CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE
CLAY: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL APPROACH
't
An abstract submitted in partial satisfaction
of the requirements for the degree of Master's
of Arts in
Art
by
Vida Freeman
May, 1975
..
The
a9;st~a:t
of Vida Freeman is approved:
California State University, Northridge
April, 1975
ii
.TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTORY NOTES .............· .............. 1·
INFLUENCES ................................... 3
~BREAK
WITH ILLUSIONISM ................... 4
NON-AESTHETIC/ANTI-AESTHETIC EXPRESSION ...... 5
~HE
PHENOMENOLOGICAL APPROACH ................ 7
MASTER'S SHOW- CONCEPT ..................... 11
CRITERIA FOR
~VORK ...........................
13
BODY OF WORK ................................ 14
BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................ 18
GALLERY FLOOR PLAN .......................... 19
WALL TREATMENT .............................. 20
DOCUMENTATION (PHOTOGRAPHS) ................. 21
iii
ABSTRACT
CLAY: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL APPROACH
~
Vida Freeman
Master of Arts in Art
June, 1975
INTRODUCTORY NOTES
Because my Master's show does not follow a traditional
craft format, I think it is necessary to preface its physical description with a brief explanation of my influences
and present thinking.
I have been involved seriously with ceramics for about
fifteen years.
being.
Clay has become an unconscious part of my
As in all long-standing relationships, ours has
had its ups and downs, excitements and disilusionments.
When I began teaching privately about ten years ago,
it became necessary for me to familiarize myself with handwork as I had but one wheel on which to teach throwing.
At
that time (and even to a great extent today) hand-work was
considered elementary, lowly, and totally lacking in sophistication.
As I am still involved in teaching hand-
work, I personally find it to be the most challenging
aspect of clay ... that which requires the most thorough
knowledge of the material and a clear concept of the
1
2
resultant art work.
Working almost exclusively by hand has
both stressed my relationship with clay to the breaking
point and enhanced the intimacy of that relationship.
As time goes on I realize more and more that the finished pottery or ceramic piece is not a part of
ience.
~
exper-
Infact, the glazed and fired piece (mine at any
rate) is usually repugnant to me.
All the life and giving
seems to have been frozen (or more correctly fired) out of
it.
The more I invest of myself in working on a particular
piece, the less I relate to the finished, vitrified object.
As co-owner of the Ross-Freeman Gallery, where we
operate a ceramic studio and teach, as well as put on exhibitions, I have been responsible for doing all of the
bisque firing these past three years.
This entailed trans-
porting the work to and from my kiln at home.
During this
time I have built up an unconscious respect for the beauty
and fragility of the dry, but as yet unfired, clay.
Work-
ing with clay in this state as a part of my Master's show
has been an enriching experience.
In addition, the size of
my work was no longer limited by the size of a kiln.
The
clay's marvelous fragility could be utilized as a source of
unpredictability; and, happily, this unfired clay would be
able to be reclaimed and reused at the end of the show.
As I wander off into "fragility", "unpredictability",
and "reclamation", I realize that it is time to go into
some of the other things that have influenced my ideas and ·
methodologies.
INFLUENCES
It is important to mention my involvement in photography, because it truly interrupted and replaced my dedication to ceramics for a while.
The magic and relative
speed with which an image can be produced has left me
somewhat impatient with the long and seemingly separate
processes of ceramics.
The repeatability and non-precious
quality of the photographic print has made me aware of the
strange preciousness I have tended to place on ceramic
objects.
Another effect of photography was that it opened
my life to outside stimuli. I began taking pictures of
things and people, expressing my ideas about the world and
my relationship to it through selected images and illu- ·
sions.
Perhaps the most obvious influences on my methodology
and physical form of my.proposed Master's show was my recent and continuing awareness of contemporary developments
in other visual arts and, to a lesser extent, music and
dance.
I will try to touch briefly upon three general areas
of development that were particularly significant to me.
They are: 1) the validation of a non-illusionistic form of
.1
art, 2) the declaration of a non-aesthetic (or antiaesthetic) expression, and 3) the phenomenological
approach to the aethetic experience of art making and per-
4
ception.
