{"componentChunkName":"component---src-templates-article-tsx","path":"/primeceramics","result":{"data":{"primeArticle":{"slug":"prime.ceramics","excerpt":"Making art with clay presents limitless possibilities. PRIME writer Tulin Chang Maltepe explores the ceramics community at UCLA, reflecting on the artistic processes that shape this hands-on artform.","headline":"From Mound to Masterpiece","author":"Tulin Chang Maltepe","authorbio":"","authoremail":"","authortwitter":"","coverimg":"https://assets3.dailybruin.com/images/prime.ceramics/prime.ceramics.LC.A-5d25b0470bc539783a92196fd49e3e52.jpg","covercred":"Leydi Cris Cobo Cordon","coveralt":"Photograph of ceramics studio at UCLA.","articleType":"article","updated":"","content":[{"type":"text","value":"The mound of clay beneath my hands moves quickly, its circular motions becoming apparent the more I attempt to stabilize it on the wheel."},{"type":"text","value":"As the palms of my hands battle the mixture of textures – some gritty, some smooth – the side of my left hand gets repeatedly scraped by the surface of the moving wheel. I exert my entire body weight against the clay, hoping that at any moment the mound will stop wobbling and finally become stable."},{"type":"text","value":"This process is called centering. Being able to center clay is arguably one of the most challenging aspects of learning to make ceramics. It serves as the foundation for virtually every piece."},{"type":"text","value":"Since high school, I’ve found ceramics to be an art form that engages my creativity while simultaneously de-stressing me. My curiosity and love for ceramics led me in search of the ceramics community and resources at UCLA. What I found was a side of campus filled with intricate knowledge, cultural traditions and supportive networks of creatives dedicated to honing their art."},{"type":"text","value":"On a Friday afternoon, I venture to the ceramics studio in the Broad Art Center. Behind the big white door is an airy studio space home to dozens of pottery wheels. Buckets of glazes and tools neatly organized above a long, industrial sink in the far back of the room catch my eye. I continue through the space, passing a few students carrying bags of clay and others hunching over pottery wheels."},{"type":"text","value":"As I look around – certainly looking somewhat lost – a man in a green hoodie and headphones introduces himself: Shoshi Watanabe, the ceramics lab supervisor. Watanabe tours me around the studio, leading me to the covered outdoor kiln yard."},{"type":"text","value":"Despite having some exposure to ceramics when he was young, Watanabe said he grew more serious about the art form when he was in high school. When he came to UCLA for his undergraduate degree, he attended art classes and was eventually hired as a lab assistant. During that time, Watanabe said he learned the intricacies of ceramics processes beginners are not usually exposed to, such as firing kilns and mixing glazes."},{"type":"image","value":"{\"alt\":\"Photograph of the UCLA ceramics studio.\",\"url\":\"https://assets3.dailybruin.com/images/prime.ceramics/prime.ceramics.LC.H-c5d8bd7e4480c58b0a12e586ca581e09.jpg\",\"credit\":\"Leydi Cris Cobo Cordon/Daily Bruin senior staff\",\"caption\":\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"Once he had developed those skills, he developed a greater appreciation for the art form."},{"type":"text","value":"\"It was like using a stove oven instead of a microwave,\" Watanabe said. \"Learning the actual operation of kilns and running of the lab ... put more depth in the practice.\""},{"type":"text","value":"Ceramics is an art form that is not just visual but also functional. Even if the artistic elements of a piece of ceramic art are incredibly intricate, the functional design elements are integral to the artwork as well. Coffee mugs, cereal bowls, serving plates, flower vases and even kitchen sinks are common examples of ceramics that have uses beyond being decorative. The artist must take into consideration these real-world purposes during the creative process."},{"type":"text","value":"\"If you're talking about functional forms, there's so many different forms, and a lot of them are specific to a certain use in a culture, Watanabe said. \"So its function and form ties together, and that is all really rooted in a specific culture.\""},{"type":"pull","value":"{\"caption\":\"In order to explain practices such as ceramics, you need to look into what clay and ceramics have meant culturally for communities that have exceeded colonial times.\\\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"Ceramics that have functional purposes are also central to Indigenous cultures across the Americas. Pottery made by ancestral Pueblo people dating back to the 11th century has been found between Utah, New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado. According to the Vilcek Foundation’s gallery <a href=\"https://pueblopottery.vilcek.org/stories-in-clay\">\"Pueblo Pottery: Stories in Clay,\"</a> these pots included undecorated and decorated water jugs and cookware along with pots depicting elements of the natural environment, showcasing the evolving understanding of the natural system surrounding Pueblo communities."},{"type":"text","value":"Western European ceramics typically emphasize minimalism and symmetry, whereas ceramics of Indigenous communities are shaped by observations of natural environments. Artistic practices from non-Western cultures have had an increasing presence in the contemporary art world, said Hammer Museum curator Pablo José Ramírez. Ceramic artists are beginning to use organic matter and palm – which are not commonly used materials in ceramics – in addition to clay."