Form Being Foreseen: Pots of Place
Glenn Lewis
February 19th - March 12th, 2016
In Japan, Glenn Lewis created ceramic pieces from local clays, which were fired in mostly wood-fired kilns. This exhibition presents more than fifty of these ceramic works each paired with a corresponding photograph. The images, taken in Japan almost 40 years ago, focus on the paradisaical elements of Japanese gardens intended for contemplation and strolling. Together, the works foreground the particularity of place, revisiting Lewis’ longstanding interest in the poetry and mythology of landscape.
Before the eighteenth century and modernist thinking, art and craft were bound
together as one entity and art aesthetics was an unknown area of knowledge.
Techne was the ancient Greek term for “making” or “crafting” which included
making sculpture, shoes, pots, weapons, paintings, etc. In the eighteenth century,
philosophers like Kant thought that “beauty” was the hallmark of art and an
end in itself, no longer needing a purpose or utility like craft. This suited the
class divisions of the time: aristocrats assumed painting and sculpture as
beautiful for themselves, and assumed crafts as useful, not beautiful, for the
common folk. This division became the norm in the Western World.
Before the eighteenth century and modernist thinking, art and craft were bound
together as one entity and art aesthetics was an unknown area of knowledge.
Techne was the ancient Greek term for “making” or “crafting” which included
making sculpture, shoes, pots, weapons, paintings, etc. In the eighteenth century,
philosophers like Kant thought that “beauty” was the hallmark of art and an
end in itself, no longer needing a purpose or utility like craft. This suited the
class divisions of the time: aristocrats assumed painting and sculpture as
beautiful for themselves, and assumed crafts as useful, not beautiful, for the
common folk. This division became the norm in the Western World.