iPot Exhibition by Bradley Keys

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Artists Statement

“There is a curious change afoot in the ceramics world,” says Keys.  “It is occurring in ceramics studios and undoubtedly reflects larger trends. When I was a student of ceramics over fifteen years ago, there was one “boom box” that supplied the tunes for everyone.” Keys notes that there seemed to be endless negotiation occurring to decide what music made its way through the public air space. “Though, at the time, this seemed frustrating to us all, especially those who had to listen to my brand of Celtic folk rock,” he says it served to establish a dialogue of understanding about each other.  “Our musical preferences always led to discussions about our experiences, lives, and ideas.”  Keys is very appreciative of the exposure to all that different music, which now frequently serves as “memory jogs” of his studio mates.

        For the last eight years, working as the technician in that same college ceramics department, Keys has witnessed the disappearance of the studio CD player. It has been replaced with “tiny white wires trailing down from people’s ears.”  With the advent of the ubiquitous ipod, Keys remarks that an eerie silence has fallen upon the group ceramics studio and with it, the disappearance of a lot of the discourse that was commonplace among ceramists. He laments that it is now common to walk into the working studio and hear nothing but the whine of the ventilation system.

        This led Bradley Keys to ponder the objects with which we choose to surround ourselves. “Cell phones and ipods are objects of convenience, but, without sounding like a Luddite,” he argues, “they have fundamentally changed the way we interact in social contexts.  These objects affect our relationship to our immediate situation and contribute to insulating ourselves from one another. Making pots is the antithesis of this. While I struggle with the notion that making handmade pots is potentially archaic in nature, I also see that pots are the kind of objects we need in our lives to connect us to our realities. Pottery is about coming together and sharing: food, drink, ideas, and histories. They are the objects that we build our personal life narratives around and connect us to our traditions and rituals.”

        In his upcoming exhibition of pots entitled “iPot”, Keys has created pots intended to separate us from and contain some of our electronic devices, for a moment, and draw us together in food and drink. These pots create a time and place where we slow down a bit, get over that first awkward silence, and begin to talk, listen, and ultimately better understand and appreciate each other.

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This page was last edited  November 15, 2008
The Willock and Sax Gallery website was designed and is maintained by Susan Sax Willock