},{"type":"text","value":"José Ramírez sees this inclusivity as a path toward cultivating a deeper understanding of Indigenous influences on the art form."},{"type":"text","value":"\"In order to explain practices such as ceramics, you need to look into what clay and ceramics have meant culturally for communities that have exceeded colonial times,\" José Ramírez said. \"In the end, aesthetics at large don't belong to the Western world, or not, of course, to Western art history. ... You need to think of, of course, Indigenous cultures – but also how you engage with the history of material culture and archeology and anthropology.\""},{"type":"text","value":"Back in the ceramics studio, I meet Trey Ross, a fourth-year art student, as he sorts through a cardboard box filled with small, colorful, tile-like pieces of pottery. He takes a small green paint brush and brushes each piece of clay with water."},{"type":"text","value":"After taking a six-week ceramics class at a local ceramics studio during the pandemic, he fell in love with the art form. At first, Ross learned to make functional ceramics like cups and bowls. Eventually, he began exploring other, more industrial types of functional ceramics, such as those used for irrigation and filtration, heat shields on space shuttles, insulators, computer chips, silicon wafers and doping semiconductors."},{"type":"text","value":"Ross said he finds inspiration from examples of functional ceramics that people often do not realize are ceramics."},{"type":"text","value":"\"Just looking at ceramics out in the world and trying to appropriate a lot of the processes and ways that those ceramics are made and just make my own things,\" he said."},{"type":"text","value":"Ceramics projects require an artistic vision but also respect for the clay’s innate properties. Ross said some of the challenges he encountered while making ceramics have to do with the physical and chemical aspects of ceramics. He said that unlike other art forms, there are certain fundamental rules in ceramics that cannot be broken. For example, firing clay at certain temperatures would result in the pieces melting, and firing wet clay results in the clay exploding."},{"type":"text","value":"But Ross finds the challenges embedded in the process to be part of a rewarding artistic experience."},{"type":"pull","value":"{\"caption\":\"There's a real infinity to the recycling, the nature of being able to use the material over and over.\\\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"\"I think that's what makes ceramic art amazing,\" Ross said. \"It's this material that's not super amenable. It has its own agency in the process, and a lot of that is you figuring out that agency and learning to work with it. But you can never fully get rid of it.\""},{"type":"text","value":"Against the whirring of wheels and the sound of moving chairs, he explained that, despite not knowing the direction for his project, the infinite nature of clay provides limitless possibility."},{"type":"text","value":"\"The best part about ceramics is that I'll just fire them again in the kiln,\" Ross said. \"There's a real infinity to the recycling, the nature of being able to use the material over and over. You could pulverize this back down and it’s dust again and fire it. It's really infinite.\""},{"type":"text","value":"Even with this infinity, Avery Collins-Byrd, a fourth-year art student, said there is an inherently finite amount of time to work on any given piece, as the artist only has as long as the clay takes to dry. This struggle against time, which reminds them of performance art, presents a unique sticking point that keeps them interested in ceramics."},{"type":"image","value":"{\"alt\":\"Photograph of a pottery wheel in the UCLA ceramics studio.\",\"url\":\"https://assets3.dailybruin.com/images/prime.ceramics/prime.ceramics.LC.I-365233aea416030eca2a4c4b24cc3b90.jpg\",\"credit\":\"Leydi Cris Cobo Cordon/Daily Bruin senior staff\",\"caption\":\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"Despite the challenges ceramic artists face during the learning and making process, Maya V. Garcia, a fourth-year sociology student and vice president of the UCLA Ceramics Club, said there is never a lack of motivation to create new art."},{"type":"text","value":"\"There's never really a lack of motivation because the opportunity for making something awesome is limitless, and I mostly make things for other people,\" Garcia said. \"The difficulty is just in consistent practice. I think ceramics is for everybody.\""},{"type":"text","value":"Like Garcia, I also feel an intense motivation to practice ceramics – just for a different reason. What motivates me to continue practicing is the meditative aspect of the artform. For me, making ceramics forces me to focus my attention inside my body, thinking solely about the way I’m interacting with the clay. Working with my hands in this way frees my brain from thinking about everything else – when I’m in the studio, it’s just me and clay."},{"type":"text","value":"I was not always too attuned with the clay. Trying to get clay to bend to my will has consistently been one of the hardest parts of my ceramics practice. When I was first learning ceramics, there were countless times where centering the clay would take upward of 20 minutes. In those first months of learning how to use the wheel, I remember a time where I had finally centered the clay, only to have the mound fly off the wheel moments later from being too wet. Applying too much pressure while pulling up the walls of projects in progress has resulted in countless walls caving in."