Crossing Over the Bridge

We have initiated a demanding and exciting project at Pottery Northwest. Crossing Over the Bridge is an undertaking made possible with the support of the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, the Rick and Peg Young Foundation and many of our valued patrons. In the next few months we will be hosting guest artists in our studio who do not ordinarily work with clay. We will provide them with technical assistance and a stipend to accomplish a project or work piece. We hope to create a cauldron for dialog among artists, in particular our resident artists and the guests, but also drop in visitors, students, anyone interested in exciting work that crosses disciplinary boundaries. That is why we chose Crossing Over the Bridge as a title for the project. We choose to ignore the boundaries of a particular medium and instead build connections between artists. We have a strong belief that artists in any discipline have common ground and knowledge to share, both formal concerns and that intangible intuitive that comes from years of work. It is already rewarding.

First Step . . .
John Grade

January - May, 2010

Next Steps . . .
de la Torre brothers

May 6-10, 2010

And the Next . . .
Anne Grgich

May 21, 2010

First Step . . . John Grade

John Grade is our first guest in this project. John is well known in the Seattle region, as well as having completed a number of residency projects abroad. You may have seen his work at Davidson Galleries or the Bellevue Art Museum. Starting with beautiful forms and impeccable craftsmanship, John constructs his works and then often fosters a second and third phase in which the work is placed in the natural environment and endures the rigor of weather, and other life forms. John’s project with us will be along those lines. In John’s words:

Circuit is a sculpture designed to change in direct response to an alpine landscape. After it is initially exhibited in New York and then Seattle (Cynthia Reeves Gallery April 29 – May 1, 2010 and Davidson Galleries Sept 1 – October 2), I will divide the eight parts of the sculpture. I will carry these parts up a mountain and secure them to eight chosen sites. Each site has unique characteristics. The sites all vary in elevation and topography, but if connected by a trail, they would describe an ellipse around the mountain peak. For one year the sculpture will remain on the mountain. Periodically, I will document changes through video and photography. Finally, I will retrieve the eight parts and exhibit them together again along with documentation of the site work.

This project continues my investigation into how sculpture can reflect perceptions about landscape and expand these ideas through change and displacement. Because Circuit will be spread over eight sites, a complex portrait of this landscape will be captured and a mixture of subtle and dramatic change should result.

Community Involvement

We are very interested in involving the larger community in this project. We need volunteers to help construct the pieces that comprise Circuit. If you wish to learn something about the nature of paper clay, the sometimes elaborate steps involved in John’s work , and you enjoy dialog let us put you on a list of volunteer artists and schedule some work time with John and our studio.

More!

John Grade is the first in this series of guests to our studio. There is more to come including video interviews and new perspectives. Watch this space!

Orientation

Volunteers examing the structural elements of Circuit at John's ID studio space

Week 1 - Volunteers begin working on Circuit with John Grade at Pottery Northwest

John and voluntters begin pressing clay into the molds

Week 2 - So that's what's on the other side

First the clay is pressed into the molds.

Once they've released from the molds,, they're draped over complementary forms to dry.

Week 3 - Lots of volunteers hard at work

Laying The Slab over the Mold

Placing a slab of clay over one of many molds, then pressing the clay into each mold (first with thick block of clay then with thumb or fingers to get deeper impressions).