AJ Shipley

Ceramics - class of 2024 : My current project is focused on visual representations of a series of 8 curses made as if to be presented as a narrative installation.

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Project Statement

Brief: Story

Focus: Ceramics

For this project I've chosen to create a story using a set of translated Yiddish curses. [Compiled from this list: X ]

I've chosen to focus on this by choosing 9 curses that have strong visual elements in their wording and by then creating a conceptual ceramics installation - 8 separate pieces to represent 8 curses, with the 9th being the title of the show itself.

Ideally I would have liked to experiment with glazes, form, structure, surface decoration, and other narrative elements (such as animation/film/video) to enhance the story I've created using the curses.

This is a separate idea from my initial work for this brief, but I've chosen to leave my previous work up to be included for consideration.

(The curses I've chosen are listed in final presentation order - with links to the matching posts - beneath the read-more break):

Show name: One Misfortune Is Too Few For Him

1. Black sorrow is all his mother should see of him.

2. He should get so sick as to cough up his mother's milk.

3. God should visit upon him the best of the Ten Plagues.

4. Why bother getting up alive? [Part 2]

5. God should bless him with three people: One should grab him, the second should stab him, and the third should hide him.

6. A hundred houses shall he have, and in every house a hundred rooms, and in every room twenty beds, and a delirious fever should drive him bed to bed.

7. He should be transformed into a chandelier, to hang by day and to burn by night.

8. I should outlive him long enough to bury him.

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Artist Research - Beverly Naidus

A Klug Tzu Columbus (A Curse on Columbus) (1992)

The curses that I chose for my project are all phrases that have been translated from Yiddish into English. The art of insulting is just one of many facets of Jewish culture that I admire, I think that they've truly mastered the ability to cut straight to the heart.

This installation by Beverly Naidus shows, in my opinion, how an insult can become more than an insult. She explains the meaning behind the title in the linked page for the work:

"“A Klug Tzu Columbus (A Curse on Columbus)” is a Yiddish expression that was used by Jewish immigrants in the early part of this [20th] century who were annoyed that they were not doing as well as they expected in their new country. An example of its usage would be: "a curse on Columbus for finding this godforsaken land where I have had to struggle and suffer." This installation examines the fear of ethnic and racial difference through stories about immigration, assimilation, and experiences with prejudice."

The exhibit invited guests to examine their racial biases and to look beyond what words alone can do to think about the layers of meaning and oppression behind them. In my opinion, the act of insulting back, at cursing back at those who have cursed them first, is an absolutely vital part of the rebellion and resiliency of Jewish culture against oppression over the course of so many years.

In my own project I chose to focus on the 'victim' of the curses by creating pieces that became visual representations of the outcomes of each curse, or physical interpretations of the visual language of them. However, I intentionally left the 'why?' open to interpretation - why was the 'victim' cursed? What did he do to incur so much anger? Who's really the injured party? Is it aggression from the caster of the curses, or is it self-defense from the violence of the victim prior to his downfall?

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Curse #5

I should outlive him long enough to bury him.

For the final piece I created a coffin shape using cardboard from cereal boxes and covered it in white paper to make it look pure and unassuming from the outside. Upon opening it, it contains all of the other objects for the other curses as well as a description on the inside of the lid both of the curses and the concept of Pandora's Box as something of a mythological tie to the concept of creating a vessel/box full of curses and evils.

Transcription of the inside of the lid under the read-more break:

[Far left side:]

Under a heading that reads "Curses released onto the victim:"

Black sorrow is all his mother should see of him.

He should get so sick as to cough up his mother's milk.

God should visit upon him the best of the Ten Plagues.

Why bother getting up alive?

God should bless him with three people: one should grab him, the second should stab him, and the third should hide him.

A hundred houses shall he heave, and in every house a hundred rooms, and in every room twenty beds, and a delirious fever should drive him bed to bed.

He should be transformed into a chandelier, to hang by day and to burn by night.

[Middle:]

= PANDORA'S BOX: =

Greek Mythology - A jar (later a box) given to the first woman containing all the evils and curses of the world. Upon opening it, they all flew free to torment mankind, and only hope remained.

Modern idiom - "To open a Pandora's Box" is to do or to start something that will cause many unforeseen problems.

[Far right side:]

8. I should outlive him long enough to bury him.

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Artist research - Grayson Perry

Images 1 & 2: Cuddly Toys Caught on Barbed Wire (2001)

Image 3: Transvestite Brides of Christ (2000)

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I started looking at some of Perry's work after a suggestion from Elaine, and I was instantly reeled in. While it's very different from what my project for the Story brief became, I've been enjoying looking at the use of surface design to tell more of the story than the form of the piece does, which is the opposite of the direction I went with my work. I love the simplicity of the form, that shape of a jug that's been repeated ad nauseum throughout history. It's such a basic shape that communicates a sort of pedestrian, maybe agrarian, feeling, a sense of steadiness and continuity, or a strength in the homely familiar. And then to take that shape that's so ubiquitous and to cover the surface of it in the shocking or the macabre, or even just any sort of confusion of images at all whether they shock or not. The mixture of processes for marking the surface (drawing, photo overlays, gilding, etc.) are interesting as well and serve to enhance the mood or feelings evoked by each piece.

I would have loved to have been able to experiment a bit more with surface design like this for this project to help enhance the tone of the overall work, and it's definitely something I'll be keeping in mind going forward into other projects.

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Curse #2

He should get so sick as to cough up his mother's milk.

I made this the same way I made the other piece involving this stout glass - I took some white tights/socks and stuffed them into the top of the form and then edited the image in Clip Studio Paint. I would have also liked to do this with a glaze, an opaque white mixed with threads of light pink or red to give it more of a sickly look.

