VSF VARIOUS SMALL FIRES812 N HIGHLAND AVE LOS ANGELES 90038INFO@VSF.LA / 310.426.8040VSF VARIOUS SMALL FIRES812 N HIGHLAND AVE LOS ANGELES 90038INFO@VSF.LA / 310.426.8040Unzicker, Allyson, “Corporeal Impulse: Contemporary Artists Working in Clay,” The Brooklyn Rail, April 2, 2014, page 1 of 5.

Kathleen Ryan, “Block Wall,” 2012. Glazed ceramic,steel, 72 × 140 × 24 in. Courtesy of the artist.

Critics Page April 2nd, 2014

CORPOREAL IMPULSE: Contemporary Artists

Working in Clayby Allyson Unzicker

Tactile experience […] adheres to the surface of our body; we cannot unfold it before us, and it never quitebecomes an object. Correspondingly, as the subject of touch, I cannot flatter myself that I am everywhereand nowhere; I cannot forget in this case that it is through my body that I go to the world, and tactileexperience occurs ‘ahead’ of me, and is not centred in me.

—Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception, 1945

In an age where technology tends to form more physical detachments than connections, there is acultural longing to experience something tangible and handmade. It is this reason that a mediumsuch as clay continues to appeal today. Touch is absorbed into clay, leaving a record of the artist’spresence on its surface. In recognizing these imprints as the mark of its maker, the viewer becomesconscious of his or her own hands and body. In examining ceramics through a phenomenologicallens, we are challenged to consider the role our bodies play in perceiving the world around us.

In Phenomenology of Perception, written in 1945,Maurice Merleau-Ponty helped to re-conceptualize theway in which we look at the world, not just with ourmind but with our bodies, which is to say, beyond thevisual world alone. Instead, he postulated an embodiedperception, an idea that positions our body as amedium, through which we gain consciousness of ourworld. A blow to long-held dualistic theories ofconsciousness—ones that separate the mind from thebody—Merleau-Ponty’s theories afford an active andexpansive means of understanding ourselves andviewing art. Through his corporeal lens, we begin tounderstand how our entire body, not just our sight, is fundamental to experiencing artwork.

VSF VARIOUS SMALL FIRES812 N HIGHLAND AVE LOS ANGELES 90038INFO@VSF.LA / 310.426.8040

Bari Ziperstein, “Bust,” 2013. Terracotta, custom decals,concrete, leather, 36 × 24 × 36 ̋. Courtesy of the artist.

Julia HaftCandell, “Toupee,” 2013. Terracotta, wood,linen. Approx. 18 × 20 × 6 ̋. Courtesy of the artist.

By applying Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological assessments to clay, we can begin to comprehendthe role that the body plays in viewing and creating art as an experiential practice. Through ourbodily awareness, we can appreciate the affective quality of clay, the impulse to touch with our eyesand to see with our hands. It is through this aesthetic empathy that we are able to perceive thesensation of touch to our own bodies. Corporeal Impulse, at the Vincent Price Art Museum at EastLos Angeles College, references this relation in clay through hand-built sculptures. The worksdiscussed in this essay can be seen as remnants of bodily sensations, as the residue of clay on one’sfingers.

Influenced by biological systems, Julia Haft-Candell’s sinuous sculptures are a reflection of whatshapes the organic body inside and out. Created by layering multiple materials including clay, fabric,paper, and wood, tight patterns are often meticulously etched onto their surfaces, while string isoften used to bind the winding repetition evoked in her linear clay forms. Their structure is a playbetween plant and human life, in which undulating shapes become intestinal in appearance. As seenin her work “Toupee” (2013), the resemblance to an infinity symbol is a cue to internal bodilyfunctions. The smeared texture of its surface is scatological; its fecal membrane creates an endlessintestinal system. “Toupee”operates as an infinite spiral reflecting ingestion and digestion; theconstant flow of matter into and out of the body. The unending curvilinear object creates a constantrhythm, interrupted by a piece of linen placed atop its “head” that anthropomorphizes thesculpture’s abstraction. Haft-Candell’s three-dimensional collages reveal both the simplicity andcomplexity of the systems in and around us. Through their repetition, rough yet smooth textures,and intuitive yet careful formations, Haft-Candell’s forms postulate an awareness of how the organicbody is both a medium and an inspiration to the production of her work.

