Key Note Speaker

Denys Watkins- New Zealand
Senior Lecturer, Elam School of Fine Art. Practising artist in a variety of media; primarily, painting, drawing and object constructed tableaus.
“Ceramics, Configurations, Influences and Outcomes”
This lecture is a brief unconstructed journey, referencing the ceramic works that have stumbled into his oeuvre, more by chance, than research. He will also give a brief history of his engagement with clay.

Guest Speakers

Moyra Elliot –New Zealand
“KORERO IN ASIA - New Zealand ceramists on a world stage”
A PowerPoint presentation and talk on the 2010 Taiwan Ceramics Biennale, an internationally curated exhibition sourced from 27 countries and involving 43 artists, including three from New Zealand. 

This exhibition ranged in content from single works to major installations involving many hundreds of individual pieces and included use of video, light and sound. Artists ranged from major established figures through to some having their first international exposure. Running from July to October 2010 more than a half-million viewers eventually saw Korero: ceramics in conversation in the Yingge Ceramics Museum.

The curator, Moyra Elliott, will talk on the curatorial processes, the tasks involved and the highs and lows of getting this major exhibition mounted and take us through the show with some insights into individual works by various artists.

Jude Nye- New Zealand
Jude is the Education Programmes Manager at Artists Alliance

Tavs Jorgensen- UK
Tavs Jorgensen, Autonomatic Research Group, University College Falmouth, UK
“The Digital Artisan – a new creative dialog with materials and processes” 

This presentation will outline the pioneering approach of the Autonomatic research group, which seek to explore a creative dialog with digital production methods such as: CNC milling, Rapid Prototyping, Motion Capture and generative software tools.

The outcome of this dialog is the generation of new visual languages reflecting the design and production process involved in the creation of the artefacts.
 
Autonomatic was established in 2004 with a focus on investigating the possibility of using digital design and fabrication tools as the foundation for developing new models of creative practice.
The approach is inspired by craft and studio practice with the aim to re-appropriate notions such as ‘creative autonomy’ and ‘material knowledge’ as key elements to build a new concept of the ‘Digital Artisan’.
 
While the work of Autonomatic spans a range of materials and practices, this presentation will mainly focus on the group’s ceramic based projects. The talk will include a contextual review of related work, aiming to provide a vision of how digital tools can help to develop the field of ceramics over the coming years.

 
Abstracts of papers to be presented at the Conference

Clarissa Regan -Australia
“Getting Messy With Clay: The Abject Antidote to Digital Culture”
Society is in the middle of a profound transformation wrought by the Internet, digital culture and communication technologies.  The 21st century fusion of telecommunications with the computer has intensified the drive towards a more dematerialized, disembodied and virtual mode of existence.

From the constantly circulating flux of images on our phones, on Facebook, or surveillance cameras in our shopping centres, to our increasing reliance on technologies of mediation (satellite navigation  devices or the iPod), we are entering what cultural theorist Paul Virilio describes as a state of ‘electronic dazzlement’ in which ‘a new technological idealism generates concepts increasingly distant from common sense, the body and  material world, the conceptual systems of the past and lived experience.’

In this paper I would like to put forward the notion that artists who choose to work with clay are able to offer an antidote to this growing tendency to privilege the mind over the direct lived experience of the body. Clay’s sensual nature; its flesh-like qualities, its messy, physical and tactile attributes enable a direct experience with the regenerative powers of the earth.

Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin, in explaining the principal of play and earthy humour in carnivale spirit, argues it provided a liberating function in transgressing official boundaries. The creative spirit at the heart of ceramics, I argue, provides an inventive freedom for the imagination, grounded in a generative medium which demands physical contact and presence

Nicola Dench – New Zealand
BSc, Dip A&C (Hons), Dip Teaching and Ceramic Artist
“Ceramic practice and the crossing and merging of visual arts”
There are a number of interacting factors that have contributed to the crossing and merging of visual arts. Ceramic artists trained in multi disciplines and choosing clay as the medium to convey their ideas are not always bound by traditional ways of working.  There has been a recent movement towards the use of mixed media combined with ceramics and an increased use of the wall to display clay works, along with new print technologies available to studio ceramicist. These factors have enabled ceramicists to push the boundaries to produce exciting and innovative work.

The aim of this paper is to provoke discussion on the future of studio ceramics in New Zealand. Whether the merging and crossing of visual arts will lead to a loss of pottery tradition and an amalgamation of art practices or to the elevation of contemporary ceramics into the fine art world and why this is important to the future of professional studio ceramicists. To discuss the significance of ceramic artists attempts to push beyond the traditional ways of working with clay and how ceramic educators can help students reach their creative potential and produce exciting and innovative art.

