Yesterday, up on the Clay Art Center roof, above the tallest of three kiln chimneys, the final element of the
CHILE·NEW YORK·IRAQ ensemble was installed. It is called
Mano, an injured hand reaching up towards the sky at the level of the steeple-top of Don Bosco Church at the head of Beech Street, best seen from the Center entrance, above the
Iraq, Iran and
Muerto.
It is now a year after the midst of the heavy work lifting the primary population of
Faces onto the front wall and bolting them into the cement looking towards the October 4, 2008 as part of the Center-inspired county-wide
All Fired Up! initiative. Originally intended to be up for two months, the installation was twice extended and is now scheduled to remain into May 2010 when its closing will be marked by a second integrated live music event.
Background:
As a founding member of the Clay Art Center in 1958, I helped Henry Okamoto move the kilns and equipment across Beech Street to #40 from its original site at #49 while living and drawing in a kerosene-heated storefront in 38 Grace Church Street at the end of the block where the tasty Brisa Marina Take-out is now.
Our new landlord was Frank Zottola, an internationally known maker of unique trumpet mouthpieces in the building whose counsel was constantly sought by many great brass musicians. Upstairs, for a few years just prior to our move, he and his sons had established a live jazz club with purple-painted walls.
There was no commercially available clay then. Initially, we made our clay body together by mixing it dry with hoes on the loading dock, soaking it down in water tubs and drying it out in round plaster bats before sessions of hand-wedging. I initiated the installation of a large obsolete slow-speed bread dough mixer from the Arnold Bread Co. plant down Purdy Avenue which was capable of mixing a 500-lb. load and was used for decades just where the kiln room is now. The kilns then were in the large high-ceilinged main studio space where we worked together without interrupting cubicles. The emphasis of our work, as inspired by founder Katherine Choy, and her work on permanent display ,was on creating unique Clay Art along the long range of pottery through sculpture.
The Center has been the place where my personal path into Art through clay and drawing and painting was discovered and pursued. My active studio membership extended from 1958 through 1966 when I established studio Spirale in New Rochelle with many significant practical pointers from Henry Okamoto.
Top: Mano ; Above: Henry Okomoto, 1958 (photos: Jeffoto)
Installation Development
CAC Executive Director Reena Kashyap's extended invitation to use the front wall of the Center for an outdoor installation required extensive study of the facade of our generic mid-20th century factory building before any holes were drilled last summer. Expressive resonance at each end of the ceramic ensemble composition, its vibrational flow across the white wall punctuated by groups of dark windows and the strong horizontal roof skyline with its three kiln chimneys presented challenges.
While drawing up an initial plan, a choice of about 50
Faces from a total ceramic population of over
400 Faces was being made. The actual work of hanging each Face on the Center front wall was finally determined by the choice and placement of the previous one.
Up close, the elements of
CHILE·NEW YORK·IRAQ are individually named
Faces, each distinct inspiration embodying a unique spirit. The fundamental ensemble expression however, is dependent upon composing a unified vibrational entity in which all the glazed ceramic stoneware elements resonate together from all aspects of this particular open public space. Creative Architectural Installation is also a public art process in an open studio.
Above: Jeff during installation (photo: John Begansky)
Composition
One key to the composition left end is the spirit-portrait of Henry O. standing up against the largest kiln in the kiln-room facing the loading dock, areas where Henry had spent so many thousands of heavy-lifting hours underwriting the survival of the Center with sustained physical, mental and spiritual efforts.
Another is the large Nicaragua head guarding the Center entrance door on the right side, salt-glazed at Cranbrook in Michigan, created in response to the wailing sound of mothers whose children's schoolbus had just been blown-up by contras with weapons supplied in secret deals between governments in Washington & Iran in 1984.
The work of physical composition seems directed by the social-architectural reality of the Center building. The main windows are framed with tile-Faces. Those above the entrance corner are both flung and composed. At a certain physical scale of endeavor, the artist's belief in the materials at hand, serves the needs of the harmonic vibration of the work.
In the middle of the wall is the vertical row of
Iraq over
Muerto under the
Face of
Iran and
Mano reaching for the sky.
Above:
Henry O.,
Nicaragua,
Iraq over
Muerto
Subject
Clay Art, like Music, will always be a fundamental language of communication throughout human history. It has the power to carry human touch through time, underneath all verbal commentary and explanation, over and across all the changing national boundaries around our world. Handling fired earth material is driven by the levels of belief in the process by the potter and by circumstances, urgency and depth of feeling at the time of creation. Degrees of belief may never be adequately explained but can be actually touched.
The three interrelated subjects of my public work over these past 50 years have been Peace, Music and Resistance to War. Over this past year of active outdoor installation on Beech Street, I have come to understand that the subject of resistance to war is also joined to an awareness of suffering. Last week, I saw in the words of Zen-teacher Dainin Katagiri, a contemporary of Henry Okamoto, the Buddhist concept of the cry of the world.
CHILE·NEW YORK·IRAQ may be an attempt to evoke the vibration of a portion of the quiet cry of the world in the tactile language of Clay Art. Enduring intent and individual responses to the fired result can create a unique and timely dynamic interchange.
Association with CAC
Involvement in the Clay Art Center seems renewed by continuous engagement with the development of this installation project. Contribution of this art effort together with its material support and assumption of risk could be considered a lifetime dues. The work also embodies a direct 52-year window into the commitment of the original Clay Art Center community brought together by Katherine Choy and Henry Okamoto combined with its real engagement with the current flow of life at the Center within its community and environment now.
The original light-bulb idea of Reena Kashyap to do this project here and to
extend its presence is a continuous beacon of possibility to practice. The clarity and sensitivity of Director of Operations Doug Breitbart's collaborative approach to the demands of the physical world made the strenuous installation process possible along with the masterful and joyful extra efforts of CAC Artist Michael Failla. Leigh Taylor Mickelson, CAC's Program Director, is always geared up and ready for communications possibilities while taking care of so much else for the Center simultaneously. The soul of the Center lights up every day in the sustained commitment of Ruth Berelson, one who knows the whole score in the setting of our whole society.
Thanks, Clay Art Center, for this continuous and constantly moving possibility of creative opening over five decades.
Jeff Schlanger
Studio Spirale
Jeff Schlanger, on CAC's roof (photo: Doug Breitbart)
