The Work of the Hand

I am interested in the questions and concerns of material consciousness. Specifically, I am interested in the traditional craft materials of clay and wood. The histories and uses of these craft materials have developed my notion of self as much as I have manipulated the possible forms they intrinsically offer. Clay, a material I have been trained academically as well as technically, from elementary through undergraduate school, is a medium of the utmost amorphous. With out the limitations of form, I find I become overwhelmed with it’s potential - in form as well as introspective exploration. Subsequently, I return to wood occasionally, a material with physical limitations due to it’s rigidity. Also, in choosing to stay technically naive about wood, I am free from the confining traditions craftsmanship has held strict to the material. With this perspective I can become aware of it’s inherent qualities of shape and color through the non-clouded awareness of touch alone. With a more refined sensibility of material, working with other craft mediums such as wood, has benefited my clay practice. Some times it’s hard to remember where one started after a long journey.
I grew up in a conventional and conservative suburb out side Detroit. These attitudes were not strictly verbalized, it was just the way things were done. In silence, I remember pondering that there must other, equally viable ways to live. Thus began my anti-conformist attitude. Neither agreeing or disagreeing with the status quo, I became more observer than say, activist. These introspective curiosities naturally lead me to wonder more philosophically. Working with clay, during my developmental years, I’m sure had an impact to these open-ended considerations of my environment and the things that defined it. Since moving away from this conventional environment, and integrating with more of a liberal social attitudes of living, I find the need to challenge the status quo less. Furthermore, and I consider if this is more to do with maturity, I have been curious to find the connections and similarities between conservative perspectives of living and that of traditional craft practices. In these increasing virtual times, is a traditional haptic practice more radical by comparison? In a time when social awareness is needed through positive human to human consideration, can the spiritual be formed by the work of the hand?
I believe my role as a maker is to address through the symbolic forms I create, the need for a more psychological, sociocultural and spiritual awareness. By utilizing the qualities that traditional craft materials possess, of which all cultures have a history of knowledge, a higher consciousness between the peoples of today could be established. A sympathetic community of all peoples could be established if we all could see ourselves as products of our shared craft ingenuity. The forms that human-kind has made collectivity, have served their physical functions. The craft forms that have sustained our survival, that of containers, covers, and shelters, can now serve a greater meaning for our collective existence through their use as relational symbols. We all need to remember why it’s important to get in touch, before we forget how to do so.

Jason Lee Starin
09.06.2010