A triaxial blend is a method of testing glaze ratios to develop new surfaces. Curator, Angelica Pozo selected three pairs of established ceramic sculptors together in collaboration.
[kopa_blockquote border=”left”] Collaboration is the art of merging two or more creative energies into a powerful partnership, one that is mutually respectful/mutually responsive to each other’s input. Angelica Pozo [/kopa_blockquote]
Triaxial Blends challenges six artists to enter the world of sculptural collaboration and to embrace the elements of surprise, negotiation, and successful navigation of equal contribution, scale, subject matter, surface treatment, and each other’s creative experience. Triaxial Blends opened at The Northern Clay Center’s Main Gallery on March 6 and continues through June 21.
Angelica Pozo roots her work in the natural world and incorporates themes of femininity, sensuality, fertility, and spirituality. She includes materials such as wire, glass, and cut nails in her works to create a sculpture that seems to mock humanity and its reckless treatment of the planet and its environment. Susan Beiner explores what we perceive as authentic, or not, by embracing the unavoidable cacophony of manufactured and artificial materials in our world and introducing those elements into her ceramic work. Syd Carpenter’s work celebrates the critical importance of family, home, community, and the earth’s bounty. It often relates to the history of African-American family farmers in the South as well as their present lives and contributions. Kristen Cliffel’s sculptural work and studio practice revolve around the topics of domesticity and emotional relationships. Christine Golden predominantly creates the human figure in her large ceramic works. Her narrative sculpture draws inspiration from the human experience and combines the influences of culture, adventure, and drama. Sana Musasama says of her work, “Making our art is the purest thing we do. There are no hidden lies. My work is my truth as I have lived it.”
From these six artists, Susan Beiner is paired with Christine Golden; Syd Carpenter is paired with Sana Musasama, and Kristen Cliffel paired with Angelica Pozo. This collaborative collective embarked on a creative sculptural endeavor supported by travel, conversation, mutual support, and written documentation throughout the evolution of each new sculpture for the exhibition. The artist collaborators involved in Triaxial Blends historically lean toward narrative or representational forms and tend to use numerous components and materials in their work. The logistics of not only the communication of ideas and objectives between artists unfamiliar to one another but also the literal creation of each work in two studios, inescapably generated intensity and kindled a new level of creativity.
HAF: Angelica, first I want to congratulate you on a project well done; how were you given this curatorial opportunity?
Angelica: Northern Clay Center was looking for someone to curate this time slot in their schedule, and I was suggested by someone who had been my studio assistant for a ceramics workshop I taught at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine. I was offered an opportunity to come up with the theme for the show and curate artists, with consultation and approval of the executive director. She was mainly looking to bring to her community new artists that they had not seen before. Give them new experiences. Someone who had recently shown there was the only nixing she did on who I would suggest for the exhibition.
HAF: What criteria do you employ in pairing the artists?
Angelica: As I was formulating my concepts for this exhibition, I was thinking that I didn’t recall having seen a show asking ceramic sculptors to collaborate. I thought for sure, by their very nature, that such collaborations would have to be much more interactive than those of potters I had seen. In the world of ceramic art, I can think of many fine examples of professional collaborative partners who, after years of working together have developed a language of their own with each partner’s contribution fully integrated into its finely honed resolution. On the other hand, collaboration challenges, which asks artists to team up with others that they have not worked with before, offer an element of the unknown, of risk and surprise, In these temporary alliances, artists are allowed to step out of their routine, to experiment, to meld their creative souls to that of another creative being. It is an invitation to share styles, knowledge, and processes, each member ideally learning from as much as teaching the other. I knew that this process would get deep and personal, so as I began to curate the rest of the exhibition, I knew I didn’t want to create forced marriages. I wanted the artists to be comfortable in their collaboration. So, after confirming with Kristen that she was on board, I went on to choose two of the other artists and allowed them to select their collaborator, giving us three pairs of collaborations, our Triaxial Blend.
Featured work: “Shrine to the Four Winds,” 2020, by Angelica Pozo and Kristen Cliffel. Low-fire red and white clay, glaze, gold luster, grout, wood, acrylic paint. 23″ x 27″ x 27″. A portion of the article is an excerpt from the Triaxial Blends Exhibition Catalog.