I see this and the other piece like it (for the 'Black sorrow' curse) as companion pieces as the wording of both of them reference the curse-receiver's mother. If I were able to display them in an installation I would place them directly next to each other so they could be viewed simultaneously.

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Curse #1

Black sorrow is all his mother should see of him.

To make this I took the paper mache form I made of a stout glass and repaired where I had to cut it off the glass with strips of plaster bandage. I then took a pair of black tights and covered the top of the glass (carefully!) and did my best to make it look like it was dripping or oozing out of the top of the form. I then took the photo on the left and edited it in Clip Studio Paint to smooth it out and attempt to make it look more like dripping, glossy glaze like I would do if I could make this in the studio.

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Curse #8 pt. 1

He should be transformed into a chandelier, to hang by day and to burn by night.

Design sheet for a bone-like chandelier inspired by the shapes and forms of antler chandeliers (drawn traditionally with the flesh color test swatch done digitally). Transcription of notes under the read-more break:

Notes next to chandeliers:

Antler chandelier with black candles - wax should be allowed to drip over form

*Alternative - tan/peach candles to add to fleshy feeling as they melt/drip

Materials notes (right side of page):

(*indicates preferred choices)

- 'Bones' made of ceramic -

*White stoneware unglazed for matte finish

or

Porcelain glazed white for glassy finish to amplify firelight

- Create webs of 'flesh' using one or more materials

*Thin sheets of peach-toned latex spread out and stretched between the various points and curves of bones/antlers

or

Fabric dipped in colored slip and draped over the forms - fabric can be either whole or ripped/shredded in places

- Candle-burning chandelier - organic flickering light and dripping wax is more important than the better illumination of electricity.

Black candles to create black shadows gradually over time

or

*Peach/tan candles the same color as the latex and/or slip will add more strips of 'flesh' as they melt

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Curse #3

God should visit upon him the best of the Ten Plagues.

If I had the necessary materials and time, I would want to create this piece using a silicone/latex mold and craft as realistic of a bust as I could. As it is, here's a design sheet for it that hopefully gets the idea across, drawn traditionally first and then colored digitally in Clip Studio Paint.

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Curse #7

A hundred houses shall he have, in every house a hundred rooms, and in every room twenty beds, and a delirious fever should drive him bed to bed.

Using spare cardboard from cereal boxes and the like I've constructed a house that, when you lift off the roof, you can look down inside and see a confusing warren of 'rooms'. I covered the outside of the structures in plain white paper both to hide all the logos as well as to make it seem unassuming from the outside, while the inside is a different story. If I were able to do it with clay I would make the internal pieces multicolored with various glazes to add even more confusion, though I would keep the house itself white.

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Research - Curse #3

God should visit upon him the best of the Ten Plagues.

Matthew Mungle (makeup artist) and Sam Jinks (sculptor)

For this curse I'd ideally like to do some silicone mold-making and create something of a prosthetic or a hyper-realistic sculpture of a head and shoulders made up to be covered in boils or lesions to represent the Ten Plagues. I was inspired by the work of Sam Jinks, an Australian sculptor who I actually researched last semester who specializes in hyperrealism, and who frequently depicts subjects that inspire the same kind of discomfort I would want mine to.

Matthew Mungle's work in prosthetics and special effects makeup is also interesting as he deals with body horror as well as creating pieces that are frequently used in film and tv shows as cadavers (or parts of cadavers) - including being the main artist for the popular crime show CSI, which requires him to accurately reproduce all sorts of injuries.

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Curse #4 pt. 2

Why bother getting up alive?

I took the wire hand I made earlier in the week and covered it in plaster of paris bandages with a focus on making sure I got all the ridges and unevenness of the wire form underneath. I wanted the hand to look rough and gnarled, and I love the texture of the bandages in this, I feel like they really drive the notion home that the owner of the hand is injured, sickly, definitely in the midst of their suffering. The wire is also really beginning to rust through the plaster (a few days after I initially applied it) and I think that adds a lot to the look as well - this combination of materials felt perfect for what I was trying to accomplish.

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Curse #4 pt. 1

Why bother getting up alive?

Following the wire and plaster bandage workshop with Elaine and Mary on Monday, I've made a life-size hand out of wire in preparation to cover it in plaster bandages. The palm and wrist are made of coils of the double-strand twisted wire shown in the first three pictures. The fingers are made of tighter coils of single-strand wires, all of it modeled after my own hand for measurements to get the proportions as correct as I could get them.

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Ceramics - Papier Mache workshop 3.22

We did a 'cut & paste' workshop for ceramics using any object we'd like for our molds. I chose a pint glass, and the materials I used were plain newspaper from the college and a paste made of equal parts flour and water.

It took a few days to dry (I think I applied the glue too thickly) and my method of oiling the glass didn't work so well - getting the finished product off of it was a lot of struggling with a utility knife, and as you can see in image 5 there was quite a bit of paper and glue still stuck on the glass. Next time I'll try using clingfilm to help lift the final product off the mold.

I'd like to use this form to help me further develop two ideas I have for my curse project.

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Curse #6 pt. 3

God should bless him with three people: one should grab him, the second should stab him, and the third should hide him.

Initial idea sketch and maquette for the final of three figures described in this curse, made with newplast.

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Curse #6 pt. 2

God should bless him with three people: one should grab him, the second should stab him, and the third should hide him.

Initial idea sketch and maquette for the second of three figures described in this curse, made with newplast.

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Curse #6 pt. 1

God should bless him with three people: one should grab him, the second should stab him, and the third should hide him.

Initial idea sketch and maquette for the first of three figures described in this curse, made with newplast.