Art
Handmade ceramic crane bowl by Brad Menninga
- Item Number
- 185
- Estimated Value
- 40 USD
- Sold
- 55 USD to asa27a5ee
The winning bid will go to FrontStream Global Fund (tax ID 26-3265577), a 501c3 nonprofit organization, which will send the donation to COMMUNITY ALLIANCE FOR GLOBAL JUSTICE (tax ID 203770707) on behalf of the winner.
- Number of Bids
- 11 - Bid History
Item Description
Decoration is cranes over wheat. Internal glaze amber brown hare's fur. Food safe. The bowl is about 7 inches diameter, 4 inches deep.
Item Special Note
Artist Statement 5/2020
In my work I sculpt narrative surface ornamentations on ceramic forms to record my reflections on current events and concerns. There is a long history in ceramics of using decorative imagery to document and communicate the hopes and worldviews of their crafters and consumers. Painted amphora, slip-trailed colonial redware, Wedgwood medallions, and many other examples serve as inspirations for my attempts to produce contemporary commentaries on clay.
My current artwork explores both present and past challenges to the Enlightenment ideal of universal human dignity. Through the appropriation and re-imagining of neo-classical ceramics associated with the Enlightenment era, I try to draw connections from the idealism of the 18th century to contemporary attacks on democracy and society. I often erode the clay surfaces to represent the battering of Enlightenment ideals by the growing preoccupation with nationalism, alternative facts, and the rejection of scientific curiosity. Other times this visual surface decay represents the contradictions present within the founding fathers’ conception of equality.
The elements of narrative included in my work are often meant to interrogate foundational myths of family, community, and nation by making visible the cracks and omissions in these stories we tell ourselves. Often, I will also reflect this critique back onto my own constructions by including imagery meant to sabotage overly simplistic interpretation. The goal is not to encourage nihilism or relativism but rather to acknowledge the humility we must have while living with the trouble of stories that are in many ways fictional, but hold power over our lives with real consequences. If, as the philosophers suggest, all meaning is contingent, we must be willing to constantly re-evaluate these shifting contingencies.
Donated By:
Karen Cowgill
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