Abstract

Presentation of academic paper at the Australian Ceramics Triennale, International Conference, National Art School, Sydney, July 2009. This paper stems from on-going research that examines the notion of authenticity within contemporary ceramics practice. In particular this paper explores the interface between ceramic and digital media through an examination of installation and conceptual practice that engages film and moving image.

The question of authenticity becomes perplexed when ceramic is positioned at the digital interface, and most significantly where new media is integral to the artwork. The reading of ceramic both in conjunction with and through another medium, obviously, distorts familiarity where previously interpretation and critique has been applied exclusively to the material first-hand.

The use of video in particular can be evidenced as an emergent and growing spectacle within the ceramic domain, where its location moves beyond documental significance to claim an integral position within practice. Contemporary observations can be made towards the ceramic artist that engages video, most notably when the video image captures either the movement of, or change in, the material clay, this often visually presents the alteration of clay as a material and addresses the notion of time-based activity as well as the temporality of material and object. These elements can be acknowledged to clay that has the potential to change, a notion that extends beyond the familiar subject of immortalised fired clay. The association, therefore, with the familiarity of the stable ceramic object becomes fluid, where essentially the movement, alteration, or deconstruction of clay, essentially time-based activities work to distort the notion of familiarity that has been constructed within ceramic discourse. This challenge to the materiality of clay through time-based activity suggests, a form of conceptual practice that integrates the artist, medium and idea within the language and arena of ceramic discourse. The absence of the physical ceramic form, presented through representation suggests that clay has become somewhat dematerialised within the familiar taxonomies of ceramic discourse. If the physical form has become dematerialised how then might a medium such as video be interpreted within the discipline of ceramics?