Jacqui Poncelet (CR185) has 'unchained herself from the lunatic' which is the current world of artists and makers working with clay. We can hardly blame her, but I would like to make a case against her decision to leave off making ceramics on principle, and to suggest she is running away from a dilemma which is fundamental to the whole of the art world but more extremely focused when considered in relation to our chosen material.To 'abandon clay' because you wish to be taken seriously as a Fine Artist should be unnecessary. It is the message not the medium which matters, and clay as a medium has been used to convey our concerns in relation to the rest of nature, our Gods, our society etc. since the dawn of civilisation. It was clay of sorts that was used to leave the first marks on cave walls; clay moulded between the fingers to make three-dimensional representations; clay applied to our bodies to transform them in shamanistic ritual, and more importantly, clay as the medium of transubstantiation. Clay is massively important in its symbolic self - the stuff of life - and is, was, and could be, among the best materials for making visual metaphor; and for making Art with a capital A.
展开▼
