1 00:00:12,183 --> 00:00:15,271 ARLENE SHECHET: Clay is extremely elemental. 2 00:00:15,271 --> 00:00:19,380 There is nothing about it that is attractive or interesting. 3 00:00:19,380 --> 00:00:21,668 It’s just very, very basic. 4 00:00:24,400 --> 00:00:31,539 The lack of beauty in its raw state is important to me, 5 00:00:31,539 --> 00:00:33,441 because it gives me great freedom. 6 00:00:34,521 --> 00:00:37,271 Because it has no character, I can make anything. 7 00:00:38,425 --> 00:00:41,020 It’s just there to be invented. 8 00:00:43,156 --> 00:00:44,610 So it’s called wedging. 9 00:00:45,739 --> 00:00:48,513 It’s a clay term for kneading. 10 00:00:51,779 --> 00:00:53,520 If you learn how to do it, 11 00:00:53,520 --> 00:00:57,668 it rocks back and forth and it forms this spiral. 12 00:00:58,601 --> 00:01:00,270 It’s quite cool looking. 13 00:01:01,596 --> 00:01:05,314 I’m not a person dedicated to a material. 14 00:01:05,560 --> 00:01:09,170 But I have dedicated the last six or seven years 15 00:01:09,170 --> 00:01:10,461 to working in clay. 16 00:01:22,835 --> 00:01:30,145 Clay is one of these materials that permits one to be both in control and out of control. 17 00:01:30,956 --> 00:01:33,648 It’s like a real conversation with the work. 18 00:01:34,336 --> 00:01:39,860 One of the great things about making art is that you get to make things 19 00:01:39,860 --> 00:01:43,288 and then listen to those things and pay attention to those things. 20 00:01:59,100 --> 00:02:01,467 I always wanted to be in a factory. 21 00:02:01,909 --> 00:02:06,118 I would tell my parents that I wanted to be either a farmer or a factory worker. 22 00:02:07,002 --> 00:02:10,190 My parents completely blew me off with that one. 23 00:02:11,148 --> 00:02:14,650 Growing up in New York, you’re sort of seeing everything finished. 24 00:02:15,239 --> 00:02:17,870 You don’t see anything being made. 25 00:02:17,870 --> 00:02:20,121 So I wanted to know where did everything come from. 26 00:02:31,268 --> 00:02:34,002 - I think I’d better cover this again. 27 00:02:39,477 --> 00:02:42,980 If I add a piece of clay too soon, it collapses. 28 00:02:42,980 --> 00:02:45,334 Too late, it won’t attach. 29 00:02:46,332 --> 00:02:48,490 There’s a perfect moment to do everything. 30 00:02:48,490 --> 00:02:52,389 And then when the moment passes it’s gone and there’s nothing to do about it. 31 00:02:53,788 --> 00:02:55,870 Intellectually and maybe spiritually, 32 00:02:55,870 --> 00:02:58,670 it’s an interesting thing to work with. 33 00:03:24,401 --> 00:03:26,886 I build four or five things at the same time. 34 00:03:27,549 --> 00:03:30,090 All of these pieces are at the beginning. 35 00:03:30,090 --> 00:03:36,339 So these pieces will probably be much larger and have other elements 36 00:03:36,339 --> 00:03:37,815 that I don’t know about yet. 37 00:03:57,212 --> 00:04:04,650 Yesterday, I figured out that I needed to add some parts to this, 38 00:04:04,650 --> 00:04:08,390 cause this is just going to be woven coils 39 00:04:08,390 --> 00:04:12,027 and those just have to be added a couple of at a time. 40 00:04:26,120 --> 00:04:31,776 I have these pins to remind me that these haven’t been joined, 41 00:04:32,414 --> 00:04:35,523 because sometimes I could just forget. 