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Contemporary Ceramic Vessels As A Communication Tool?


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Hi

I'm doing an MA with a focus on ceramics and am looking at how contemporary ceramics can be used as a tool in embedding cultural identity.

 

I'm interested in hearing if anyone has read any current, recent research around the use of ceramic vessels as communication tools or has read about how ceramic vessels are currently used in ceremonies, rituals or traditions by individuals or groups or where ceramic vessels are seen as objects of emotional value and sentiment due to their function as well as aesthetic ?

 

Lots of historical information and research but not locating current material (as in last 3-4 years maximum)

If anyone has seen or read anything that might fit into this area, please let me know.

 

Much thanks

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I make some pieces specifically for the rituals of Wicca, and for individual Wiccans (ex. pendants, spirit animals). For my part, it is simply using the pentagram and the symbols of the four elements (earth, air, water, fire), certain alchemy symbols, images of anmals etc., in functional pieces that are either pre-defined by their practices (ex. chalice/cauldron) or more loosely functional, such as incense burners in the color of an element, with the cone well stamped in something of the culture, ie. pentagram, alchemy symbol, spirit animal etc.) Attached is an earth (green) incense burner with pentagram, a cone burner with a spirit animal Bear (paw), and a small cauldron.

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Art that is centered in social/political/economic issues is fascinating. Just watching the evolution of the "tagging" of NYC subways cars, from the back-in-the-day of the intial expressive angst of disenfranchised, impoverished, marginalized, minority kids from Harlem & the South Bronx, street art turned into high fashion fabrics, seeing prison garb & gestures morph into dance and music, and observing grafitti become accepted as highly-accaimed public murals is an education in cultural communication. I remember getting a scathing review from one of my art teachers because my piece centered on the 1977 fireing squad execution of Gary Gilmore, who demanded that he be killed that way, and the chastisement was a very clear message that one ought not infuse art with such tacky subjects. Other countries seem to be more aggressive with culturally and sociologically oriented art, as an expression of identity, compared to the U.S., which seems to primarily revere and accept the art of native peoples, but not so much that of other groups. I am curious whether that is more a function of lack of imagination/interest or that of a supressed assertion of cultural identity???   

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