Usinghis ownbody to

measure the connection between body and material, Matt Merkel Hess’s installation consists of ashelving unit that displays a series of hand-built ceramic sculptures. The shelving unit reflects theexact measurement of Merkel Hess’s height and wingspan, with the height of each individual shelfcorresponding to his body parts including his feet, legs, hand, arms, and mouth. The shelvesfunction as a temporary archive, recording Merkel Hess’s bodily presence through clay. The works

Unzicker, Allyson, “Corporeal Impulse: Contemporary Artists Working in Clay,” The Brooklyn Rail, April 2, 2014, page 2 of 5.

VSF VARIOUS SMALL FIRES812 N HIGHLAND AVE LOS ANGELES 90038INFO@VSF.LA / 310.426.8040presented in this installation are a wry experimentation with simplistic modes of artistic production.For instance, “Knee Bowl,” “Shin Bowl,” and “Palm Bowl” (all 2011),are all made by simply pressingclay onto his body to create an indentation. “Right Hand Sculpted By My Left Hand” is a sculptedversion of Merkel Hess’s right hand using only his left hand. The object’s awkward construction isthe result of the artist’s attempt to sculpt solely with his non-dominant hand. In their archivaldisplay, the sculptures become memory objects of his artistic practice.

The top shelf displays “Every Spoon In My House” (2013), an homage to a piece in Mike Kelley’s1993 exhibition, Mike Kelley: The Uncanny,in which Kelley collected and displayed almost everyspoon he owned. Kelley stated that, “the uncontrollable impulse to collect and order is itself,

uncanny.”1 By re-creating every spoon in his own house in clay, Merkel Hess’s piece functions as astand-in for the original. These spoons, holding no sentimental value, represent the accumulation ofarbitrary household objects over time. Yet, their handmade quality serves to index a moment in hispersonal life and artistic practice. Through the mundane act of collecting everyday objects, theartist’s identity inadvertently becomes attached to them.

Jeffry Mitchell’s vessels embody artistic and queer identity through narrative displays involvingsmall animals, skulls, flowers, chains, and other whimsical objects and creatures. These figures oftenappear cartoonish and clumsy due to the immediacy involved in their construction. Althoughseemingly light-hearted in appearance, they are deceptively irreverent. Covered in a thick, creamyglaze, the figures become almost buried in obscurity. Innocent creatures are cast alongside malegenitalia and orifices making the muddy and crude application of the glaze read as excrement andother bodily discharges, such as semen and spit. Embracing the craft domesticity of ceramics,Mitchell employs clay as a medium to engage with critical content, such as the struggles of religion,sexual identity, and loss.

Mitchell’s piece, “1976,” depicts husky men holding hands, along with bears, skulls, and large

grasping hands, all of which spiral around the shape of the stacked vessels. The playful bears2

symbolize pre-AIDS era promiscuity. The hands reach out and grasp for freedom only to be buriedin a pile of skulls which are a reoccurring symbol in Mitchell’s work and serve as a reminder ofhuman mortality. This continual interplay between fertility and impotence, life and death, reflectsthe pleasures of a fearless time in history before the devastation of the AIDS crisis. Ripe with tensionand visual splendor, Mitchell’s work provokes a longing for touch. Their raw physicality is madeevident by their totemic presence. They become minor monuments representing the tenderstruggles of repression, desire, and longing, allowing the viewer to feel their emotive content that isboth joyous and contemplative.

