kill/eat

Fall quarter is definitely over (hallelujah), so I figured I'd post the final pieces I made for my ceramics class. This was by far my favorite class. It's called Performing Tableware, and it frames the actions and objects of the table as sites of research and art-making. 

The first piece we were assigned was to create a serving tool or utensil inspired by the food that was being served. (My original choice was peaches, but since peaches are 110% out of season in November, I had to make a last minute switch to red pears, which turned out to be a very appropriate choice after all.) Viewers were asked to approach the arrangement and eat the fruit. I wanted to mimic the measure of destruction/breakage that occurs when we pick a fruit off a branch, and because of the precarious arrangement of the fruits and the "utensils," the action of "picking" the fruit called evoked a breakage and dismantling.

[Untitled]
Glazed white clay







My final project for this class was a 25-ft, 15-piece installation titled Providence and based on the Bible story of Peter's vision of the clean/unclean foods. I wanted to create an installation that would invoke a measure of religious awe and manifest the action of providing and delivering and bestowing, particularly from heaven to earth. Each piece was hung with clear fishing line and filled with ice that then melted through the holes and dripped onto the staircase below. 

Providence (Glazed slip, fishing line, ice)
The next day, Peter went to the rooftop to pray. He became hungry, and while lunch was being prepared, he fell asleep and had a vision. He saw the skies opening up and a large blanket being lowered from heaven by its four corners. Every kind of animal and reptile and bird you could think of was in it. A voice told him, "Get up, Peter. Kill and eat." Peter said, "Surely not, Lord! I've never eaten anything unclean." The voice came again, "What I have cleansed, no longer call unholy." This happened three more times, and then the blanket was pulled back up into the skies.





(If you have any questions at all about either of these pieces, don't hesitate to ask!)