Profile (by Kathy Daughety)
Mark Gordon January 2009
A native of
Gordon has presented over 100
lectures and workshops in 19 states and seven foreign countries. He has been
recognized with numerous awards and grants. He has held numerous art
residencies across the nation as well as in
From 1980 to 1983, Gordon taught at
Altos de Chavón in La Romana,
Gordon’s undergraduate studies
included Bachelor of Arts degrees in both philosophy and physical education at
“The physicality of clay, along with its remarkable ability to freeze action and respond to physical impact or retain any fleeting impression, immediately and permanently captured my interest,” says Gordon. “Clay is a universal medium: potters’ vessels have formed an essential part of material culture. My work explores inherent properties of clay transformed through the kiln’s incandescent energy. I approach claywork as the creation of form pulled from inchoate matter, as an ongoing experiment in seeking new direction through variation.”
Gordon’s handbuilding technique was highlighted on the September/October 2008 cover of PotteryMaking Illustrated with his article “Pushing the Envelope” on his process of clay-module wet/dry assembly. His work has been appeared in American Ceramic; Ceramics Monthly; The New York Times; American Craft; Clay Times: The Journal of Ceramic Trends and Technique; Ceramica [Spain]; and Ceramics: Art and Perception [Australia].
[Exerpted
by Kathy Daughety, Public Relations,
June 2008,
Plumb Bob is composed of geometric forms nested one inside another. The clay spheres are contained within a volume defined by three triangles of tempered glass, framed with wood. This tempered glass and mahogany tetrahedral vessel, which contains the clay spheres and encloses negative space, is chained in the air, suspended from Hackney Library’s structural steel beams, tying the sculpture to place. The sculpture both contains space and is framed by space.
The sculpture
embodies themes I have explored since 1983, when I constructed a mixed-media experimental piece La Tercera Caida [“The Third
Fall”] in the Museo de Arte Moderno
in
In Plumb Bob, clay, wood, and glass geometric forms are suspended, pushed into the viewer’s space and given the potential for movement. The massed spherical ceramic shapes are positioned within the transparent planes, bound through tension by wood, and chained to the overhead support. Plumb Bob is intended to suggest a kinesthetic experience: the viewer can sense both the weight and fragile vulnerability of the materials. A slight motion of pendulous weight can result in the strong impression of physical immediacy for the viewer.
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On my walk to work, I often encounter a washer, screw, nail, or an unexpected fragment of disused hardware, Slab XVIII began as wet stoneware scrap day combined with sawdust, perlite and nylon fiber. This mixture was pressed 2-3 inches thick onto a bed of salt crystals, copper shavings, rust scale, nails screw, glass fragments, pyrometric cones, and small pottery shards. The ceramic and nonclay materials were asymmetrically arranged on a wooden board in an aleatory pattern, the front of the piece remaining hidden during drying.
I slake stoneware scraps (i.e. soak them in water until they are fully softened) and add powdered fireclay until the mixture is of slop consistency. In a clay mixer, I add a small handful of shredded nylon fiber to a 200 lb. batch of this wet clay. This increases the clay body’s dry strength, and grabs onto the nooks and crannies created by the aggregate [‘a Velcro effect”] .
Last, I add two parts aggregate for every one part of the slop mixture.
Perlite is the aggregate I prefer, for its rough texture and toughness (“tooth”) in forming. Mixed-size saw-dust can be substituted for perlite. The advantage of using sawdust is its low cost and ready availability. However, sawdust tends to create a strong odor if the clay is left to age, which can cause problems in a classroom or public studio.
The mixed batch will be of the ‘stiff slop’ consistency used by artisan brick-makers. The freshly-mixed clay is way too wet to wedge. Because of its softness, full-mixer batches of this clay can be made without strain on the bearings, gears, or belts of most mixers. Due to the predominance of absorptive non-plastics, even slight aging will cause the clay to stiffen quickly. It is possible to leave the mixed ‘mound’ in the open air: the resultant crust can easily be remixed or slaked in just moments. This clay is not fussy!”
Due to presence of communicating capillaries of sawdust/perlite, firing can be done quickly without danger of blow- outs. The water-smoking phase (from around180 degrees F to 220 degrees F) proceeds smoothly, even with thick-sectioned pieces. At roughly 451’F the sawdust begins to ignite, causing an exothermic reaction within the pieces.