Thursday, December 9, 2010

Molly Hatch: MIMESIS at Ferrin Gallery THROUGH DEC 31










Growing up in a family of craftsmen and painters, I was encouraged to pass my time by drawing, painting and making. It became clear to me that the act of art making is both meaningful and valued. My examination of the traditional relationship of craft to fine art directly stems from this familial encouragement to make art and make it useful.

A cup or a bowl is almost universally accessible and navigable as most people use them in their daily lives. For me, the blank cup is anonymous in a manner similar to a blank piece of paper. The three-dimensional surface tableware provides is rich with conceptual potential as a place for drawings and paintings. Interaction is encouraged through the decoration of hidden surfaces—the underside of a cup, beneath a lid or on a handle.

I am attracted to the aesthetic qualities of familiar domestic objects and patterns and appropriate them into my work from both historical and contemporary sources. I crop original patterns, play with scale, remix and alter imagery with a contemporary palette and altered scale. I aim to make useful and beautiful vessels that are contemporary counterparts to their historical precedents.

Through display, an item that we often pass by in our day to day can become an object of consideration. In altering the more accepted modes of storage of functional objects in the home I aim to question the traditional perception of the role of ceramics and craft in relationship to art, decoration and function.

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