Pot Shop

About

In this exhibition, the artists present an abundance of pots. Placed on ascending pedestals, these ceramics grow in size as they near the far end of the gallery. Simultaneously modern and ancient, the form of these vessels conjure associations in both directions. Some are reminiscent of Moche Pots, with their sturdy round bodies and cylindrical necks. Others swell and taper in a way that feels much more plastic and contemporary. Though each pot is unique in shape, a common thread runs through the collection: an unglazed stripe around the body of each of the pots. This moment of disclosure, a stripping back to reveal the true texture and color of the clay beneath, is a reminder of the commonality between the 113 distinct shapes. Though they take on different forms, they are made from the same base material. The gallery has also been painted with a matching stripe, becoming a companion to the pots. The room is an extension of the artwork within it, a signature that stems from Apfelbaum’s immersive color installations.

Apfelbaum and Moore continue to play with the relationship between the individual and the whole through the display of the pots. Upon viewing the installation as a whole, each vessel’s presence fades and is replaced by a sensation of the sheer number of unique pots. Each pot becomes an element within the larger installation, a constituent, the whole evocative of new and different emotions than an individual work. This act of shifting scale from the one to the many is embodied even in the medium of this installation. At any step in the process of fabrication, ceramic clay can be dissolved and reused, as long as it has not been fired. It can exist as an individual piece and return to the collective, ready to be reformed and reincorporated at will. It is an infinitely singular and plural material. In the same way, these pots exist on their own and as one of a collective, shifting from one to the other with the viewer’s gaze.

The playful focusing and unfocusing of the individual and the aggregate is complicated by the artists one final time, as each of the pots is one of a pair. By inverting the colors on the pair of pots (one with a yellow top, one with a yellow bottom, for example), Apfelbaum and Moore talk about the ways in which each individual does not exist alone. The partner of each pot begins to unravel the idea of the individual vessel altogether. Even viewed by itself, it becomes easy to imagine a pot’s other half, it’s missing context. Suddenly, the isolated bodies of each pot become a site of imagination, an assurance in the existence of the other.