“Voices from an Animist Earth: New Ceramics at Cavin-Morris” Exhibition

Cavin-Morris Gallery

[Image: Shinji Suzuki "Shino" (2021) Ceramic 4.5 x 8 x 8.5 in.]

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We humans are very much aware of the earth’s restless presence right now. Though angry at times it still is the matrix of a consciousness we may ignore, repress, deny or celebrate and it holds our practical needs as well as containing our spirit and spiritual resonances. The Japanese call this essence Tsuchi: earth, mud, clay. Tsuchi. This animism, this essence is why we have always loved ceramics.

By a heated fusion of air, earth, water and fire this essential clay, whether utilitarian or otherwise, regarded by the beholder as art or artful utility, is the earth itself held in our gaze or our hands. This earth entity holds history; the best and worst of ourselves. To some of us, both observers and makers, a belief that all these things contain a soul is what defines animism. A ceramic sculpture regarded in the right mindfulness becomes a holder of a primordial soul as well.

The artists in this presentation understand a spiritual connection to the clay; the tsuchi. The sculptures serve as living connections to this living earth. The artists know what they create reunites them to this living Nature by meditation, contemplation, and the recognition of powerful natural elements.

We chose work that shows these dialogs between artist and terra, a demonstration of listening to the clay and, in essence, listening to the pulse of the earth. It is a sensual and tactile connection that maintains or activates stillness.

Included artists are: Rob Barnard, Meg Beaudoin, Rebecca Buck, Mathilde Dumousseau, August Elder, Peggy Germain, Mitch Iburg, Osamu Inayoshi, Yukiya Izumita, Jumpei Kaneshige, Motoh Kaneshige, Tsubusa Kato, Miwa Kyūsetsu XIII, Rosie McLachlan, Akihiro Nikaido, Tim Rowan, Monique Rutherford, Nozumo Shinohara, Shinji Suzuki, Akira Takeuchi, Mike Weber, Hiroshi Yamada, and Kazu Yamada. As part of the presentation, five new ceramics by Melanie Ferguson will be exhibited as part of her ongoing Storytellers series.