve realized in the last week or so while reading Claire Bishop’s Participation (thanks for the recommendation, Risa) that my “house of cards” event wasn’t really an act of socially engaged art. It could be called participatory art, but even there, I’m not entirely sure. I called it a “happening,” but in fact it was likely more like a “situation.” I’m going to do more thinking (and blogging) about what I’ve been learning about participatory art, but for now I’ll just note that for this artist statement I decided against describing my practice as involving this type of work (socially engaged/participatory). I don’t think that’s what I want to make the focus of my work for now. Instead, I’ve chosen to use only the term “performance art” but explain that some of my performances include participation.

What also made it so hard to write about “my performance work” is that I’ve done barely any of it. It feels dishonest to say that “some of these performances include participation” when really, the “some” was “ONE” and the “these performances” is “THREE.” Yet, David gave us the impression that we need to sound confident in this statement and “avoid vagueness.” I couldn’t just kvetch about my struggles with searching for what I want to do. So, what I’ve ended up with is more of a statement of who I aspire to be as an artist, a “future artist statement” if anything at all. I’m looking forward to getting input on it during our class this Friday. Perhaps I’ll need to return to the drawing-board entirely. Who knows.

This exercise has been useful, though. A small breakthrough I’ve had in the last few days of working on it is that I may not need to choose between doing ceramics and doing “non-material” art (such as performance). Perhaps there is a way for me to be able to do both. This may involve incorporating clay or ceramics in performance work at times, but it could also mean that I carry on developing myself as ceramist (even one who does primarily functional ware) and as a performance artist. Is it possible to be good at more than one thing in life? I dunno. But perhaps I can give it a try.

“Civilian” Artist Statement for David’s Class

My artistic practice includes material and non-material work that is both an elegiac response to ecological devastation and a call to action. This work ranges from sculptural and functional ceramic pieces to performance works that encourage viewers and participants consider the issue of climate change in a different way.

My recent conceptual ceramic work is a series of porcelain cup-shaped sculptures that represent the state of the world’s glaciers in the face of climate change: some of these pieces appear to be melting, others disintegrate in water while particles of clay “calve” off of them, and other are constructed of snowflake shapes barely holding together in the form of a cup, resulting in pieces so fragile that a draft in a room could destroy them. I present these pieces as an installation, and during the install, many of them break. Their destruction, resulting in porcelain “snowflakes” on the gallery floor, further indicates the ephemerality of the glaciers they represent. In this sense, these works are performance pieces as much as they are physical objects: the care needed to prevent their demise replicates the state of our ecology at this moment in history.

Other ceramic work I make is functional; I create vessels for everyday use. Even this practice, however, reflects a concern for ecology. The act of creating this work out of clay puts me in touch with the sustaining effect that being in places of natural beauty gives me, and the pieces communicate this reverence for nature through their soft, irregular, and organic forms and surface treatments.

With my performance art, I explore ways to reach a broader audience. My performances take place in public spaces, allowing me to draw attention to the issue of climate change by taking people by surprise as they go about their day; apathy towards this issue will have catastrophic consequences, and my work attempts to convey the sense of urgency for dealing with this problem that needs to permeate every aspect of our daily lives. At the same time as conveying the seriousness of the situation, I often draw humor into these performances and leave people with ideas of how to take action. I am aware of how despair and passivity can go hand in hand. Some of these performances include participation that encourages meaningful engagements with the subject matter and exemplifies, via the cooperative nature of the events themselves, how we can work together to prepare for, and as much as possible lessen, the challenges that climate change will cause for us. The performances of artists such as Eva S. Mosher and Stein Henningsen informs this work.

In moving between the physicality of ceramics and the immaterial nature of performance, my practice explores how each medium can convey the same concern for our planet with such diverse methods and results. All of my work is an attempt at communicating this concern and inspiring action in as many ways and to as many people as I can.