Past Imperfect, The Art of Inventive Repair

Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending the current exhibit at Ferrin Contemporary, located at MASS MoCA in North Adams, MA. Leslie Ferrin has her finger on the pulse of what’s hot in contemporary ceramics and has cultivated a veritable “who’s who” of the best ceramic artists from around the globe.

The exhibit features ceramics by Paul Scott, a Ferrin favorite, who puts a contemporary twist on antique blue & white transferware plates and platters. Many pieces are refired, embellished, cut, reassembled and repaired with gold, utilizing the ancient kintsugi (“golden joinery”) technique.

Elizabeth Alexander is new to me but I am already a huge fan of her work, which includes deconstructed white teacups and saucers from her Heirloom collection. I especially love the grey shadows created by the negative spaces of the pierced tableware.

I am including new work by alliterative potter Peter Pincus, inspired by Josiah Wedgwood’s classic 18th century basalt pottery. None of his pieces are broken or repaired, but I am showing them here just because I love his ceramics!

I just returned home to NYC, after a 10 month gig in Pittsburgh, to be greeted by the make-do desk left out on the street. Didn’t realize how much I missed little old New York! And no, I did not take it home.

Last summer you may recall I spent 3 months in Malaysia and Singapore working as the set decorator on a movie called Crazy Rich Asians. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that our little movie would end up breaking box office records and become an overnight smash hit! I am thrilled with how the movie turned out and am happy to report that none of my favorite scenes ended up on the cutting room floor.

Combining my 2 passions, I try to incorporate ceramics as much as possible into my set decoration. Here are some examples of how I used ceramics to help bring the characters in Crazy Rich Asians to life, including some new make-do’s.

If you haven’t already seen Crazy Rich Asians, please go and enjoy! Be sure to look closely for these and other ceramics I’ve sprinkled throughout the movie.

A few staples should take care of that.

This past week I made my yearly pilgrimage to the Bohemian National Hall on New York’s Upper East Side to attend the New York Ceramics & Glass Fair. As usual, I was not disappointed. In addition to seeing stunning examples of antique ceramics and glassware from around the globe, I found many examples of inventive repairs done by contemporary ceramic artists. Leslie Ferrin of Ferrin Contemporary is a champion of artists exploring exciting new methods of repairs and creating assemblages using repurposed ceramics. Below are some of the artists she represents, as well as others exhibiting at the fair.

Steven Young Lee, Gourd Vases with Dodos, 2018. Steven made a pair of “perfect” vases and then deliberately deconstructed them, with dramatic results.

Paul Scott, The Garden Series, Tower Buddleia, 2015 and The Syria Series No: 8, Damascus, 2017. Both pieces use Japanese kintsugi (“golden joinery”) as a design element.

Stephen Bowers, Camouflage Plates, 2016. I particularly love the trompe l’oeil metal staples on the top plate.

A new addition to the fair is Michael Wainwright, an artist who designed the Mezza Collection with his own interpretation of the art of Kintsugi.

Last week I spent a few frigid days in Montreal, Canada, and stumbled upon a few make-dos hiding in plain sight at the Montreal Museum of Fine Art.

Scars (suture) Jar by Tamsin van Essen, 2007. Glazed earthenware.

Bottle, Iran, 2nd half of 17th-early 18th c. Frit body, overglaze lustre decoration, blue glaze. Later metal replacement neck.

Jug, Germany, c.1595. Salt-glazed stoneware, pewter lid with later pewter repairs.

Wishing you all the best for the holidays and hoping 2018 is all it’s cracked up to be!

Tomorrow, December 11, 2017, from 1:15pm – 3:00pm, I will be giving a talk at the Connecticut Ceramics Study Circle, at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, CT. Please stop by if you are in the neighborhood.

Click HERE for more information. Hope to see you there.

After a brief break from posting, I am back with more to share from my collection of antiques with inventive repairs.

Last weekend, the nearly 300 pieces from my collection, on loan to Boscobel for the exhibit Make-Do’s: Curiously Repaired Antiques, were returned to me. I was without them for almost a year and during that time, the suddenly empty shelves in my office slowly filled up with books and other household items. Due to time restraints, rather than methodically return the hundreds of teapots, jugs, plates, cups, goblets, etc. to my shelves in an orderly fashion, I was just able to pile them up all around the house, praying that my 2 young cats, Grady and Oscar, wouldn’t turn my prized repaired pieces back into broken antiques. As I have said before, there’s nothing more redundant than a broken make-do. So far, I am happy to report that everything is still intact!

Looking ahead, I may not be posting every week as I have for the past nearly 7 years, so please be patient with me between lapses in my posts. I have some exciting new projects I am working on and will share the results in the near future. Thank you for following my blog, which continues to bring me great pleasure, as I acquire and research new pieces and write these posts.