Tuesday, October 21, 2003

Mass Appeal- As I lamented yesterday, it is tough to discover a favorite piece having been just one in an edition.  (Even though yesterday's was really a historic referent.) Potters of the Leachean tradition understand the importance of working on a series of 'identical' pots. However, there is, I think, another consideration that I would like to speak of.  The look or understanding that an item is crafted in a mass produced fashion is also a valid concept. ...but wait, there's more... There are a number of artists who use the mass produced look as part of their statement.  I think often they use this to refer to machine made items/processes.  Whereas, I am thinking of items that are handcrafted in a mass produced fashion merely because there is a lack of machines.  This still addresses the need for items in large volume and at a cheap cost. This notion of handcrafted mass production is something I use in my own work, in the Elemental Series.  Not just because I would like to make a lot of them cheaply, but I want to refer to those types of things/processes/cultures. 9:50:45 PM