42 00:04:39,820 --> 00:04:44,410 I was thinking, I have to have a real appetite for ugly. 43 00:04:45,589 --> 00:04:49,715 There are so many points where this thing is just hideous 44 00:04:50,255 --> 00:04:52,734 and yet I have to believe in it. 45 00:04:53,293 --> 00:04:55,261 And I have to go on with it. 46 00:04:55,727 --> 00:04:58,796 But it might be something good. 47 00:05:11,170 --> 00:05:13,046 Cube next. 48 00:05:14,470 --> 00:05:24,833 And uh, in about fifteen minutes we’ll pour out the extra slip that you see on top. 49 00:05:25,840 --> 00:05:32,063 And the plaster will allow the things to become dry clay then 50 00:05:32,750 --> 00:05:34,555 when we take it out in a couple of hours. 51 00:05:40,767 --> 00:05:46,165 This is a slip cast mold of a firebrick. 52 00:05:46,165 --> 00:05:50,951 And you can see the mold picks up every single part of the firebrick. 53 00:05:50,951 --> 00:05:54,880 Every nuance, when they’re wet like this, 54 00:05:54,880 --> 00:06:01,987 I sometimes take the opportunity to, you know, do something with it. 55 00:06:02,920 --> 00:06:06,310 If this thing did not have the air pressing out, 56 00:06:06,310 --> 00:06:07,310 it would just collapse. 57 00:06:07,310 --> 00:06:08,750 It wouldn’t hold all these forms. 58 00:06:08,750 --> 00:06:11,449 Or if it was solid, you couldn’t do it at all. 59 00:06:11,449 --> 00:06:14,246 This is already on a kiln shelf, right? 60 00:06:19,500 --> 00:06:26,873 The really out of control part is this thing that I slave over or I play with, 61 00:06:27,610 --> 00:06:34,639 will dry for several months and then it will go into a kiln of over 2,000 degrees 62 00:06:34,639 --> 00:06:35,900 and that’s nuts. 63 00:06:35,900 --> 00:06:38,259 You know that..... 64 00:06:38,259 --> 00:06:40,469 And then all bets are off. 65 00:06:42,851 --> 00:06:47,456 I come in here and pick from the tree of glaze. 66 00:06:48,901 --> 00:06:54,630 I have this reference book that has photographs of every work and 67 00:06:54,630 --> 00:06:56,529 then notes on what I did. 68 00:06:58,837 --> 00:07:02,130 If one glaze is under another glaze or on top of it, 69 00:07:02,130 --> 00:07:06,415 it will be chemically completely different and fire completely different. 70 00:07:11,350 --> 00:07:16,868 We fire with a computer to a very exact degree based on what the glazes are. 71 00:07:18,090 --> 00:07:20,645 This piece has gone through five or six firings. 72 00:07:22,020 --> 00:07:25,587 It’ll be a couple of days of firing and then 73 00:07:25,587 --> 00:07:27,277 two and a half days of cooling. 74 00:07:32,949 --> 00:07:35,220 The fact that you have to make things hollow 75 00:07:35,220 --> 00:07:37,995 is something I’m attracted to. 76 00:07:39,370 --> 00:07:42,871 This mushy substance becomes structural. 77 00:07:43,730 --> 00:07:45,270 You can push up against it, 78 00:07:45,270 --> 00:07:50,770 you can create form in a way that something that’s solid could never create form. 79 00:07:54,600 --> 00:07:57,381 Okay, we’re going to load this in pretty soon. 80 00:07:57,970 --> 00:08:01,729 If it’s a completely solid thing then it can’t be fired. 81 00:08:08,088 --> 00:08:17,440 One day I just felt how happy I was here and how I was actually getting to live my fantasy. 82 00:08:17,440 --> 00:08:21,139 That being an artist, working in a studio, 83 00:08:21,139 --> 00:08:26,440 I had created both a farm and a factory. 84 00:08:26,440 --> 00:08:28,320 And when I thought about it, 85 00:08:28,320 --> 00:08:33,345 the essence of that desire was really wanting to know how things were made. 86 00:08:53,488 --> 00:08:56,549 I’m always saying yes to new situations. 87 00:08:56,549 --> 00:09:00,333 If I keep creating a closed system, 88 00:09:00,579 --> 00:09:06,320 then I’m not uncomfortable enough to push some boundary. 