The Evolution of the God Gene

source: artslant

As manufacturer and creator, I fabricate parts: I wheel-throw clay to make columns, tubes, bands, rings, and capsules. I extrude clay to make rods, pillars, and beams, and I compress clay to make floors and walls. As architect and engineer I assemble the parts into structural systems and then I place the precarious constructs in a kiln. Acting as geologic time compressed, the kiln conducts the melt and movement of clay and glaze, composing the final system.

The clay parts subjected to heat deform as the material softens. Gravity and tension exert themselves, causing the system to undergo a domino effect best described as a cascading failure. This term is used to describe failed systems where the failure of one part triggers the failure of successive parts. As the heat progresses, the movement quiets, and the system of parts become a rested whole.

The final piece captures the motion and tension of the integrated clay parts. The elements of the system appear suspended in space or compressed by the weight of another. Cool blue celadon bands twist around soft white porcelain rings as brown stoneware rods, once rigid, bend and weave their way throughout.

These systems are studies in causality. I view the system before and after the firing and develop a set of deterministic means that affected the final system. Each piece’s effects inform the next piece’s cause. Currently I am working with internal and external support devices that direct and aid the system’s integration within the kiln at high heat. With these support mechanisms I can begin to guide the resulting composition with greater clarity. I can begin to incorporate quite zones of empty spaces and visual paths that unite the overall form.

The integrated forms are complex mixtures, busy and balanced at times. Others seem piled and chaotic. These systems are metaphors for our times, our bodies, and our philosophies. Time ages all things. It softens hard edges and moves material to alternative states of rest. Not only does time test form, it tests ideas. Some become foundations for future breakthroughs as others fall into oblivion. My process is the concept. My ideas are subject to the same cascading failure as are my forms.