“Decorative Protection”(2011 – 2013), is a series of work that dismantles misconceptions about thefemale body and its need to be protected. Here Bari Ziperstein expands her ceramic practice outsideof clay by incorporating cement, leather, custom decals, and other found materials into hersculptures. “Bust”combines terracotta in the upper body and cement in the lower. The face is made

Unzicker, Allyson, “Corporeal Impulse: Contemporary Artists Working in Clay,” The Brooklyn Rail, April 2, 2014, page 3 of 5.

VSF VARIOUS SMALL FIRES812 N HIGHLAND AVE LOS ANGELES 90038INFO@VSF.LA / 310.426.8040

Matt Merkel Hess, “Right Hand Sculpted By My LeftHand,” 2013. Unglazed porcelain, 4 1/4 × 8 × 2 1/2 ̋.Courtesy of the artist.

with a decal of an abstracted screen door with leeringeyes, while the lower half is devoid of limbs, consistingonly of cinder blocks adorned with a leather shawl. Thisimagery is derived from 1980s advertisements depictingwomen standing near wrought iron security doors,protective devices meant to appeal to a demographic ofstay-at-home wives.

Ziperstein’s sculptures deconstruct the female form byabstracting the body and re-presenting it as a powerfulstructure. These Frankenstein amalgamations of thefemale figure effectively contrast the visual seduction ofmarketing and the misconceptions of women as weakand frail as portrayed in these ads. In using such durable materials, Ziperstein creates a super-evolved female form, whose strong exterior becomes a screen-like partition for her own protection,rather than the subject of vulnerability. The stacked cinder blocks act as a dividing wall betweenviewer and object; its turned head and watchful eyes peer out as if warding off danger. Though thesefigures are a fragmented and abstracted form of the female body, their totemic fortitude conveystheir strength.

Kathleen Ryan’s sculptures are as much about physical strength as they are about fragility.Intuitively visceral and deliberately raw, her sculptures are created by pinching and molding clayover steel armatures. Finger prints remain visible on their surfaces retaining a visual record of theirhistory and maker. During the firing process, the steel begins to melt and the cracking of the clayoccurs as a resistance to the steel. “Block Wall” (2012)is a drooping outline of a cinder block wall: itsthin lines create the appearance of a three-dimensional drawing in space. Drawing, like clay, sharesa similar sense of immediacy. Standing as a melted, deteriorating screen, the upright position of“Block Wall” is made possible only with the support of each panel leaning against one another. Thisunconventional construction distinguishes it from the sterile industrial architecture that inspiredthe artist.

“Block Wall”’s crumbling exterior exists in a form ofconstant decay and repair. It is innately contradictory inthat it is durable and fragile, large yet unable to stand onits own; it is both steel and clay. Its large scale garners afirm, physical presence that requires the viewer to walkaround it; yet it again counters its own sculpturalqualities by being deceptively flat. In this way, the piecefunctions much like a drawing, challenging thespectator’s perception of depth through its illusoryscreen. The negative space, in and around its outlines,

Unzicker, Allyson, “Corporeal Impulse: Contemporary Artists Working in Clay,” The Brooklyn Rail, April 2, 2014, page 4 of 5.

VSF VARIOUS SMALL FIRES812 N HIGHLAND AVE LOS ANGELES 90038INFO@VSF.LA / 310.426.8040Jeffry Mitchell, “Basket With Two Skeletons,” 2013.Glazed earthenware, 10 1/2 × 10 × 9 1/2 ̋. Courtesy ofthe artist.

causes the viewer to fill in the missing information withtheir own imagination. It is through absence that theforms become present.

Notes

1. Note from Harems (2004)

2. Also a slang term used by queer men to identify husky men with body hair

CONTRIBUTOR

Allyson Unzicker

ALLYSON UNZICKER is an M.F.A. candidate in Critical & Curatorial Studies, University of California, Irvine, Claire Trevor School of theArts. This essay was written for the exhibition, Corporeal Impulse, at the Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College(January 21 April 12, 2014).

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Unzicker, Allyson, “Corporeal Impulse: Contemporary Artists Working in Clay,” The Brooklyn Rail, April 2, 2014, page 5 of 5.