#peter saenger

[teasetsotw]

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Type: Tea set Designer/Brand: Peter Saenger Region: New Jersey, United States Time period: 1990s

[startrekdesign]

Design II designed by Peter Saenger for Saenger Porcelain

This tea set has appeared in several episodes of The Next Generation. The unique design allows for the cups to nestle into the pot, warming them before the tea is served.

Source: Quark’s Qantina

[whileiamdying]

The Otherworldly Power of Crystal

Alexis Arnold, ‘Smithsonian Nature Guide: Rocks And Minerals’ (2019). 📷 by Alexis Arnold

From fashion to religious art, works made of quartz and other crystalline materials can have an extravagant charm.

By Peter Saenger Aug. 29, 2019 1:59 pm ET

It was probably inevitable that a museum called Crystal Bridges would one day produce a major exhibition about crystals. “Crystals in Art: Ancient to Today,” which will be on display at the museum in Bentonville, Ark., from Oct. 12 to Jan. 6, 2020, spans four millennia, from a string of ancient Egyptian beads to work by Andy Warhol, Marina Abramović, Picasso and Ai Weiwei. Curators Joachim Pissarro and Lauren Haynes have paid attention to crystal’s role in fashion, its use as a healing force in spiritual movements and its place in organized religion.

A crystal can be made of any material that forms naturally into symmetrical shapes, from snowflakes to grains of salt. But the exhibition catalog points out that when we talk about crystals we are usually referring to quartz, a mineral known in its clear form as rock crystal. Arkansas is a center for large-scale quartz mining, and Crystal Bridges, which opened in 2011, got the first part of its name from Crystal Spring, a natural spring on the grounds. (The second part is a reference to the museum’s bridgelike pavilions.)

Crystal has always had mystical associations. Mr. Pissarro writes in the catalog that the ancient Greeks “believed quartz to be an extraordinary, unique type of ice incapable of melting…a product of nature, but one touched by otherworldly forces.” Crystal balls of clear quartz carved into a sphere constantly show up in children’s stories, pictures and, sometimes, reality: The British Museum has a crystal ball said to have been used by Queen Elizabeth I’s court astrologer.

The first section of the exhibition, “Sacred and Transcendent,” presents some of the earliest pieces, including a 16th-century pendant to be worn on a string of rosary beads. The 6-inch piece is composed of a cross hanging from a rock-crystal skull that wears a tiny, elaborately worked silver gilt crown. Ms. Haynes notes its Mexican style and sees it as more celebratory than eerie. The century before, on the other side of the globe, a Chinese artist produced a crystal sculpture of a seated Buddha, decorated with gold and rubies.

In another part of the exhibition, “Crystal Extravagance,” fashion comes to the fore. In the Mughal court of mid-17th century India, probably around the time the Taj Mahal was built, mango motifs were the rage. The show features a mango-shaped rock-crystal flask, made for a courtier, that might have carried cosmetics, perfume or even slaked lime, a mineral ingredient in the mild narcotic paanthat was popular at the time. Gold wire, embellished with rubies and emeralds, holds the two halves of the 2½-inch-high flask together. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Chinese artists focused on rock-crystal snuff bottles—one example in the show sports sculpted cicadas—and little crystal sculptures in the shape of a horse, lion or buffalo.

By the 20th century, artists had become fascinated by crystals’ cubic shapes. The Cubists fractured and manipulated objects to create “crystal cubism,” says Ms. Haynes, and the exhibition includes paintings of guitars in that style by Picasso and Juan Gris.

While many contemporary artists turn to crystals because of their ancient links to spirituality and mysticism, some artists manage to add a little humor as well. “Blue Calcite Boxing Set” (2016), by New York-based Daniel Arsham, looks like someone has removed the person wearing blue boxing shoes, gloves and shorts, leaving the objects suspended against a white wall. In fact, they’re made of blue crystal—as is Mr. Arsham’s column of footballs laid on top of each other, from the same year. Mr. Arsham is interested in what he calls “fictional archaeology,” inviting viewers to imagine the objects as if they’ve been uncovered on some future dig.

Unlike the boxing shorts, the books that San Francisco artist Alexis Arnold has crystallized using borax are real. For the exhibition she transformed Smithsonian and Audubon Society guides to rocks and minerals, appropriately enough. Ms. Arnold says that she dunks the books into a boiling solution of borax and water; as the solution cools, the borax crystallizes on the book. She adds, “The crystals and book shapes spark a sense of wonder akin to a great piece of literature.” The crystal in Ai Weiwei’s 13-foot-high “Chandelier” (2015) is real, too: Ms. Haynes sees the outsize piece as a quiet political statement, criticizing over-the-top consumerism.

One of the most provocative works in the show comes from Marina Abramović, whose performance art all over the world has often tested her physical limits. A 7 1/2-minute video from 1997, “Dozing Consciousness,” shows the artist close-up and submerged in quartz crystals, each a couple of inches long. She has some difficulty breathing, but as the catalog says, “with each shallow breath, the small fragments of crystals begin to slide aside, eventually falling off the face of the artist.” Thus Ms. Abramović brings crystals back to the life-and-death concerns they have long represented.

[the-clayprofessor]

Peter Saenger

[masterrealm]

Ok so this guy named Peter Saenger came into my high school to talk to my art program about his job as a potter

For starters this guy is really cool and I really enjoyed his presentation he is a fun guy

Second, this guys is SO GOOD like his work is really beautiful and so inspiring. And a fun fact about his work the tea pot and cups in the first picture were actually used in an episode of Star Trek the Next Generation and if you can say Captain Picard drank from your tea set aboard the Enterprise there is really nothing cooler.

I definitely recommend checking this guy out on his website

http://www.saengerporcelain.com/

Also a big thanks to Peter for coming and speaking to us we all really loved it and can't stop talking about it!

[relishdesign-blog]

Peter Saenger Porcelain