Saffronia Szanton Downing

The characteristics and implications of clay in all its states-dry, plastic, readymade, and so on-are explored in an advanced conceptual context. This course examines the subjective role of materiality. Expanding the language of clay, and the approaches to it via nonconventional methods of manufacture and installation, the involvement of recycling/ repurposing found ceramic objects and material will be the intent of the class. Some of the artist we will be looking at are Breanda Tang, Phoebe Cummings, Morel Doucet, Caroline Slotte, Magdolene Dykstra and Kjell Rylander

Knowledge Lab: Craft Ecologies will trace the life cycles of materials from their genesis in the earth to utility in human hands. In this studio seminar, students will take up traditional craft practices in a contemporary art context to explore entanglements between the natural and human-built worlds. Using the 280-Building’s living laboratory as a classroom and research site, we will look closely at the complex systems which bring material into being. We will undertake readings and research, learn from makers and miners, forage Chicago clay, and grow our own fibers. Through these investigations, we will consider the correspondence between maker and material in the age of the Anthropocene.