Using Clay to Turn Conversation Into Action
Cultural Connections to Cuba, Nicaragua, Japan
Aspiring and accomplished potters, sculptors, and glaze painters are welcome to participate in spring courses, workshops, and independent study options at the Ceramics Program, 219 Western Ave., Allston, and at its satellite, Quincy House Ceramics Studio. Visit www.fas.harvard.edu/ceramics for information about registration, transportation, and courses on functional and expressive vessels, figurative and abstract sculpture, tiles and murals, concrete and glass.
Clay All Night merges creative expression and an undergraduate studio party on Friday, February 6, from
8 pm – 1 am. Producer Chris Behrer ’11 and his crew promise a stimulating night out with music, comrades, food, and plenty of clay.
Reknowned artist Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons began her year-long residency at the Ceramics Program last fall. She created 40 large porcelain vases and brush painted them with cross-cultural imagery that included Fidel Castro as General Chang, an African version of the Buddhist deity Guan Yin, and a Chinese landscape with a sugar cane laborer. The 40 vases became elements of a sculptural/video installation exploring the Chinese connections in her Afro-Cuban heritage. Campos-Pons has more experimental ceramic projects planned for her residency this spring, and she will give a presentation about this work in progress.
Campos-Pons uses many media to connect with her complex personal and cultural history through reinterpreting rites and myths from her childhood. “My subjects are often my Afro-Cuban relatives as well as myself. My themes are cross cultural, and cross generational; race and gender expressed in symbols of matriarchy and maternity are thematic ideas.”
‘A Place at the Table’ Collaborative Art Project
Can “Guilt, Greed, and Grappling” provoke action on global warming? When public sculptor Mags Harries
co-curated an exhibition with that title at Boston’s Mills Gallery (with Clara Wainwright), she said she “wanted to convey some sense of the intractability of this global issue and the emotions which drive it.” For the show, Harries created “One Legged Table,” measuring 14’ by 6’, from chopped-up pieces of 13 tables from Harvard’s recycling center, and on top she placed 13 table settings, reminiscent of Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper.” During the exhibition her sculpture served as a gathering spot for dinner conversations on climate change.
This spring the dialogue will continue in response to tables, place settings, and meals created by students working with Harries and others at the Adams House ARTSpace and Ceramics Program studio spaces, in collaboration with organizations including the Harvard Art Society (HArt), Real Food, and the Resource Efficiency Program (REP). The tables and meals will provide focal points for discussions on global issues at the SOCH Art Gallery (Student Organization Center at Hilles) and at many Harvard dining halls. All brainstormers, builders, vessel makers, and cooks are encouraged to join the first studio session at either Adams House or the Ceramics Program on Friday, February 6 at 8 pm.
For more information, contact the Project Coordinator: Trevor Martin ’10, trvr.tm@gmail.com.
Micro-Entrerprise Ceramics for Nicaragua
Through the transformation of mud into money, students are helping to develop a ceramics micro-enterprise project for La Prusia, Nicaragua. Several students have been invited to develop their ideas in Gordon Bloom’s Harvard Social Entrepreneurship Collaboratory (SE Lab) at the Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership. Courtney Mattison has tested the functional and decor-ative potential of La Prusia’s local clays. Annie Chen is working with ArteVida to develop a fair trade web outlet for necklaces currently made by La Prusia women. Dave Tischfield plans to research sustainable kiln firing options in the village after his graduation next summer.
This micro-enterprise initiative is part of “Casas de La Esperanza,” a project initiated by Angel Saenz Badillos, to improve low-income housing for La Prusia. Advisors for the project include Badillos, Director of Real Colegio Complutense; Maria Luisa Fernandez Mansfield, Art Historian and Senior Research Associate of the Institute for International Urban Development; Gordon Bloom, Founder of the Social Entrepreneurship Collaboratory (SE Lab) at Harvard’s Kennedy School; and Nancy Selvage, Ceramics Program Director.
A highlight of Boston’s year-long series of programs celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Kyoto-Boston sister-city relationship will be a major exhibition of contemporary ceramics by Kyoto artists at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The prominent porcelain artist Fukami Sueharu will be featured in this exhibition, in the Japan Society’s annual Rad Smith lecture on April 22, and in a presentation at the Ceramics Program on April 23. Fukami’s large abstract forms with sharp, tapered edges are transformed into atmospheric fields by flawless surfaces of translucent celadon glaze. The scale of his accomplishments require the inventive adaptation of industrial processes and tools.
The Ceramics Program’s Spring Show and Sale is known for quality, bargains, and free give-away cups on opening night. Special features this spring include collaborations between vessel makers, furniture makers, and chefs. More than 60 affiliated professionals and students participate in this exciting exhibition, which opens at 219 Western Ave., Allston, on Thursday, May 14, from 3-8 pm and continues May 15-17, Friday through Sunday, from 10-7 pm each day.
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