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POTTERS
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COLUMBIA
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Research, Contd from Page 4

in 2011 to continue his socio-technical
research.

In the summer of 2011, Brendan was invited
to attend the European Ceramic Work Centre
in Holland. What he found most interesting
was that only 15% of the participants work in
ceramics. The balance was designers, architects,
and other artists who brought diverse skill
sets to the material. This added to Brendan’s
previous research into the decorative arts and
history, particularly his exploration of Rococo
ormolu, which hed begun back in 2003.
Ormolu refers to French gilded luxury fittings
that were applied to 18th-century imported
Ming and Qing dynasty vases. They would
gild the foot, rims, and finials. The gilt was
applied to make the objects more appealing
to the European aristocracy. Brendan became
interested in the ideas behind the forms and,
in particular, the idea of cultural appropriation
and cultural hybridization. Concurrently, he
was gaining interest in manga comic books.
Manga is part of the global pop culture,
a medium which includes works in broad
genres: action-adventure, science fiction,
comedy and sexuality. Out of this pairing his
Manga Ormolu series was born.

Brendan's work begins with a basic vision
of what he wishes to create and then he just
jumps in: “While working on this series—
and this happens with me with any body of
work—in the process of making, with my
hands moving, my brain starts firing off and
I essentially start to understand the work; it
starts revealing what the work is about. While
I was working, the ideas of appropriations
started coming into my head. I started
thinking about these ideas in the context of
globalization. I started thinking about these
boundaries of commonality, cultural imagery,
and does belonging to a certain ethnicity allow
me to incorporate this type of Ming culture?
Does the fact that ] am part Asian allow me
to appropriate these symbols and icons within
my own work?”

As Brendan suggested, this high level of
appropriation has been going on for centuries.
He provided an example of a Delftware plate
presenting as a Chinese plate, and a Chinese
bowl depicting the crucifixion of Christ, an
obviously Western idea. However, as he pointed
out, both of these examples have a vestige or
feeling, an essence of their original culture.
‘The Delft plate still feels very European. The
Roman guards on the crucifixion piece appear
strongly as Asian sages.

Manga Ormolu Ver. 2.0-0 (2009), by Brendan Tang; 15" in diametre.

Brendan wondered whether he is like the
Delft painters who were looking through
an oriental lens. He also considered the
relationship to our past and the growing
influence of technology on our world, as we
know it. Can new technology affect our past?
What is the effect on the information when
it is mediated through different technologies?
Does it change the experience of the consumer,
thus effectively influencing or changing the
content? All excellent questions! His resulting
work incorporates these ideas of appropriation
and history mediated through technology.

Brendan then went on to display an
example of this concept: the retelling of Alice
in Wonderland using an iPad application. “You
really would have to take a lot of drugs when
you are reading a book to get the same effect
as you would reading it on the iPad in the
enhanced version. This is what I am thinking
about, how technology is affecting these kinds
of things.”

For most of his work, Brendan throws a
traditional vase that he hand paints with
blue and white. He ads cyber-pop ceramic
armatures and then airbrushes them to
smooth perfection. When asked if the robotic
bits are slip cast we were surprised to discover
that each piece is original. He isn’t interested
in slip casting because he is committed to
the traditional way of building; he enjoys the

physicality of handbuilding and making each
piece an original.

‘The first of Brendan’s Manga series involved
the adding of parts to the surface of a thrown,
traditional vase. The vases are an architectural
symbol of culture and his personal symbol
of identity. These pieces were followed by
what Brendan describes as the process of
“quickening the vessel or animating of the
vessel” in an effort to create interaction or
a connection with the body of the vessel to
the robotic parts. He sees the vessel/culture
and identity as malleable and he wanted to
reflect that in the work. In this instance, you
have a vessel being liquid, but affected by
the technological form. Eventually Brendan
started putting the robotic elements on the
inside and had them forcing their way out,
being birthed out of the object.

These new forms presented a formal
problem where he had to resolve the surface
and change it to create a believable illusion.
The work took on more of a body reference,
human, wrinkled, playing off that body-
technology reference he mentioned earlier.
‘There are illusions of things being pinched,
and pierced, of skin wrinkling and appearing
to molt off the body.

Contd on Page 6, Metal grommets

Potters Guild of BC Newsletter - February 2012

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