Children vessels

Handbuilt terra-cotta, wooden TV mantel furniture, sequence fabric, sheep whole yarn, snake domesticated plants. The series, Children Vessels, consists of four ceramic vessels, where the individual works represent my children and I.  These vessels have lost their assumed functionality and have become adornments; meant for display rather than use. They are glazed with Mexican talavera-inspired contemporary designs that depict symbols and motifs of everyday objects incorporated in my nuclear family’s day to day lives. These depictions are represented in the form of simplified thick electric blue line drawings of objects. Objects such as my alarm clock, or my sons PS4 video game remote control, or my older daughter vase with flowers and my tween daughter’s electric guitar. These motifs call into question the reasons the act of curating certain objects into our domestic surroundings. I am interested in such systems and patterns, and in deciphering the underlying ethos of such things. Objects that are part of daily life become codes, signifiers, and markers of meaningful moments that document our journey and our choices. One can see this phenomenon and need to document such objects and the meaning that is attach to them within the works of other artists like Cristina Erives. Cristina is an L.A. born ceramic artist who shares similar heritage than mine, a mixture of cultures and the creation of a new one. She is famous for her flat, tile like ceramic work, it seems to a merge between 2D, and 3D reference of objects. She creates drawings of objects like Cheetos, or Mexican Pan Dulce (pastries), Luchador heads, roses. Objects that she is in contact with every day and that have an influence and impact in her life and her cultural surroundings. When talking about her ceramic work she indicates how important clay is to her and her practice in a practical and conceptual way. I in turn have the same affect and noticed how important materiality and functionality clay has form me. “Ceramics as material has permanence, it is one of the ways we were able to learn about ancient cultures. There is so much beauty in these traditions and my aim has been to make a mark of my time that will be preserved in the history of ceramic objects”. Our preferences and the way we experience reality is marked and documented in the physical and material objects we choose to incorporate in our lives. Majolica and talavera serve as a point of pride throughout the history of Mexican pottery, yet my works shift away from the conventional coloration and authentic designs typically found in majolica by utilizing my own symbology and integrating them into the vessels, rather than to use traditional intricate, heavily saturated designs. Children Vessels are four different vessels, all composed of 2 basic elements of open and straight at top with a rounded junction in the middle, serving as a sort of waist. Three of them have protuberances in the top part which resembles a hair do or hair piece, one of them is bare. The majolica and talevera designs iconically have a red clay body, covered in some version of white or gray-white background and a dark blue intricately and budging out designs and patterns tightly woven into each other. I used several elements that are elemental to talavera and majolica, I utilized red clay for the body, I utilized a light blue gray background and an electric blue color for my designs, I did not use actual majolica glaze and instead used glossy and transparent celadon glazes that resembled it. Celadon glazes are typically found in Chinese and Japanese ceramics. My designs are loosely drawn in electric blue and have an atmospheric layer of dots and drips and spots that act as a visual white noise. By referencing the traditions of talavera but creating works of my own unique style and narrative, I allude to a feeling of doubt that occurs through generational shifts away from the familial.

The four vessels are representations of small human figures, as well as traditional prehistoric containers. These vessels rest on three tripod feet, awkwardly balanced on each point of contact. Traditionally throughout primitive cultures, vessels like this had three feet to be able to balance on unleveled earth by pushing one leg into the ground to counterbalance the vessel. The legs were also used to sit the vessel above hot coals in a fire for cooking food or heating water. Tripod vessels appear in the early Neolithic period in China (7000-5000 BCE) They were not only utilized as functional cooking pot but as a ritualistic piece as well. (China Then and Now) By using these forms, I reference traditional connections of stability, nourishment, domesticity, and family to draw parallels to my own experiences with my children today, yet the forms are out of place as they have been unearthed and forced to stand on their roots. The legs are fused to a clay slab that resembles a cooking pan, and underneath each vessel is a soft, bright pink, potholder made out of sheep yarn. These elements of the abstracted versions of the pan and potholder represent barrires that exist between the vessels and the furniture, serving as a both safety and protection device.