second hand
Chalk, ceramics, found furniture and found china, knife-rest, oranges, 24-karat lusterware
An installation comprising paintings, handmade vessels, and found objects interrogates the motivations informing home décor and display, such as desires for upward social mobility. Historically, ceramic vessels served as markers of class, displayed in homes to convey status and worldliness. Exploring the role of the vessel as status symbol in Art History, Ian F. Thomas made three chalk renditions of the American artist John Singer Sargent’s portrait The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit (1882). The original painting featured four young girls with two enormous Japanese vases, prized possessions of the wealthy Boit family. The prominent display of the vessels reflects the ways in which ceramics have traditionally signified so-called “good breeding,” as well as a troubling Western tendency to fetishize Asian material culture.
More so than any other medium, ceramics lead double-lives: they can be rarefied artworks or utilitarian objects. Undermining the already tenuous distinction between the two, Thomas mounts ordinary, dirty plates on the wall where one expects to find a commemorative or limited edition object. Handmade ceramic vessels are poorly painted, arranged on and around mid-grade antique furniture, suggestive of the ways in which aspirational design often falls short. Oranges are a playful nod to the history of Dutch still life painting, where the inclusion of citrus—imported from great distances—was the ultimate symbol of wealth and luxury.
-Dr. Paula Burleigh
Art Historian and Curator
Thomas Hunter Project Space
Hunter College
New York, NY
Cast ceramic, Glass Reinforced Gypsum, Steel, 2019
Metaphorical symbology lays thick: rising tides and boats, the 1% will never be occupied, or “life of pi” meets “an inconvenient truth.” Choose your insoluble outrage.
The cartoonish style –all buffoonish 4-digit hands— allows a brief moment of child-like acceptance, which reflects our reduction of the complex into absorbable “truths.” With each “hand” demanding salvation from above, the desperate clambering buoys “hope” away. Thomas’ dark pragmatism exposes that, even when all boats rise, nothing changes. Tragically, we ignore the obvious: the boat is a distraction, too small to save anyone; a paddleless toy yawing on populist desire.
~ Ryder Richards
Dallas based artist and critic
cut drywall, acrylic paint
These vessels were made at West Virginia Universities Ceramic Production Studio. With the use of a RAM Press over 100 vessels were made from start to finish in 2 days.
The gallery became a workshop for participants- referred to as “workers”—including a punch clock and dress code. Based on a predetermined work schedule, workers would come into the dimly lit gallery, punch their time card, put on a lab coat, and go to work. The workers were students of the Art Department of Western Illinois University, where the exhibition was held. The purpose of the time clock and coat were more than just theatrics. It is through time spent that work is made. I wanted each worker to experience the physical act of punching in and out as a commitment to the work. Through this act, they gained a deeper and more complete understanding/reflection on: time spent and work done.
Acting in small groups, workers were asked to reflect on tools that they have used in their past and then asked to remake from memory in clay. 1000 pounds of earthenware was positioned in the middle of the room as their clay supply. Like a factory, each person would walk from their designated workspace to the centralized block, remove a small amount, and then return to make their tool. The workers determined the content of each object based on their personal interpretation of what “tool” meant, and whether it was worthy to be made. A garlic press, a hoe, pliers, a condom, and hundreds of other objects were made. The process of navigating through what a tool was, what that term meant.