89 00:09:07,376 --> 00:09:08,640 -Here we go. 90 00:09:09,278 --> 00:09:13,361 I just want to be pushing boundaries and solving problems. 91 00:09:20,916 --> 00:09:22,732 I was invited to Meissen. 92 00:09:22,732 --> 00:09:24,629 It was very, very open-ended. 93 00:09:24,850 --> 00:09:28,860 I was given a studio and I didn’t have to define a project. 94 00:09:28,860 --> 00:09:31,060 I didn’t have to say what I was going to do. 95 00:09:31,060 --> 00:09:35,331 And I didn’t have to design something that would be part of their production. 96 00:09:36,510 --> 00:09:39,220 Ninety-nine percent of the things there are cast. 97 00:09:39,220 --> 00:09:41,019 So working with molds was something 98 00:09:41,019 --> 00:09:45,722 that I hadn’t incorporated into my regular clay practice. 99 00:09:46,581 --> 00:09:49,700 The infrastructure of how things were made there 100 00:09:49,700 --> 00:09:54,410 has edged its way into my vocabulary 101 00:09:54,410 --> 00:09:59,832 in terms of the actual sculptures that I found myself making for the RISD show. 102 00:10:02,091 --> 00:10:07,019 What I brought to Meissen was everything I knew. 103 00:10:07,019 --> 00:10:08,808 I just wanted to let it rip. 104 00:10:10,724 --> 00:10:14,904 I love every kind of industrial architecture. 105 00:10:15,370 --> 00:10:17,739 Industry in general, tools. 106 00:10:18,230 --> 00:10:22,200 What some person might think of as mechanized and frightening, 107 00:10:22,200 --> 00:10:25,660 I think of as mechanized and fascinating. 108 00:10:26,495 --> 00:10:29,590 It’s also a very particular thing at a place like 109 00:10:29,590 --> 00:10:33,634 the Meissen factory which began in 1710. 110 00:10:34,480 --> 00:10:38,709 The origins of the whole porcelain world are right there. 111 00:10:38,709 --> 00:10:43,843 That was the first place in Europe where they figured out how to make porcelain. 112 00:10:45,409 --> 00:10:52,208 Inside this place is a factory, but dedicated to the handmade, 113 00:10:52,330 --> 00:10:59,868 to this vigilant craftsmanship that in many ways I am the antithesis of. 114 00:11:02,250 --> 00:11:12,918 Borrowing from their insane need for perfection, empowered my desire for imperfection. 115 00:11:14,980 --> 00:11:19,520 I walked around the factory endlessly and I realized 116 00:11:19,520 --> 00:11:22,013 that the thing I really loved were the molds. 117 00:11:22,750 --> 00:11:26,420 The mold forms were way closer to my aesthetic than 118 00:11:26,420 --> 00:11:30,200 the things that were coming out of those molds 119 00:11:30,200 --> 00:11:33,380 that were the Meissen traditional objects. 120 00:11:36,130 --> 00:11:43,420 I ended up making a proposal that I would make molds of their molds 121 00:11:43,420 --> 00:11:51,815 and cast in porcelain slip my molds creating porcelain versions of their industrial objects. 122 00:11:53,701 --> 00:11:55,060 When I cast in their molds, 123 00:11:55,060 --> 00:12:00,010 I left all of the seams and all of the little signs and symbols that 124 00:12:00,010 --> 00:12:06,041 indicated how to put the piece together and would never been seen outside of the factory. 125 00:12:07,760 --> 00:12:11,890 I cast in the signatures as sort of a celebration of the worker. 126 00:12:11,890 --> 00:12:15,334 The workers, when they saw them, they would just laugh. 127 00:12:16,390 --> 00:12:22,087 I was taking bits and pieces of everything that was true to Meissen, 128 00:12:22,087 --> 00:12:27,020 historically and everything that was true to me as a contemporary artist 129 00:12:27,020 --> 00:12:30,969 working in an 18th Century factory and try to put it together. 