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cardew's essay "why make pots..." was question about why for the group.

updated thu 19 oct 00

 

MOLINA, RAFAEL on tue 17 oct 00


Jim:

Read Cardew's lecture "Why Make Pots in the Last Quarter of the 20th
Century?" in the Studio Potter Volume 7 Number 1. The following is a brief
excerpt:

"...all those questins like: "Is it valid to make functional pots in the age
of Continuous Technological Revolution?" "What is the purpose or raison
d'etre of ceramic creation?" "Should we be making utensils or producing
surrealistic fantasies?" All these debates are unnecessary, wasting our
time and the time of our friends and contemporaries. Pottery is about one
thing only: the majesty of form.

What makes form so "majestic"? The universe we perceive and feel and know
(the only universe we can know) is form-whether felt, heard, tasted,
smelled, seen, or created by thought. Form is the only shape in which we
can live. It predates all our mental categories and includes them as
contributors or attributes of its power. Whatever you express, in any
medium, you do it in, by, and through form. Form says more than any other
discourse or process of reasoning, and it says it more neatly-that is the
true meaning of the saying: "The style is the man."

And this is what the potter is doing, well or less well, according to his
talent, his perserverance, his skill, his capacity for work, his capacity
for pleasure, his power of concentrating the whole of himself on what he is
making. All arts use form, but pottery tends to be almost all form-the
shape is about ninety percent of the whole pot. This is the reason I
continue to believe that making pots in the last quarter of the twentieth
century is just as valid, and just as necessary, as it ever was in the
past."


Thanks!

Rafael Enrique


Rafael Molina, MFA
Assistant Professor of Art
Department of Music, Art, and Dance
Tarrant County College-Southeast Campus
2100 Southeast Parkway
Arlington, TX 76018-3144
(817) 515-3711
(817) 515-3189 fax




-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Sydnor [mailto:sydnor1@AIRMAIL.NET]
Sent: Monday, October 16, 2000 10:16 AM
To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
Subject: Question about Why for the group.


Hey I am finishing my last MFA art history and will finally after working on
it forever will be finishing my MFA. I am right now in a wonderful class
taught by Diane Taylor (Elmer Taylors wife for those that are familiar with
ET's work). In the class she has decide to have the graduates do a short
panel discussion and write a short paper. The question she is asking is
interesting in perspective with both history and modern times, so I thought
I would throw it out to the group and see what I could find out from you.

In a relatively short answer (one or two paragraphs if possible) see if you
can answer this: In a modern day of industry, when the most intricate of
item can be made by machines, when machine made items can be given the
appearance of handmade, why does anyone choose to become a craftsman
(craftsperson)?

Love to read your responses.

Jim Sydnor
sydnor1@airmail.net
traditionsclayworks.s5.com

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