TESSELLATIONS

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Untitled, Eva Morrison, Press-moulded earthenware, glazed, 2018.

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The Sand Blew a Way, DES, Slip-cast earthenware, glazed 2018.

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The students chose a historical reference and designed their tiles using this inspiration to inform the imagery and colours they used.

Tessellations is a tile installation put together by the Ceramics 398 class in the entrance foyer of the Concordia Visual Arts building, which ran from March 30th to April 10th, 2018. The tiles measure approximately eighteen inches tall by eighteen inches wide, ranging in depth from three inches to one inch thick. The tiles were hung on the wall using nails or screws, which hooked into the open back of the slip cast or press moulded sets of tiles. As for exposure, the foyer is a high traffic area of the Visual Arts building, every student and staff member would be able to see the exhibition as they pass, during the exhibition period. The students chose a historical reference and designed their tiles using this inspiration to inform the imagery and colours they used.

Laura Simard-Lemaire’s tiles, titled Conter Fleurette, bring to mind the line quality of Art Neaveauand and the Arts and crafts movement. The flowers are reminiscent of the tiles and wallpaper created in William Morris’s workshop. Specifically, the daisy wallpaper made in 1861 and the sunflower tiles made in the same year. These tiles were glazed with a white tin glaze and polychrome majolica stains, harking back to the Italian majolica Wiliam Morris also found inspiration in. The artist gave the central flower a face suggesting these tiles might be part of a larger narrative. She designed the foliage on the tile so that when another tile is placed above and below, the flower stems connects to create a larger pattern. Marieke Denil’s six tiles titled Oxidized Sancai, have also been designed for the original carved pattern that connects in a horizontal chain. The colours Denil chose are that of rust and oxidization which accentuate the look of an Art Deco rot iron gate. The fan shapes and triangular forms in the top center of each tile are redolent of common designs used in art deco and can be found on building such as the Chanin Building built in 1929 and the Chrysler Building built in 1998. This fan motif is also present in It was a Wild Time by Marina Crosby, in which the four tiles are each glazed in different bright contrasting colours and possibly in reference to the idealized flapper parties of the twenties, such as the ones depicted in the Hollywood movie The Great Gatsby.

Another experimentation with colour can be seen in JP Desbois-Vandenberg’s nine earthenware and porcelain tile piece, Season’s Crossing. On close inspection, Desbois-Vandenberg used shimmering crystalline glazes and mesmerizing galaxy glazes all in tones found in the natural world. These glazes add the Celtic mythology Desbois-Vandenberg seems to be referring to with the symbols of the four seasons and the four elements, earth, fire, water and air. I find there is an interesting combination of Art Nouveau with the references to flora and fauna and Art Deco with the hard lines of the overlapping and repeating squares and circles. Unlike the tiles created by Simard-Lemaire, Denil would work well as architectural wall covering. I see Desbois-Vandenberg’s tiles more as a insular ceramic work because of the way in which they have been orientated on the wall. The cross is an undeniable reference to Christianity and this is reinforced by the plaster block at its base, which seems to be some kind of alter or kneeling block.

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Sticky, Jordi Soldevila, Press moulded earthenware, glazed, 2018.

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This one-time installation is a snapshot of a series of artist lives all in communication with one another through its assorted materiality.

At a full glance, the Tessellations student exhibit is thematically strong in visual ideology and serendipitous in striking inter-relatedness through its tile content, display methods and wall placement. Writing this exhibition review as one of the tilemaking students and exhibiting artists, a uniquely self-curated process and organic interrelationships between participants were witnessed and noted to have resulted in an art show unfolding in free, unplanned, and meaningful ways. From a technical standpoint, the tiles on display included relief and counter-relief earthenware, terracotta, and porcelain either slip-casted or press-moulded from plaster bricks carefully carved by hand. Through clay body variations, explorations of glaze technologies and production methods, all tiles on display spoke to the contemporary blend of craft and industry taught in ceramic schools today.

