Brendan Tang- Post-Modern Ceramic Artist

Tang’s non-functional vessel forms are mostly inspired by other contemporary and post modern ceramics, he enjoys the paradox between classical and modern blue and white ceramic wear and that of mecha-forms often utilised in modern cartoon and movies. His bright and colourful colour palette combats that of the modernism of the blue and white designs. The artist enjoys adding wiring, cogs and other mechanical parts that would suggest a functionality despite its non-functioning state, he states that this is probably more amusing to those interested in his field of ceramics that put art before that of practicality.

Tang states that he draws “inspiration from such diverse realms as contemporary pop culture (e.g., plastic toys and Japanese comics), art history (e.g., in the form of Chinese Ming dynasty vessels and 18th century French rococo), and historical and contemporary practices in self-portraiture.” These influences are prominent throughout his work and in many ways it is what attracts me to his works. I enjoy his outlook of art over functionality and the great opposition and rejection to works deemed traditional or modernism.

Curran Wedner- Contemporary Ceramic Artist

Wedner’s works are heavily focused on fetal and baby-like anatomical structures, he combines this with “bog” like influences which creates an unsettling paradox between the soft innocence of childlike faces and black ooze protruding from pottery. He works primarily in clay as “clay has always been a friendly medium to me since I have worked with it my whole life”.  The process begins with throwing and trimming on a wheel, he then makes castings and applies them to the leather-hard clay before bisque firing the work. Each sculpture is then glazed and fired a second time. “From start to finish this process takes weeks,” he makes each piece individual and creates a new disturbing combination of opposing anatomical structures for each pot.

Wedner enjoys the cycle of life being the main storyteller and or theme of his works, however he draws much influence from the notorious bog bodies in Europe  and Bell-Becker culture. I am really drawn to the disturbing qualities of his work, I have seen few artists influenced by the bog bodies which is something that I have done much research on and in turn became quite fascinated by the haunting stories. His works compelling paradox between youthful beauty and the horrifying aspects of the black oozing glazes and witch-like fingers he often includes is diverse and stands out from that of the other ceramic artists that I have looked at.

My Own Clay Building-

I made a simple design from the sketches of one of the assembly buildings in Belfast. I wrapped the air drying clay around the drawing for each side and made a simplistic infill focusing on the basic shapes rather than any specific details. Once the clay began to harden I molded them to the curved shape that I desired and made sure they fit together. I added a small amount of hot glue to the edges for some structural integrity as I am unfamiliar with the clay that I was using. This way I was able to confidently keep the structure together long enough for it to dry completely. Working with the clay was difficult for me as it is a media that I have never favored but I tried to not let it consume too much time or effort and just let the clay harden in the simplistic shape that i was hoping for. The clay hardened quite well although i think id need to make sure that it doesn’t dry out too fast for the next time as I think that this was the cause of the small cracks on the surface of the clay.