small work
functional work

The Present is the Key to the Past (2004)

porcelain, Stancill stoneware, mastic, steel
112.5" x 23" x 1.5"

The Present is the Key to the Past (2004)

This piece is from a larger body of ceramic wall works titled "Land/Marks." In forming these works, I begin on the floor- stomping, tearing, pounding mounds of clay and splashing buckets of slip. Thus set in motion, natural processes continue forming the work as the clay dries, warps, and cracks. I want the viewer to have a visceral connection to this clay as earth, as geologic material with weight and mass. The white clay here is porcelain, refined and processed. The darker clay is from nearby Stancill Quarry, altered very little since I dug it, as is evident from the rocks.

When the work moves from the floor to the wall, it begins to suggest mapping and memory. The drawing lines become a record of movement through the landscape, where one has been or might go. The perception of scale and orientation shifts back and forth: the piece exists both as the ground one stands on and as an aerial view of the landscape.

This piece in particular, with its use of blue, evokes sky as well as ground. And the long, linear format directs one's gaze upward, indicating a forward path.

The title, "The Present is the Key to the Past," informally expresses the geologic term "uniformitarianism." This theory postulates that past geologic processes are still occurring today, therefore geologic formations and structures can be interpreted by observing present-day actions. I like the idea that these multiple, simultaneous views-reaching from the deep past and extending into the distant future- are offered through careful attention to the present.