Industrial Vases
slipcast porcelain
2018 - ongoing
a personal exercise in
anti-manufacturability
The series “Industrial Vases” is an inquiry into the meaning of craftsmanship in industrial efficiency, while addressing at the status of slipcasting in ceramic fine arts. Do multiple copies of an object reduce the value of craftsmanship, and ultimately the value of work? Inspired by conversations with mold-makers in the oldest porcelain factory in Poland, where master prototypes and molds are still made by hand, these works inquire — what is the definition of craftsmanship in ceramic production, and how is that translated when these techniques are used to make the process more complex, instead of less so? How can we use the industrial process to reveal craft?
As this process grows, each form and mold becomes more and more complex, each pieces is more challenging to produce than the last. There is a beauty in challenging myself to learn more, become better at making molds, be more mindful of my hand and body when I am finishing a piece.
Each master form emerges from a stream of consciousness, without consideration to formalism or the restrictions of industrial moldmaking. No matter the complexity of the form, I force myself to design a plaster mold around each piece. Because every mold is adapted to the intricate master form, it cannot offer a streamlined action for removal. Seams are left exposed, porcelain may warp, and texture fractures the surface -- traces documenting the skill, process, and emotion of the craftswoman. The result is a relic, revealing hidden actions in manufacturing. My hand and my mark are purposefully exposed, leaving the vases as artifacts of this process.