Walking in from the entrance, visitors are greeted with attention-grabbing warning colours in ‘Sticky’ and ‘Capucine’, two sets of four tiles with an installation history involving collaboration, a breaking apart, and some ceramic damages. Moving on to a pairing with a tumultuous political history – and in noteworthy contrast – were references to Chinese pottery glaze in ‘Oxidized Sancai’ and Japanese koi fish imagery paired with rooftop tile design in ‘Scales’. The exhibition hall then presents visitors with a choice to continue on in one of two directions. Leftwards, ‘Blank Spaces’ spoke of nature, flowers, a division, and a fallen tile during its installation representing a break or loss. By its side, ‘Season’s Crossing’ also spoke of nature with the exception of using trees instead of flowers as its central narrative’s symbolism involving the rise and fall of the passage of time. ‘Le Chateau’, ‘Conter Fleurette’, and ‘Squaring a Circle’ coincidentally formed an interesting grouping as well in their reference to the cleanliness of a home or temple and the sacredness of natural flora. A shift into abstraction took place next as ‘Agitation’ demonstrated a wild exploration of form and ‘It Was a Wild Time’ communicated an equally accented exploration of colour. Ending with ‘untitled’, ‘The Sand Blew a Way’, and ‘Little Plant’ resulted with feelings of lost histories and the paradoxical gradual decay of life against the will to survive and create.

This one-time installation is a snapshot of a series of artist lives all in communication with one another through its assorted materiality. Furthermore, its upcoming limited and reduced re-exhibiting in the fall also speaks to the “museum life” of ceramic tiles and the effects of altered exhibits communicating entirely different – and perhaps unintended – messages to a potentially broader public audience receiving a misinformed glimpse of something greater as their parting memory of Tessellation’s origins. Similarly, the same kind of story relates to excavated tiles from the past scattered and displayed throughout the world; preserved yet misunderstood.

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Squaring a Circle, Alyag Malkhassian, Press moulded earthenware, glazed, 2018

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Season’s Crossing, JP Desbois-Vandenberg, Slip-cast earthenware and Slip-cast porcelain, glazed, 2018.

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Scales, Gary Cherkas, Slip-cast earthenware, glazed 2018 (the carp motifs are a reference to the sewer covers in the Japanese city of Osaka).

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...these pieces give a wealth of tangible experiences to enjoy.

We experience the world using our five senses, and as Pallasmaa points out, our most dominated sense tends to be visual. When experiencing an exhibit such as Tessellations, it is important to keep in mind the other senses which are often taken for granted. Each of these tiles were created using plaster moulds to produce the three dimensional images or patterns within them.

Considering Pallasmaa’s idea that “touch is the sensory mode that integrates our experience of the world with that of ourselves”, these pieces give a wealth of tangible experiences to enjoy. Since, visually, I felt the layout and positioning would have been more effective in an area with more natural light, for example the room at the front of the VA where all the windows are, I relied more so on the physical details of each piece. In the yellowed artificial lighting, some of the tiles’ colours were altered and therefore lost some of the effectiveness and agency they could have had on me as a viewer. The installation as a whole brought back nostalgia as I was able to reminisce about painting plastered moulds as a child, though of course mine were not so sophisticated. This exhibit seemed to pay tribute to the arts and crafts movements as each tile was hand crafted and uniquely painted.  

There is a definite theme of decorative handmade art in this exhibit. As stated in the reading, ​“The Artist-Designer and the Machine”, industrial designs “lack the human touch”. Theses tiles, on the other hand, are full of human touch which “[endows] an object with beauty and soul.” In this reading, the way Goethe feels about handmade objects and the way he speaks about them bring greater appreciation to this exhibit as a whole. He speaks of “passion” and “eternal beauty” which seems to emanate from many of these tiles arrangements. Through the act of hand making each tiles, the viewer is able to see part of the artist in each tile while also finding their own unique connections to it. With such a diverse collection, phenomenology begins to take place as this buffet of materials (terra cotta, porcelain, and earthenware), textures, and colors bring about a world of experiences that viewers are able to relate to in their own personal way.

The techniques used for these tiles include slip casting, press-moulding, hand painting glazes, and firing. Skills such as this are essential when considering heritage issues and how to aid in conservation challenges. For example, Cristina Pina, who does conservation work for museums, used a plaster mould to create a convincing replica of a Arista tile that was from the 16th century. Skills such as these are needed to preserve tiles since, as ​“What is Architectural Conservation?” states, “[r]estoration requires the most careful research and documentation since it often involves removing existing fabric or recreating missing elements.” Knowledge of this caliber is so essential in a medium which has turned so much to industrial production.

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Oxidized Sancai, Marieke Denil, Slip-cast earthenware, glazed, 2018.