130 00:13:07,725 --> 00:13:10,211 ANDREW MOLLEUR: This is the largest thing up here too. 131 00:13:10,211 --> 00:13:11,727 ARLENE SHECHET: Yeah, right, right in here. 132 00:13:13,568 --> 00:13:16,100 I think really close in there is great. 133 00:13:18,432 --> 00:13:19,387 I really like that. 134 00:13:20,222 --> 00:13:22,460 It’s like coming from inside. 135 00:13:30,636 --> 00:13:33,220 Okay, well undoubtedly we will fire it again. 136 00:13:34,840 --> 00:13:39,796 But I might start, start to work with it. 137 00:13:48,954 --> 00:13:50,701 I’m going to turn this around. 138 00:13:50,701 --> 00:13:56,910 We needed to make scale versions of each sculpture for the gallery. 139 00:13:57,450 --> 00:14:06,410 Down here, I can very roughly approximate the way I might see things as I enter the gallery. 140 00:14:06,649 --> 00:14:08,910 I don’t want everything at the same height. 141 00:14:08,910 --> 00:14:12,630 I don’t want too many things with metal over there, 142 00:14:12,630 --> 00:14:14,870 too many things with concrete over here. 143 00:14:14,870 --> 00:14:19,864 So I’m balancing all of those concerns very, very intentionally. 144 00:14:22,000 --> 00:14:24,880 The complete piece is not just the ceramic. 145 00:14:24,880 --> 00:14:30,220 The complete piece is something that allows the ceramic 146 00:14:30,220 --> 00:14:35,010 to live in the world at the height I want, 147 00:14:35,010 --> 00:14:38,850 in the shape I want, and in the material combination that I want. 148 00:14:38,850 --> 00:14:40,251 And in the color I want. 149 00:14:41,380 --> 00:14:43,720 What is referred to as the pedestal, 150 00:14:43,720 --> 00:14:45,951 I sometimes call the architecture of the piece. 151 00:14:50,960 --> 00:14:54,820 I have a real appreciation for how complex it is 152 00:14:54,820 --> 00:14:57,600 to make something that is compelling 153 00:14:57,600 --> 00:15:00,000 and that changes with every view. 154 00:15:01,330 --> 00:15:08,100 That is an old-fashioned sculptural concern that I love 155 00:15:08,100 --> 00:15:11,170 and that I believe comes back to that thing of 156 00:15:11,170 --> 00:15:13,957 people walking around the pieces in the gallery. 157 00:15:14,693 --> 00:15:16,780 Sculpture creates movement. 158 00:15:17,640 --> 00:15:20,920 I did in my early teaching improvisational dance 159 00:15:20,920 --> 00:15:25,934 with the students because I think it’s the same thing. 160 00:15:37,081 --> 00:15:40,781 Clay is a great three-dimensional drawing material. 161 00:15:41,370 --> 00:15:46,779 It leaves a record in the same way that a drawing leaves a very direct record of the 162 00:15:46,779 --> 00:15:47,770 artist’s hand. 163 00:15:55,529 --> 00:15:59,858 The installation is the whole thing and that’s a very big idea. 164 00:16:00,889 --> 00:16:04,317 I think actually I’m an installation artist who makes objects. 165 00:16:18,140 --> 00:16:20,404 I want to make something more than an idea. 166 00:16:20,404 --> 00:16:24,803 I don’t want anybody to be able to describe the pieces too easily. 167 00:16:25,540 --> 00:16:28,686 I want to make things that are more open-ended than that. 168 00:16:43,000 --> 00:16:48,230 I want to make physical comedy and intellectual humor 169 00:16:48,230 --> 00:16:51,650 that has a kind of visceral reaction 170 00:16:51,650 --> 00:16:58,760 that ends up by creating some sort of complex feeling. 171 00:16:58,760 --> 00:17:02,519 So that the reaction isn’t, I understand this, 172 00:17:02,519 --> 00:17:06,552 the reaction is what is this and why?