Welcome to
1001POTS 2013 edition.
This is a special event in that 1001Pots is celebrating its
25th anniversary. A big milestone such as this provides us with an
opportunity to reflect on the past 25 years, especially for those of us who
were here at the start.
A common question
among potters who have participated in 1001POTS tends to be:
Why do we create with clay?
Depending on
the person, there are many answers
to this question. But before I give you my reason, I want to take you back to
the beginning of 1001Pots and look at how the world we know has changed.
The first
year of 1001POTS was the year that the Berlin wall came down.
*There were
the pro-democracy demonstrations and student massacres in Tiananmen Square.
*The Soviet
Union began the withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan, and Nintendo Game Boy
went on sale and
*A group of
53 potters gathered at a small village called Val David. It was located about 100
kilometers north of Montreal, Quebec, The reason of the gathering was to host a
pottery and ceramic exhibition and sale.
Kinya
Ishakawa was the gentleman responsible for organizing the event.
In the years that followed
*the
internet was something very new and technical, and was used mostly by the
military.
*The World
Wide Web was established in 1990.
*Computers
were gaining in popularity, but personal data storage was limited to large
floppy disks that held a mere 64k of information, today we can hold 64 gig on a
little device called a USB.
*The Hubble
telescope was put into space the same year.
*Global
positioning became feasible in 1993.
*DVDs were
developed in 1995.
*Mammal
cloning happened in 1997 and in this year we gained the MP3 player. We no
longer had to carry around large box radios on our shoulder.
*Google
joined the lineup in 1998 followed by the DVR. Now we could copy those songs by
the thousands. Intellectual property became the buzz word in the legal world. Napster
followed, where peer to peer communication allowed the sharing of music.
*The Human
Genome Project was launched in 2000.
*We were
given the first AbioCar artificial heart in 2001.
*In 2003 the
first visit to mars by the Mars Exploration Rover took place.
I mention these
events today, to show that technology made massive advancements during the past
25 years, yet, we as potters, ceramicists and artists, continued to create art
and craft, using a medium that accompanied man and his world for thousands of
years. We have continued to follow a traditional art form, that of working with
clay.
The potters
before us took dry earth found on the banks of a river or stream, added some
water, mixed the two together and form that malleable substance that we call stoneware,
porcelain and clay.
They then used
this soft malleable mixture to create a volume; a vessel to hold water, to
store grain and in some instances, hold human remains.
They created
forms of man, women, animals, fauna, and dwellings.
They use
these forms as three dimensional canvases that allow images to be carved, drawn
and painted upon.
They created
cups from which to drink and bowls from which to eat. They created forms that
represented their emotions and their feelings; forms that inspire the potters
of today.
They then transformed
these clay objects through the use of fire.
When we
compare working with clay to the technology of the last 25 years, it is clear to see that clay
transformation was in its self, a monumental, technical advancement that has
served mankind through civilization.
The ceramics
from the past remind us that, the objects we create today will become icons of
our culture in the future.They will be the markers of our history and our
cultures.
They will serve
us water, tea, spirits, and food.
The objects
we create will also serve our desire to have items of beauty enter into our
daily lives. They will be looked at, fondled, used and cared for so that future
generations will benefit from our artistic desire.
So why do we
do clayart?
I quote J.M Thornton; “we get no greater pleasure than
showing each other our mud pies.”
I hope I
have given all of you here today something to think about over the next 25
years of 1001POTs.