The focus will be on how ceramic practice is evolving, through the movement of ceramics towards wall pieces, installations, new ways to use clay, printing and mixed media and the use of the ceramic surface as a canvas, to produce works that elevate ceramics from a craft base into the world of Fine art. If history is any guide there will always be an audience for the wheel thrown pot but for professional studio potters and ceramic artists to survive the onslaught of imitation and production line goods being imported we have to strive to push the boundaries and make work that is exceptional.

Wang, Yi-Hui (Ph.D.)  - Taiwan
“New history - Reflections on Contemporary Taiwanese Ceramics Art”
Taiwan has a complex history in ceramics, to which countless unknown women contributed their energy and skills. However, before the 1960s, the female ceramist was totally absent from Taiwanese ceramic history. It was this background that encouraged me to investigate the historical development of female ceramists in Taiwan.

In this research, I attempt to identify and describe Taiwanese female ceramics as part of contemporary art and raise awareness of gender issue through Taiwanese female’s ceramic works. Taiwan has inherited a long and complex history of the definition of gender and the relationship between the male and female that were sourced from Mainland China. However, capitalism and democracy helped the feminist movement develop in Taiwan.

Undoubtedly, before the 1960s, the female ceramist was totally ‘absent’ in Taiwanese ceramics history. Taiwanese ceramic art moved from ceramic factories into artistic workshops, in the 1950s. The 1960s to 1980s was a pioneering era for ceramics in Taiwan, but gender was an issue of the ceramist’s position and circumstances. After the end of martial law, the number of Taiwanese female ceramists was rising and flourishing during the 1990s, particularly young female artists who were introduced Western feminism from overseas at this time.

In conclusion, the development of Taiwanese female ceramics is a consequence of the changing of Taiwanese political state, social circumstances and cultural influence. The artworks that present by the Taiwanese female ceramists after World War ? to the present reflect the international situation, the influence of colonialism, and the Chinese-based culture.

Joy Bye  - Australia
Phd. Candidate, Ceramics Sydney College of the Arts, Sydney University.
“The Animal in Ceramic Art:  Modern Approaches to Renewing a Rich Tradition”
 
Ceramic artists have a long and culturally diverse history of using animals in their art, across many different world traditions. Reliefs and ceramic sculptures depicting creatures from the animal kingdom have been incorporated into an amazing diversity of artworks, from Tang dynasty horses, to Indian depictions of Ganesha the elephant-headed god, or pre-Columbian zoomorphic vessels.

Animals have been used for their allegorical, anthropomorphic and imaginary qualities. With the expansion of the ceramic art field in contemporary post-modern practice, a renewed interest in harnassing the the symbolic power of animal themes can be seen in the work of a number of artists, including the expressive creatures of Beth Cavener Stichter, the bluebird installations of Clare Twomey and in my own practice, which incorporates a collage-style approach -utiziling found shards - to build archetypical ceramic sculptures.

As Professor David Aftandilian observes about the role of animals in human culture; ‘...they mark off the boundaries between human and non-human, and between permissible and forbidden behaviour and paradoxially, they serve as stand-ins for human selves and sources of self-understanding’. This paper will outline the significant role ceramic art has had in depicting animals, their symbolic function and how this tradition is being transformed in the modern context.

Lewis Rifkowitz - Guam
University of Guam

Living on the island of Guam is a closed system. Green consciousness is in its infancy at his moment. Guam has no industry to speak of other than tourism and a military population. All materials and goods are imported to the island. All waste stays on the island.  There is a need for sustainability as the limited natural resource of Guam’s water lens is in danger of being polluted by the waste put into the earth.

As artists we crave our freedom to create usually with the most toxic and wasteful materials possible. As a whole, artists are not very environmentally conscious, though that is changing. I am a ceramic sculptor, potter, artist, educator, who is in flux in dealing with changing technology and resources and how this affects the art that can be created.

Guam has no natural fossil fuel. No oil, no natural gas. These resources are imported from the mainland USA. The carbon footprint to acquire these materials is absurd. As a ceramic artist I have started out with LP gas until the price was to restrictive, moved to a recycled waste oil fired environment until the Guam Power Authority took all waste oil to be utilized in firing its turbines for powering the island. 

I worked with diesel oil and other types of waste oil to fire kilns and furnaces at the University until the budget restricted buying diesel at over $4.00 per gallon.  Finally I moved backward in the technological approach to creating fire and heat energy. WOOD.

This paper will illustrate and document this journey.