I. THE BREAK WITH ILLUSIONISM
Until recentlyl painting, sculpture, dance, and theater were rooted in narrative, imitative or interpretive
modes of expression.
A painting, sculpture or dance
referred to something else even if that to which it re·ferred was abstracted and barely recognizable (ie. Cubist
paintings or Abstract Expressionism, which referred to
inner feelings).
It wasn't until the late 1950's and early
1960's that painting began to be aware of itself as essentially paint on canvas (Jasper Johns, Barnett Newman, etc.)
Likewise, at the same time, dancers began to choreograph
performances that were not involved with telling a story;
but dealt with pure movement, time and space (Cunningham,
Halperin, etc.).
Some non-objective sculpture was done
before 1960 (in the Constructivist manner), but with the
advent of Minimalist sculpture in early 1960's, non-illusionist sculpture on a larger scale was firmly established.
For the most part Minimal sculptures were severely geometric forms, six foot or larger in size, devoid of intricate detail, placed in an austere environment or gallery.
The power of these pieces rested solely in themselves and
the perceptual response of the viewer to them ... not in
how well the sculptor captured the likeness of an object,
person, scene, or feeling.
1 "Black Square on White Ground" by Kasimir Malevich
done in 1913 is considered first non-objective painting.
5
As a craftsperson I was never much invloved with the
need to be representational.
The importance of this change
in attitude in the visual arts seems to me to be more significant in the fact that it tends to break down the barriers or divisions between the other visual arts and
crafts.
Ceramic sculpture (ie ... the work of Peter Voulkos;
John Mason), not traditional figurative sculpture in clay;
gained acceptance as "sculpture" as well as ceramics.
In
addition, as people became accustomed to seeing non-illusionistic art, potters were freed to work directly with
clay as an expression of its unique qualities rather than
to make objects.
II. NON-AESTHETIC / ANTI-AESTHETIC EXPRESSION
To me the appearance of the Dada movement, during the
First World War (1916), had a most far reaching effect on
the art and art thought.
Dada was essentially a negative
movement ... a reaction against what was happening politically and in the art world.
Disillusion and disgust over
the inhumanities of war and the pomposity of the "culturally" recognized art world inspired these artists to make
irrational and defiantly unaesthetic works (using untraditional means and materials).
This was one of the first
truly International Hovements.
It also included the other
arts - music, theater, and literature.
A tendency toward
mischeivousness and irrevernt fun was often a part of the
Dada activities.
This "poking fun" at the self-seriousness
of art and culture became an essential ingredient of Pop
Art and is evident in much of the ceramic work done today
(ie. Clayton Baily, David Gilhooly, Robert Arnesen, etc.).
One of the most influential of the Dada artists was
Marcel Duchamp.
He questioned the very nature of what art
is or ''should" be.
He felt that art "making has to be
based on other terms than arbitrary, formalistic, tasteful
.arrangements of static forms." 2
He also advocated the
utilization of ones intellect (in contrast to "artistic"
intuition) in the creation of art.
His most didactic,
confounding, and consequential pieces were probably his
presentation of "readymades" as works of art.
They includ-
ed store-bought items such as a bottle rack, urinal, bicycle wheel, snow shovel, etc.
These items were signed by
him and exhibited in a gallery; not because they were
intrinsically beautiful, but because the artist said they
were art and the gallery verified the fact.
In somewhat the same spirit, John Cage incorporates
recorded street noises, talking, reading, piercing electrical sounds, audience noises, as well as, obvious silences
in his musical performances.
Interestingly these anti-
aesthetic expressions actually enlarge ones perceptual
awareness, rather than limit or destroy the aesthetic experience.
2 "Artforum" "Some Notes on the Phenomenology of Making:
the Search for the Motivated" April 1970, p. 64
7
III. THE PHENOMENOLOGICAL APPROACH
This approach has had the most direct influence on my
present attitude toward my own work and Master's Show.
Primarily it deals with the experience of the art as its
essence rather than the art object itself.
