Ray Meeker
13 Sep - 11 Oct 2014
RAY MEEKER
71 Running
13 September - 11 October 2014
Nature Morte is pleased to present its fourth solo exhibition with Ray Meeker. As with the artist’s previous exhibitions, the theme is related to environmental and ecological concerns, humankind’s fragile relationship with nature and the perils of over-development. The title refers to the artist’s age and his continuing productivity.
The works on display come from three disparate series:
The Eye of the Needle. These are large-scale ceramic sculptures which flirt with architectonic references, similar to monumental works which are permanently installed at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhiand the Hyatt Hotel in Chennai. Resembling monolithic stele, the works are both archaic and futuristic, harbouring in their surfaces the remains of technological detritus, the scars of modernity, and the residue of language.
Tea Bowls. Meeker explores the most basic form of ceramic sculpture, seeing it as a metaphor for pan-Asian aesthetics and the journey of Buddhist thought from Indiato the Far Eastand circling back home.
The Chinnagama. Taking the name from anagama, the Japanese kiln used to fire these works, Meeker collaborates with traditional potter T. Palanisamy to explore the painterly potential of wood ash crust, melt and run on the surface of large water pots.
Originally from California, Ray Meeker has lived in Pondicherrysince 1971, where he and his wife Deborah Smith established Golden Bridge Pottery, which continues producing utilitarian ceramics today. In addition to his artistic practice, Meeker has been teaching aspiring studio potters for more than three decades, developing a coterie of like-minded sculptors working in ceramics. “Bridges,” an exhibition of works by over 50 of Meeker’s former students, will be at the Stainless Gallery in New Delhifrom September 20th to 27th. The artist’s previous exhibitions with Nature Morte have been in 2008, 2004 and 2001.
Artist’s Statement
This is my fourth show with Nature Morte. This show, like the first three, presents a mix of sculpture and pottery. All of the works are wood-fired, from three different kilns. The pots draw on both Indian and Japanese traditions. The sculptures continue the environmental theme that I have worked with for many years, with the three previous exhibitions: Kurukshetra (2001), Subject to Change Without Notice (2004) and All the Kings Horses... (2008).
The Eye of the Needle series.
From The Bible, Matt. 19:24. “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” Read “man” as “over-consumption” and “the kingdom of heaven” as “a healthy planet.” The title suggested itself when I scaled down Passage, the 21-foot-high gateway that I made for the Hyatt Hotel in Chennai, leaving a four inch slot as the way through. Monuments textured with fragments of text. Bolt heads, whip-sawed scrapes and scars, fissured layers of a tentative future. Man’s ingenuity at the crossroads to the tipping point.
Tea bowls.
Last year, Deborah and I travelled for three weeks in Japanon tour with American potter, Jeff Shapiro. Saw many tea bowls. I have long admired the tea bowl, but I rarely make them. A Japanese tea bowl in Indiais virtually non-functional. But coming out of a Zen Buddhist tradition that some trace back to Bodhi dharma of Kanchipuram, the tea bowl, I find, is an opportunity to close a migratory arc: India, China, Japan, and back home. Returning to Pondicherry, I decided to get familiar with that bowl. So 71 tea bowls, in fact all are not tea bowls. Some are tumblers for a stronger brew.
The Chinnagama.
Big round jars are ideal forms for ash deposit/runs. I work with T. Palanisamy, a traditional potter from Pudukotai district in Tamil Nadu. He makes the jars. I fire them in the Chinnagama which is a small Japanese style anagama, or cave kiln. It is fired with wood for 60 and 70 hours to 1300 degrees centigrade. Ashes are deposited on the jars which are then covered with embers that crust, melt and move on the surface of the jar, suggesting planetary landscapes and volcanic intensity.
71 Running
13 September - 11 October 2014
Nature Morte is pleased to present its fourth solo exhibition with Ray Meeker. As with the artist’s previous exhibitions, the theme is related to environmental and ecological concerns, humankind’s fragile relationship with nature and the perils of over-development. The title refers to the artist’s age and his continuing productivity.
The works on display come from three disparate series:
The Eye of the Needle. These are large-scale ceramic sculptures which flirt with architectonic references, similar to monumental works which are permanently installed at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhiand the Hyatt Hotel in Chennai. Resembling monolithic stele, the works are both archaic and futuristic, harbouring in their surfaces the remains of technological detritus, the scars of modernity, and the residue of language.
Tea Bowls. Meeker explores the most basic form of ceramic sculpture, seeing it as a metaphor for pan-Asian aesthetics and the journey of Buddhist thought from Indiato the Far Eastand circling back home.
The Chinnagama. Taking the name from anagama, the Japanese kiln used to fire these works, Meeker collaborates with traditional potter T. Palanisamy to explore the painterly potential of wood ash crust, melt and run on the surface of large water pots.
Originally from California, Ray Meeker has lived in Pondicherrysince 1971, where he and his wife Deborah Smith established Golden Bridge Pottery, which continues producing utilitarian ceramics today. In addition to his artistic practice, Meeker has been teaching aspiring studio potters for more than three decades, developing a coterie of like-minded sculptors working in ceramics. “Bridges,” an exhibition of works by over 50 of Meeker’s former students, will be at the Stainless Gallery in New Delhifrom September 20th to 27th. The artist’s previous exhibitions with Nature Morte have been in 2008, 2004 and 2001.
Artist’s Statement
This is my fourth show with Nature Morte. This show, like the first three, presents a mix of sculpture and pottery. All of the works are wood-fired, from three different kilns. The pots draw on both Indian and Japanese traditions. The sculptures continue the environmental theme that I have worked with for many years, with the three previous exhibitions: Kurukshetra (2001), Subject to Change Without Notice (2004) and All the Kings Horses... (2008).
The Eye of the Needle series.
From The Bible, Matt. 19:24. “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” Read “man” as “over-consumption” and “the kingdom of heaven” as “a healthy planet.” The title suggested itself when I scaled down Passage, the 21-foot-high gateway that I made for the Hyatt Hotel in Chennai, leaving a four inch slot as the way through. Monuments textured with fragments of text. Bolt heads, whip-sawed scrapes and scars, fissured layers of a tentative future. Man’s ingenuity at the crossroads to the tipping point.
Tea bowls.
Last year, Deborah and I travelled for three weeks in Japanon tour with American potter, Jeff Shapiro. Saw many tea bowls. I have long admired the tea bowl, but I rarely make them. A Japanese tea bowl in Indiais virtually non-functional. But coming out of a Zen Buddhist tradition that some trace back to Bodhi dharma of Kanchipuram, the tea bowl, I find, is an opportunity to close a migratory arc: India, China, Japan, and back home. Returning to Pondicherry, I decided to get familiar with that bowl. So 71 tea bowls, in fact all are not tea bowls. Some are tumblers for a stronger brew.
The Chinnagama.
Big round jars are ideal forms for ash deposit/runs. I work with T. Palanisamy, a traditional potter from Pudukotai district in Tamil Nadu. He makes the jars. I fire them in the Chinnagama which is a small Japanese style anagama, or cave kiln. It is fired with wood for 60 and 70 hours to 1300 degrees centigrade. Ashes are deposited on the jars which are then covered with embers that crust, melt and move on the surface of the jar, suggesting planetary landscapes and volcanic intensity.