},{"type":"text","value":"Understanding how to work with clay takes learning certain techniques and plenty of practice. In between painting the backs of colorful clay tiles, Ross explained that, as clay dries, it warps back to its original form. Part of the learning curve of ceramics includes learning to work around this reality, whether that be applying more even pressure or remembering not to make certain decisions."},{"type":"pull","value":"{\"caption\":\"Working with my hands in this way frees my brain from thinking about everything else – when I’m in the studio, it’s just me and clay.\\\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"Ross said there is a certain level of physics and chemistry involved that most ceramic artists do not want to deal with. Instead, he said many ceramic artists, like himself, prefer to think of the clay as being alive."},{"type":"text","value":"\"It will always try to return, but if you work with it correctly, you can sort of mediate that,\" Ross said. \"But it always remembers where the particles literally sit a certain way. And when you manipulate those particles a lot of times, those tend to go back to where they were.\""},{"type":"text","value":"These are lessons learned from millenia working clay. Now, some artists are looking back at that history to inspire their work."},{"type":"text","value":"As Collins-Byrd speaks with me, she is simultaneously rolling out ovular slabs of red clay. Currently, they are working on a project inspired by sugar cane and molasses. She explained that, growing up, her father told her stories about growing up in Louisiana and being surrounded by fields of sugar cane. As a child, their father would chew on sugar cane with his family members."},{"type":"text","value":"Sugar cane has a long history of being cultivated during slavery in the United States, according to <a href=\"https://slaveryandremembrance.org/articles/article/?id=A0056#:~:text=Sugarcane%20field%20workers%20worked%20long,were%20extracted%20from%20the%20crop\">The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.</a> Enslaved people were forced to plant, harvest, transport and produce sugar and rum. Molasses, a byproduct of sugar cane, was also manufactured by enslaved people in the U.S. A resource from <a href=\"https://www.brown.edu/Facilities/John_Carter_Brown_Library/exhibitions/jcbexhibit/Pages/exhibSlavery.html\">The John Carter Brown Library</a> said molasses was originally carried from the Caribbean to states like Rhode Island to be made into rum."},{"type":"text","value":"Collins-Byrd said they find inspiration for their art pieces in personal and historical themes. If there are consistent themes or motifs appearing in her life, Collins-Byrd said she will research their history further to use in her art. Additionally, they said their art is often about how people interact with one another, specifically focusing on Blackness and feminism."},{"type":"text","value":"Watanabe also said he often tries to create ceramics pieces that are based off of a point in time. Right now, he is working on a project about resonance, inspired by sound amplification systems used in Japanese Noh theater, medieval Ottoman churches and Greek amphitheaters."},{"type":"text","value":"But the form and function of a piece of pottery are not the only things that vary from culture to culture. Even the materials used in ceramics practices are directly linked to specific regions and cultures, Watanabe said."},{"type":"text","value":"\"Clay is from the earth, so depending on the kind of clay that's available in a specific region, the methods to make it change,\" Watanabe said. \"So if the clay is very sticky and good for throwing, those cultures develop more throwing techniques.\""},{"type":"image","value":"{\"alt\":\"Photograph of a kiln at the UCLA ceramics studio.\",\"url\":\"https://assets3.dailybruin.com/images/prime.ceramics/prime.ceramics.LC.E-e31a93a293c07603daf459a798c2e66d.jpg\",\"credit\":\"Leydi Cris Cobo Cordon/Daily Bruin senior staff\",\"caption\":\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"These conversations take me back to an afternoon I spent traipsing around the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul this past summer. Between Turkish rug shops, jewelry vendors and mounds of colorful spices were the items that really caught my eye: rows and rows of beautiful Iznik earthenware pottery. This style dates back to the Ottoman Empire, where <a href=\"https://www.chinese-porcelain-art.com/pages/articles-top-level/antique-indian-and-islamic-ceramics-and-works-of-art/a-brief-history-of-antique-iznik-pottery/\">Iznik – a city in Turkey – was the center for ceramics production.</a> In fact, the style of pottery was inspired by porcelain designs from the Ming Dynasty in China. Ceramic jugs the size of my torso represented the meeting of my Turkish and Chinese identities."},{"type":"text","value":"For me, ceramic art is one of the most compelling forms of storytelling. It showcases a melding of fine art and functionality, the relationship between cultural practices and accessible materials, and even acts as the bridge between my two ethnic cultures. Even the cups and bowls sitting on my kitchen shelf have that quiet power."},{"type":"text","value":"The best way to understand this feeling might just be to sit down in a ceramics studio and try to mold the mound of clay spinning around in front of you."},{"type":"text","value":"\"I think there's just something so satisfying about turning a lump of clay into an object that you rely on – you can craft pretty much anything out of clay,\" Garcia said. \"And I think that's really exciting. It's kind of magic.\""}]}},"pageContext":{"term":"fall24","slug":"prime.ceramics"}},"staticQueryHashes":[]}