Experience
is meant to include the behavior of making and the subsequent per'ceptual response ... ''making here includes each
act, from conceiving to presenting publicly; while perception includes every process by which one experiences
or knows".3
In recent years the "making" aspect of art (partieularly in sculpture) has become the substance of much of
the work done.
This has taken two basic forms, as ana-
lyzed by Robert Morris, a contemporary sculptor and articulate art theoretician.4
First is the conceptual, or apriori, method of making
art.
Following from Duchamp's idea that art should be
based on something other than tasteful arrangement of
-forms, a good deal of today's art is based on other
systems or determining factors.
Based on these other
systems the course of the making process is determined
(or conceptualized) before work is begun, and followed
through as planned.
For example, the work of Hanne
3 compton, Michael, Robert Morris, ·Tate Gallery, London
1971
4 Morris, Robert, "Artforum", April 1970, pp. 62-66
8
Darboven and Sol Lewitt are often based on mathematics;
those of Robert Morris, Carl Andre and Richard Serra on
~aws
of physics or physical phenomena; and the work of
John Cage, Merce Cunnigham and Marcel Duchamp are deter-'
mined by chance systems.
For instance, Merce Cunningham,
a pioneer in contemporary dance, establishes his group's
performance by first charting individual body movements,
directions of movement, duration and tempo.
He then tosses
a coin to determine the order in which these elements
will go together.
Very often the music and choreography
are worked out separately with no conscious relationship
to one another ... the duration of the performance being the
only common determinant.
These seemingly radical methods
of creating art are evidence of the artists' attempt to go
beyond his/her personal taste, which has been formed by
conditioning and memory of what art is or "should be".
Although the resultant work (if any) of these conceptual
approaches may be baffling to the viewer at first, it is
usually fresh, innovative and often
upredictab~e
to both
the viewer and the artist.
The second approach to making is the process whereby
the material used, gravity and the artist's interaction
with these elements determine the method of working and
thus the work of art.
Because in ceramics one has always
to be aware of the inherent limitations of the material
and processes it must go through, the differences between
the traditional way of working in clay and that to which I
refer now may seem insignificant ... they are not.
For
instance, traditionally a potter may decide to make a tall
vase out of clay slabs.
Naturally he would have to be
aware of the specific qualities and limitations of the clay
in
the slab form; when it is stiff enough to hold its own
shape, or how to support it if necessary, how large one
could work without collapsing or just·becoming too heavy,
the best method of connecting the slabs, how thin one
could work the slabs, and so on.
Although all these con-
siderations were made, in the end the finished pot is more
important than how it was made or the above considerations.
Within the process/material approach the clay itself
would
d~ictate
the artist's behavior in relating to it.
Perhaps the artist would also choose to work with slabs.
Instead of making a vase, he would work directly with the
clay slabs ... rolling the slabs out as long as he could;
pounding them as thin as possible; standing them upright
and letting them bend under their own weight; piling them;
or leaning the slabs against each other or the wall.
In
other words, he allows his experience and the physical interaction with the clay to be the work of art.
"Process
becomes part of the work ... not prior to it." 5
In exhibiting process-type art the experience of the
process or making can be extended to include the viewer.
5 Morris, Robert, "Artforum", April 1970, p. 64
10
Instead of coming to an exhibition and passively going from
~rt
object to art object, visually responding to each in
its turn; the viewer can (or perhaps must) become a part of
the process kinesthetically or empathetically.
Because the
presentation is not in the form that the viewer is accustomed to seeing it, he/she may find it difficult to respond
in a pre-learned manner.
Rather than allowing time for a
thought out aesthetic opinion, the viewer is confronted
with an immediate perceptual response.
If one were to
walk into a room filled with fibers, ones uncensored
response would be to the "fiberous quality"; tb the scratchiness, flexibility, the piling, the hanging, and to ones
physical relationship to the fibers as one made his/her
way through the material.
This multi-level experience is
one that has been shared by artist and viewer.
As I look back on my ceramic teaching, I realize that
I have always approached clay as an experience.
I have -
tried to encourage students to form an'expanding, give and
take relationship with clay ... not necessarily to make pots.