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Little Plant, Niki Farmer, Slip-cast porcelain and Slip-cast earthenware, glazed, 2018.

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Le projet consistait à explorer le moulage et à faire une série de tuiles d’environ 30 par 30 centimètres.

Lorsque que l’on entre dans le hall de la faculté des beaux-arts de l’Université Concordia, située au coin des rues René Lévesque et Crescent, on a souvent la chance de contempler les réalisations des étudiants des différent cours d’arts donnés dans ce bâtiment. Du 26 mars au 10 avril 2018, nous pouvons y voir les projets de céramique des quatorze étudiants du cours de céramique « 2D-3D : Exploration in mold and casting » donné par Lindsay Montgomery. Voici donc mon appréciation de l’exposition et du travail présenté par ces artistes.

Le projet consistait à explorer le moulage et à faire une série de tuiles d’environ 30 par 30 centimètres. Le procédé de construction de ces grandes tuiles de céramique est pratiquement le même que celui décrit dans le texte « The manufacture of Terra Cotta » Il faut d’abord que l’artiste crée à la main un original en argile pour ensuite le reproduire en négatif en utilisant du plâtre. Ce moule de plâtre peut ensuite être utilisé à plusieurs reprises pour créer une série en pressant de l’argile à l’intérieur ou en y versant une argile liquide qu’on laisse sécher quelques heures avant de démouler. Cette méthode de l’argile liquide a été utilisée par les 14 exposants; plus précisément de la porcelaine liquide.  

Tous les travaux présentés sont très différents les uns des autres. Certains étudiants ont fait des arrangements de 4 tuiles disposées deux par deux, d’autres, ont joué avec un nombre de tuiles différents et une disposition dans l’espace linéaire ou encore plus éclatée. C’est le de tuiles en forme d’une croix qui descend jusque sur le sol. Lors de ma visite de l’exposition le 4 avril dernier, j’ai constaté la très grande variété de thèmes abordés et des influences de différentes époques. Entre autre, le travail de Gary Charkas, « Scales » est influencé par l’art asiatique. Le bas-relief des tuiles nous montre une série de poissons du style carpe koï que l’on retrouve souvent dans l’art du Japon. La série de tuiles « Squarring the circle » d’Alyag Malkhassian présente 3 tuiles bleuté avec un motif géométrique en forme de cercle de style mandala. Son travail rappelle les tuiles persanes du 13e siècle, qui ont elles, influencées les tuiles gothiques du Moyen-Âge, où l’on retrouvait également des motifs circulaires géométriques du même genre. L’arrangement de 6 tuiles de Laura Simard-Lemaire intitulé « Conter fleurette », quant à lui, est fortement influencé par les œuvres ornementales architecturales de terra cotta du 20e siècle. Son travail rappelle les tuiles de terra cotta créées pour le plafond du Della Robia Bar dans l’hôtel Vanderbilt. Les deux groupes de tuiles montrent un visage, entouré de pétales de fleurs, qui s’étend en arabesque végétale sur le reste de la tuile. Par contre, le travail d’émaillage est complétement différent. Dans les tuiles du plafond du bar, les motifs en relief sont restés la couleur de l’argile; un blanc beige et le fond de la tuile est de couleur bleu. Laura, elle, a utilisé des couleurs plus éclatantes en sous-glaçure recouverte d’une glaçure lustrée transparente.

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Le Château, Laurence Veri, Slipcast earthenware, glazed, 2018.

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The term tessellations... refers to the mathematical equations that create repetitive geometric patterns in nature such as honey combs and snowflakes.

Tessellations, is an exhibition of slip cast porcelain tiles which are student-produced and displayed in the Visual Arts building lobby at Concordia University. Throughout the exhibition, there is a theme of natural forms and repetitions. Many tile groupings have obvious floral patterns while many represent animals as a central image. The title Tessellations references a type of tiling covering a surface using glazed ceramic geometric shapes, with no gaps or overlaps between. The term tessellations also refers to the mathematical equations that create repetitive geometric patterns in nature such as honey combs and snowflakes. Thus, it is appropriate that many of these tiles feature natural repetitive forms such as the petals of a flower. Some of the tiles in the exhibition include in their design smaller squares which have been formed in relief to look like tessellations.

