Artist Statement September 2010.

Jason Lee Starin

Artist Statement September 2010.



In my current work, an accepted loss of control is seen through expressive form, imposing the question of value in function, as well as, works which represent the artist as organizer of material and other peoples acts.

The expressive biomorphic ceramic forms are the petrified refuse of the craftsman’s hand. They are presence recorded. By working quickly and solidly, nullifying ceramics technical tradition, if there is such a thing still, the works represent the pure sub-conscience creative and labor acts. They are purges which serve as momentum and catalyst to my practice. In their creation, I have reached a wonderful raw space which serves as a source of awareness in my continued practice.

These sculptures as recorded acts were the first to get me out of myself. With consideration that all ceramic work is essentially a container, by technical default conditional to the firing process, I wanted to project onto the viewer a sense of this loss of control. By challenging the functional aspect of the hole of a container, the viewer / user no longer has any sense of control tog the object though perceived ownership. By combining the man-made familiar forms of angles with the lumpy happenstance forms that is clay unto it’s own, these containers at first appear understandable, possibly welcoming. Seeing the hole which defines the object as functional, yet contrasted by its undefined relation to the specific shape of the form, challenges the idea of purpose of the object, whether that object be one of design or sculpture.

Moving beyond the importance of the object, I find my self more concerned with loss of control by allowing outside limitations into my work and practice. The wooden collages are composed refuse of what other craft-persons consider dispensable. The forms of the individual blocks are my choice in placement alone, not in form. I see these works as a collaborative effort in a sense. As each end-cut, when re-formated in a new way, now serves as symbol of identity to the person who previously disavowed it’s importance. This work has established an approach to my practice I have not previously considered. I see this work as a process of understanding the value of others peoples acts, intentional or not, but still working cohesively. By working together, a collaborative piece can have a more meaningful effect on a community than my singular interpretation of it.

Block Collage

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

Excerpt from "Conflicting Values of Contemporary Craft" - a paper I wrote.

Another perspective interest in the value of contemporary craft, can be defined by it’s material qualities of ambiguity. For instance, clay is an amorphous craft material. It possess nearly unlimited exploration in form with constant intrigue. The craft material can never truly answer or solve a problem. With every contemplative and explorative act of what clay is and what it can do, the potential in making the new thing only increases with exponential curiosity. This excitement leads to the compulsive potter or the obsessive weaver. A quality specific to craft, material ambiguity incites learning for the material’s sake, not for a means of an end product, but more to discover endless possibilities in making. A never-ending process which is both physically and psychologically engaging for the crafts maker is developed. Considering the increasingly growing virtual environment, this constant learning experience of craft material could explain our society’s current re-interest in the craft movement.
An argument could be made that our interest in creating the craft object is not a physically aware one, suggesting the need to create meaningful forms as symbols for a humanly responsible virtual world. Rather, the current phenomenon to make with craft materials for the sake of learning is a sociological sub-conscience desire to recognize the immaterial future by embracing the ambiguity of not having a direct answer. By re-examining craft, what we are doing now is integrating the psychology of making. Accepting the varied possible manipulations of craft materials, we are acknowledging the unlimited successes and failures of the material, but never accepting any of these possibilities as standard or solved in order to adapt to the virtual environment we are simultaneously creating today. The current revival of interest in the craft movement may seem a counter-revolutionary act, but is actually a psychologically conditioning process which has been ingrained subconsciously as a need to comprehend a future committed to endless possibility of form as well as context.

Unifying Craft Material

The tradition of craft is material. Material awareness which stems from our interaction with the substances of the earth. Hence the completed craft object is but a moment, but can never be considered finial. It is our ego which claims the craft object as complete. To remove the craft object from it’s function, preserved for speculation - encased behind glass is to necessitate the need for deeper understanding. Our hands work too fast. They know not what they make. This pause, is a moment to consider our selves as recorded in our work. A moment - a space to consider the value of our labor.

The Gestures of Resistance exhibition has been many things. Within the space of the Museum of Contemporary Craft the activities of each visiting artist in residence has defined that space while that individual was themselves present. For some, it was a home base. For others, a personal studio. During the down times, between resident guests, the space was once agin defined by the quiet object; the residue of the acts of the artists. As the months have progressed, so did the residue left behind, each complied onto the previous, made for an odd thing. An awkward hulk of a collage object. The viewer has had to work hard to understand it. Clearly, something had happened here. Some activity took place, but only with generous help from the Study Center located above, could the viewer begin to understand the awkward object’s history located below. It was by no means an unpleasant thing. The initial structure was designed with the utmost human ergonomic awareness, as is a requirement of the craftsman carpenter. The wooden foundation served as familiar function like that of furniture. It was inviting as well as intriguing. The structure had dual services which welcomed the viewer through it’s familiar form, as well as provided a functional role for the future artists of which they might work upon. Over the months since it’s construction, the wooded structure changed relatively little. In the quiet space of the museum the object became a pedestal, a pin board, a shelving unit. A strange utilitarian piece of furniture serving as best as possible to the needs of the succession of artists to come and work and go.

For me, the Gestures of Resistance object residing on the bottom floor of the Museum, although personal, due to my interaction over 5 months with it, was an awkward thing to grasp. Ironic that it was meant to be just that though. By the very same tactile components which produced the amalgamation, visually I had a hard time understanding it. Although, they were all items of craft, there lacked a certain unity of the object especially when at rest. I did have the privilege of knowing that the creation of the object was not complete till the last artist had arrived and made his presence.

The sound of oral tradition, emulated through the use of slip, filled and coated not only the space of the awkward object, but the entire Museum. It was moving. It was not rest though, yet it was calming. The craft items left behind by the former residences, became activated in new ways. Like a fresh paint job in an old house, the new surface application awakened new potentials in the residual forms of the artists previous labors. Through a performance involving liquid surface, the individual craft components became once again material. The completed craft object has returned as material by reinterpretation of it’s qualities. Ceramic breaks and can sound beautiful when done with awareness. Cups echo like thumping speakers, amplifying their use. Use and function for the craft ware is limitless, as long as we are mindful of it’s material origin. The craft object, because it is made of earth substances, is always craft material. A completed form by human hands is just one moment in it’s circular existence. The pause of display is always temporary. The awkward object in the Museum has now been unified through surface as well as material re-interaction. The craft object, like tradition, can not rest for too long. Unity is achieved through constant awareness of craft material’s potential.

Open House

OCAC + PNCA would like to invite you to join us (me) for an Open House event at the MFA in Applied Craft & Design Studios on First Thursday, May 6th from 5-8pm.

This will be an opportunity to meet all of the graduate students and to see and discuss their work right in their own studios. This event is free and open to the public.

Bison Building
421 NE Glisan @10th
Portland, Oregon