Echoes of the Earth
Born from fire, ceramics are made of clay, a soft sedimentary rock. Through a combination of art, technology, and cultural knowledge, ceramics continue to evolve. Attesting to the medium鈥檚 perseverance, contemporary artist Echo Morgan impactfully animates ceramics through the medium of performance. Through her series Be the Inside of the Vase, Morgan presents the entanglements of ceramics with relevant topics of identity, gender norms, and belonging.
Be the Inside of the Vase reflects on Morgan鈥檚 complex family relationships and their anthropomorphization of ceramics. Her mother would tell her, 鈥淒on鈥檛 be a vase, pretty but empty inside, be the inside, be the quality!鈥� while her father would say, 鈥淲omen should be like vase, smooth, decorative and empty inside!鈥�
Beginning with this childhood memory, Morgan examines her family鈥檚 history and the wider implications of her racialized form as both object and person, available for public consumption. Morgan explores these entanglements by painting her body with blue and white paint in the motif of bamboo and cherry blossoms鈥攁 classic ceramic technique seen in this gallery鈥檚 more historical objects.
Born from fire, ceramics are made of clay, a soft sedimentary rock. Through a combination of art, technology, and cultural knowledge, ceramics continue to evolve. Attesting to the medium鈥檚 perseverance, contemporary artist Echo Morgan impactfully animates ceramics through the medium of performance. Through her series Be the Inside of the Vase, Morgan presents the entanglements of ceramics with relevant topics of identity, gender norms, and belonging.
Be the Inside of the Vase reflects on Morgan鈥檚 complex family relationships and their anthropomorphization of ceramics. Her mother would tell her, 鈥淒on鈥檛 be a vase, pretty but empty inside, be the inside, be the quality!鈥� while her father would say, 鈥淲omen should be like vase, smooth, decorative and empty inside!鈥�
Beginning with this childhood memory, Morgan examines her family鈥檚 history and the wider implications of her racialized form as both object and person, available for public consumption. Morgan explores these entanglements by painting her body with blue and white paint in the motif of bamboo and cherry blossoms鈥攁 classic ceramic technique seen in this gallery鈥檚 more historical objects.
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