I find the most successful pieces in this exhibition are displayed without gaps in between the individual tiles, as it allows for the repetitions in designs to blend into each other, especially the pieces whose designs trail of the edge of the tiles. It does seem like there was some trouble with installation, as some tiles are cracked from falling from the wall, and visible screws on some seem like an afterthought.

The display of Gary Cherkas’ tiles showcases the effectiveness of a surface without gaps, as the exhibition title suggests. The curve in the contour of each tile lines up directly with the next tile, creating the illusion of one wavy, tessellated surface. 

The installation of the exhibition places the tiles more towards gallery-setting original artist works, rather than leaning towards architectural or public-installation works. Most of the tiles in this exhibit are hanging on the wall, without serving a structural purpose. I say this because they are displayed as an addition to the wall, without integration into the already existent architecture, and they also are displayed in a way that showcases each group as an individual artists piece with a label (could easily be displayed the same in a gallery setting), rather than a whole integrated public installation. I would have loved to have seen the installation integrated further into the space, as I agree with author Louis Sullivan that ornamentation without consideration or integrated into the environment seems "stuck on", leaving these tiles in limbo, as they could even be considered ceramic canvases or sculptural works outside of the tile world without being grouted or placed side by side.

The method and context in which a tile is made can greatly alter its meaning and significance. All of these tiles are made from slip casting. The process of slip casting involves pouring liquid clay into a plaster mold to form the piece. This process allows for the artist to create many multiples of a piece with rather consistent results, although in some ways the process is controversial. Slip casting really straddles the border between art, craft, and industry, since most contemporary industrially produced ceramic wares are made by a slip-cast process on a larger scale, and many ceramic artists today consider slip casting to be purely “craft”, even if it is done on a smaller scale, which relates directly to the discourse put forward by author David Pye. While some artists lean towards slip-casting as a method of reducing risk and being able to produce a product with a specific outcome repeatedly, as someone who has tried this method of making for myself, I know that the “quality of the result is not predetermined, but depends on the judgement, dexterity, and care”  of the maker. If one pours the clay too thick, or doesn’t wait long enough to crack the mould, the piece could be destroyed all together (as I witnessed in the studios while these projects were being made). The first pour is always a risk, since if there are any undercuts, the mold might not release at all. However, once one has developed a solid technique, there’s a great certainty that each piece will turn out very similar, unlike methods of handbuilding with clay, or hand sculpting the same design repeatedly, where the handmade variations are more pronounced. Thus this entire exhibition borders between risk and certainty.

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It Was a Wild Time, Marina Crosby, Slip-cast earthenware, glazed, 2018.

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This installation of tessellations should be seen as an experience.

A tessellation can be defined as the tiling of a flat surface using shapes, with no overlaps and no gaps. This installation of tessellations should be seen as an experience. The viewer walks through the space that is first and foremost a functional space, sparkled with objects like sofas, chairs or rubbish bins.This setting might seem intriguing at first; we will discuss here the meaning behind this conscious choice and how the ideas behind the tiles have helped this decision. This exhibition is a celebration of the hand-crafted art. It marks a disruption with all the identical looking industrial objects we are used to see every day. The lighting and the object labelling helps the viewer to see the pieces as art tiles, with their striking aesthetic quality. The viewer has here the possibility to discover a space filled with meaning and values.

This exhibition celebrates the hand-crafted art – but not only this. It reminds us that heritage is an on going process. Heritage is never settled, neither in time nor in place. The works are exposed in the building where they were created, where the artists gained the knowledge to make them. Not only this, but they actually are in the corridor that links the VAV gallery and the ceramic studio. All of this makes it possible to talk about heritage in at least two ways.  

First, let’s see heritage as heritage of ceramic making. Tile making is usually seen as a decorative art - this marginality is linked to the rise and predominance of modernism which rejected ornament throughout most of the 20th century. In terms of ceramic history and how tiles are currently often overlooked, this exhibition works as a conceptual and material engagement: the artists made the personal decision to revive this craft, this knowledge and this art that constitutes tiles making. A lot of tiles depict the theme of nature - quite explicitly (Season’s Crossing, JP Desbois-Vandenberg, 2018) or more implicitly (spider web motif in Sticky, Jordi Soldevila, 2018). This clearly shows a continuity in ceramic history of the interest in nature that can be traced back to the Iznik tile and the Chinese motifs.

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Conter Fleurette, Laura Simard-Lemaire, Slip-cast earthenware, glazed, 2018.