The making of pots is a by-product of the experience.
I am in no way saying that this approach is better
than the traditional approach.
It is just another approach
... one that expands perception and interaction between
material, artist and viewer in another, perhaps more direct,
way.
11
MASTER'S SHOW- CONCEPT
The influences discussed above, as well as other life
situations have altered my original conception of my
Master's Show and the line of investigation preceding the
show.
After twenty years of college, fifteen years of in-
volvement with clay, several years of teaching ceramics,
three years of dealing with and exhibiting work of other
artists in the field of crafts, and a good deal of soul
searching; I want my show to reflect "where I am at" right
now in my relationship to clay, to education and to art in
general.
Primarily I want my show to be clay ... an experience
with clay.
clay.
Naturally it will reflect !!!Y experience with
It will undoubtedly express my ambivalent feelings
toward this media ... my love and understanding, but also my
frustrations and disappointments.
I am attempting to
share my experience of clay in the way that I have determined most effective; that is the more.phenomenological,
process-oriented approach.
I have chosen not to make pots
or ceramic objects for I do not wish to accumulate more of
my own art works (momentos to enter into future art shows
and competitions).
More importantly I am not capable of
accomplishing my aims in a more traditional way, and I
feel no desire to do so.
(As I will be donating the abun-
dance of clay used in the show to this university, I will
leave it to other students to create beautiful pots out of
12
my clay.)
It is important to me that the viewer actually interact with the clay in some way ... that the clay be altered
as the viewer goes through the show, in the same way as the
viewer's perception of clay be altered from experiencing
the show.
The clay experience is the interaction between
the individual and the material.
Lastly, I want to enjoy and learn from the exhibit
myself.
I want things to happen which I could not predict.
Through the incorporation of chance systems of making, use
of clay in the responsive state, changing state, and fragile
state; I am provideing opportunities for some surprises
even for me.
Besides being more fun, it also reflects the
unpredictable quality that is always inherent in working
with clay ... even in the most traditional way.
13
CRITERIA FOR WORK
1. First and foremost the work must express clay.
2. Works should be expendable, reuseable, impermanent.
3. Work can be vulnerable to destruction or deterioration during the course of the show ... either by accident, natural changes, or intentional manipulation.
4. Work need not conform to the tradional use of clay,
but it must be intune with the inherent nature of
clay.
Clay may be used in the wet, dry, leather-hard,
bisque and perhaps vitrified but unglazed state.
5. Work must relate to the whole concept of the show.
It, should not be a collection of art objects ... but fit
into and be aware of the gallery space.
6. Work must in some way create some interaction with
the viewer.
7. An attempt was made to make some decisions based on
chance, thus enhancing the possibilities for the unexpected.
14
I
BODY OF WORK
1. FLOOR:
I
The gallery floor measures approximately 25 'X25'.
am covering an area of 24'X24' with moist clay to the
depth of one half inch.
This clay floor is divided into
four foot squares by one half inch PVC pipes, thus forming
a tiled floor of wet clay.
I am using the wet clay because that is the state of
clay to which I relate most intimately and directly.
I
have virtually left no alternative to the viewer but to
walk on this clay.
In this way the viewer then becomes
the participant, for walking on the clay will change the
clay and thus the show in some way.
Using the clay on the floor, I am reminding the viewer
and myself that clay is essentially of the earth or ground
and not so precious that it cannot be walked upon.
The
plastic pipes act as dividers in order to: 1) illusionistically emphasize the tile-like quality of the floor
covering, 2) initially to contain the clay and serve as a
·contrast to the softness of the clay, and 3) to demonstrate
the changing relationship to the clay as it hardens and
shrinks away from the pipes that once contained it.
Before the show is over the clay will have become dry
and brittle as exposed clay will.
The clay will break up
easily as the viewer goes through the show.
This will
further emphasize the earth-like quality of clay ... it will
resemble dried out mud after a desert rain.
'
15
2. WALLS:
Three of the four walls of the gallery are to be
completely covered with dry, unfired clay slab boxes.
I
have developed the forms by laying slabs of clay into shallow corregated boxes.
