Artist Statement

Kè Táo Tú 克陶途

In these times of complex and sometimes maddening global flows of money, things, and people, the simplicity of a well-made bowl reminds us how important it is to pay attention to everyday gestures and motions. I make bowls, vases, and lidded jars that follow a simple Japanese-influenced austerity in both form and surface decoration. I make these everyday pieces using ceramic stoneware, throwing the clay on a wheel, shaping and trimming, and then finishing off with smooth foot rings and rims. For surface decoration, on smaller pieces I tend to use brighter tones from an earthy palette and focus on greens, browns, and reds. On larger pieces, I use a narrower range and darker tones.

In contrast, my recent figurative work usually does not have smooth surfaces or edges. I start as if I am making one of these aesthetically pleasing forms to use in everyday activities or special events. The figures reflect my ongoing interest in developing textures with organic flows and dynamic movement. With tools or my hands, I dent, mold, cut, join, and carve. Depending on the moisture level in the clay, carving creates slightly different effects. These slight differences allow me to create bark-like textures while adding fresher and wetter clay helps develop the root-like forms that flow both downward to the ground and also in some pieces upward around and inside the head of the figure. Loosely modeled on human forms, the figurative pieces I have been making display the dynamic flow of organic roots with faces evoking a sense of yearning, speaking, or resignation.

Clay has a voice and in a literal way, the facial expressions on my pieces speak or shout through open mouths. However, the pieces are less about the unspoken word as it is about the tension between speaking and understanding, hearing and unknowing. The figurative forms present the viewer with the tensions between the deeply carved texture, human-like form, organic dynamic surface, and facial expressions of intense emotional outcry. So while clay has offered me a way to bring to “voice” ideas and feelings that I have not or cannot write, through these figures I suggest that even when made into solid stone, the gesture of standing still to speak is still often not enough. The pieces articulate a broader experience of displacement and search for belonging particular to some of us in these tumultuous times, these turbulent places.

Viewing cubist representations of everyday faces and objects, one can see the violence of stitching disparate perspectives into imagined real images. Similarly, my figurative work challenges the assumption of security and standing still, belonging and rootedness. Through presenting different depths, textures, gestures, the figures highlight the the resonances between flow and stillness, groundedness and movement, expression and silence. While graceful everyday bowls can provide a measure of tactile comfort, my figurative forms question the imagined stability of standing, rootedness, and speech, and, to reconsider how everyday gestures and motions keep us, still and here.

2019 May 24

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Carved Roots Standing (exhibition)

In a series of ceramic figures called “Carved Roots Standing”, I depict the challenges of navigating unfamiliar places away from home and community. The figures range from 10 to 45 centimeters tall and are composed of ceramic stoneware. Each is based on the human form, altered, and covered by bark- and root-like textures. The pieces have been fired with red and white glazes or iron oxide. I have also wood-fired several of the figures. While encompassing a range of forms, textures, and colors, the series narrowly exudes a sense of sadness and yearning.

To construct the figures, I begin by throwing the body as a large cylinder. I both throw and hand-build the legs and base. I then build the head and create a preliminary facial structure and expression. As I put each of the pieces together, I periodically return to the head and develop the facial expression. I use these moments to help me determine the figure’s eventual final shape and texture. While I spend considerable time on the exterior texture and overall form of the figure, the facial expression anchors the piece. The tension between the facial expression and the overall form underlines the series’ theme.

The figures in the series create a landscape of questions about standing and presence. The carved skin of bark- and root-like textures envelop the bodies unevenly. Atop swerving or rigidly straight bodies, the faces ask the viewer to look inside, or perhaps outward to what the figure sees and feels. Through questions asked by the series through the textures, shadows, and shapes, the series invites the viewer to contemplate the impact of displacement and a search for belonging.

2019 May 17