Hand-built

October 20, 2020 – July 31, 2021
Hand-built showcases works made partially or entirely off of the potter’s wheel. Often, when thinking of ceramic art and craft, the first thing that comes to mind is pottery: functional wheel-thrown vessels. Hand-building with clay has the ability to break that notion and push the limits of the medium. Looking at work made out of the round (not on a potter’s wheel)—with paper thin slabs, monolithic slabs, trompe l’oeil, and so forth—one can really begin to see the limitlessness of the material.

In this exhibition, Les Lawrence’s teapot and Bowl for One Apple by Patricia Gordon speak to the weightlessness that clay can achieve or appear to achieve. Lindsay Oesterritter’s Blade Vase and Randy Johnston’s Long Boat Form bring into question the display of food and flowers out of the round. Then there is Brad Schwieger’s Black House Structure, a monolithic slab-built structure that begs to be walked around. Hand-built represents many of the construction and assembly methods used when working off of the wheel. Ideally, it will also showcase the wide array of forms attainable when not restricted by the potter’s wheel.
Josh Scott is a third-year ceramics graduate student. He is currently teaching Intermediate Hand-building at USU, a class which focuses on construction techniques that don’t require a potter’s wheel.