When each slab form is bone dry, I
pour liquid urathane foam into it around its perimeter. The
foam expands to fill the area and subsequently solidifies.
The foam, when hardened, strengthens the fragile clay and
provides a shelf, which can then be used to hang the clay
square on a nail on the wall.
process follows (p. 20).
A diagram illustrating this
These boxes are 2'X2'X2".
This wall treatment is fundamental to the show because
the. viewer is actually enveloped by clay upon entering the
gallery.
In addition, the use of bone dry clay should pro-
vide a new experience (tactile and visual) for most viewers
and for me.
an
Perhaps the fragility of the clay will cause
unsettling feeling ... one of impending disaster.
Work-
ing with clay at this stage has been a challenging and exciting experience for me.
3. BOXES:
Box-shaped clay structures of various sized (8"
to 3') are to be set in the clay floor.
These clay boxes
are the only vitrified works in the show.
In color they
vary little from the wet clay out of which they emerge;
however, the lifelessness, coldness, and hardness is still
perceptible despite any similarity in color to wet clay
or roundness of edges due to construction.
4. LARGE BOXES:
Larger box forms (4'X4'X3') are to be
made just prior to the show and exhibited in the leather-
16
hard state.
5. CYLINDERS:
They will be left to dry at their own speed.
Pug-milled cylinders (3" in diameter) of var-
ious· length are to be used.
They are to be set vertically
into the clay floor in different states of wetness and dryness.
They will be left to do what they will (bend, stand
erect or collapse).
During the course of the show more wet
cylinders will be added.
Using cylinders in varying states
of wetness illustrates the progressive lack of flexiblity
of clay as it dries and becomes hard.
Though the dry clay
has less flexibility, it has more stability and will not
collapse when placed in an upright position on the floor.
6. PLACEMENT:
The placement of these specific clay works
are to be determined on the basis of chance.
I will desig-
nate a number to each of the above works and drop these
numbers from the height of four feet onto a floor-plan
of the show.
Wherever the number falls, that is where the
corresponding work will be placed.
7. CLAY:
Most of the clay used is porcelain.
I have cho-
sen to use this clay body because of its historical value,
its fineness and for its totally non-descript color.
8. DOCUMENTATION:
Because I need some sort of documenta-
tion for this Master's Thesis, I have decided to include
the photographs in the show.
Each day, from the time I
begin to set up the show until it is totally dismantled, I
will take and print one roll of film.
The photographs
will be posted the day after they were taken on the one
17
remaining wall.
These photographs will be left until the
show has been dismantled.
The photographs will be included
at the end of this abstract.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
.Battcock, Gregory. Minimal Art: A Critical Anthology,
New York: E.P. Dutton & Co. Inc. 1968
.Burnham, Jack.
Beyond Modern Sculpture, New York:
George Braziller 1973
Compton, Michael, and David Sylvester.
Morris, London: Tate Gallery 1971
Robert
Henri, Adrian. Total Art: Enviroments, Happenings,
and Performance, New York: Praeger Publishers 1974
Lippard, Lucy R.
Changing-essays in art criticism,
E.P. Dutton & Co. Inc.
1971
Lippard, Lucy R. Six Years: The dematerialization
of the art object, Praeger Publishers 1973
Morris, Robert. "Some Notes on the Phenomenology
of Making: the Search for the Motivated", Artforum
(April 1970) pp 62-66
Muller, Gregoire. The New Avant-Garde, New York:
Praeger Publishers -r97z-Peckham, Morse. Man's Rage for Chaos - Biology,
Behavior and the Arts, Philadelphia: Chilton Books
1965
----
Rose, Barbara. American Art Since 1900 - A Critical
History, New York: A. Praeger 1967---Tomkins, Calvin. The Bride and the Bachelors Five Masters of the Avant-Garde. New York: The
Viking Press 19~
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GALLERY FLOOR PLAN
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DOOR
WALL WITH PHOTOGRAPHS
1/ 4" = 1
I
Lines indicate
PVC pipes
20
WALL TREATMENT
WALL
WALL
1/4"
Each square is 2'X2'X 2"
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24
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