Curatorial Statement
IMPACT: Archetypal Riffs
The works of John Williams, Katherine Taylor and Daniel Bare begin with observations. Each artist considers implications of interactions between human elements and the land. However, concepts from a common fountainhead quickly diverge, raising questions of commoditization, place and consumption. The resulting objects strike discordant notes of control against chaos and supply the viewer with ample fodder for challenging visual debate. Analyzing the works in relation to each other not only accentuates their disparate visual conclusions, but also grants us opportunity to review the topics in common from a new perspective.
The objects are rife with query and gleam, reaffirming the spirit of spring and exploration. April is, after all, the month designated for terrestrial reflection. It is the month to consider all manner of revival. We may even find permission to take leave of our usual obsession with weighty concerns and revel in the lush surfaces, textures and forms.
If we do give over to formal indulgences, lolling about consuming gold, porcelain and remnants of sandy beds, we become manic with verdurous hedonism. We are pulled into the intricate mechanics of turbines and pipelines. We may be strangely compelled to visually rake our psyche against caustic remnants of shards, unearthing dormant masochism. We may yearn to lap up syrupy glazes from their bed of polychrome clay.
Inversely, we may be repelled by the decadence. We may perceive these objects as gross displays and regurgitations of a too-prominent dilemma with no solution.
The most interesting potential lies in awakening the contest between guardian and hedonist. The field of ceramics is oft agitated by incongruous intentions, helplessly engrossed in a perpetual conflict of love for and depletion of material.