Master of Fine Arts Thesis
Sunder
Shauna Fahley
Submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirement for the degree of Master of Fine Arts, School of Art and Design Division of Ceramic Art New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University Alfred, New York
2021
Signature
Shauna Fahley, MFA
Thesis Advisors : John Gill, Johnathan Hopp, Matt Kelleher, Walter McConnell, Linda Sikora, Meghan Smythe, Adero Willard
Abstract
The horse and the brick were both fundamental in the development of civilization. My work embodies the intersection of the two, compounding material and subject. It is not my goal to illustrate the romantic or heroic image of the horse. Instead I am reconfiguring the equestrian monument without the question of who holds the power. I am dissecting the monument as a symbol in culture while bringing my understanding and experience with the horse as a sentient animal. I am not merely pursuing a fixed image of the horse. I am exploring how movement is experienced over time with ceramics materiality and using archaic visual language. I want viewers to engage with kinetic materiality through my sculptures. In spending time with these objects, viewers are invited to transcend the static and investigate embodiment, change, the third space, ephemerality, empathy, and the gigantic.
Acknowledgments
I would like to take a moment to show my appreciation to everyone who supported my growth as an artist, academic, and person during my time at Alfred University. Thank you to all my advisors and committee members. A warm thanks to all my colleagues.
Lastly, big thank you to my parents and friends.
Table of Contents
Thesis Report ...... 1
Clay and Horse as Material ...... 1
Meet Me that Day ...... 2
The Third Space ...... 4
Ceramics and Equines Technology ...... 4
The Horse in Modern Culture ...... 5
Repeated Image ...... 6
Her Story (History) of the Horse ...... 6
The Human Object ...... 8
Monument ...... 9
The Dangerous Monument ...... 9
Dismantled Power ...... 10
Archaism ...... 11
Burden - Supporting Poem ...... 13
Bibliography & References ...... 14
Artist Statement ...... 15
Technical Report ...... 16
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Thesis Report
My work embodies the intersection of both the compounding material and subject, clay and horse. It is not my goal to illustrate the romantic or heroic image of the horse. Instead, I aim to reconfigure the equine icon as a vehicle for understanding empathy beyond ourselves and the animal, but the greater consciousness of humanity. I am deconstructing the equestrian monument, making it without a position of power or a dominant figure. I am exploring large equine forms in a modern context as an archaic remix to interpret and critique the past while existing in the present. The horse's body relative to the viewers is a powerful experience that brings us outside ourselves. With the life-size scale of my work, I invite the viewer to take the time to investigate. I seek to restore an awareness of how humans communicate and influence each other with our actions. I am dissecting the monument as a symbol in culture while at the same time bringing my understanding and experience with the horse as a sentient being.
Clay and Horse as Material
Clay catalogs sensory information offered through an artist's hand. The memory that clay holds from the intuitive response of human contact is central to my process.
The tacit dialogue I experience while working with clay parallels my understanding of the body language between horse and rider. I must be alert and ready to respond to the physical changes both horse and clay go through. Horseback riding requires me to develop an awareness for movement and a feel for things internally, not just visually. My seat in the saddle is not a passive experience. Using my seat and legs, I am sensitive to
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how the horse moves. I can feel which feet are hitting the ground, and I can identify which muscles are being engaged.
In comparison to clay, I can feel the compression and strength I give the clay while wedging with my feet. My hands can feel how much water is in the clay and where the clay walls of my piece have "memory" from a continuous conversion or a repair. Like pencil marks on paper then trying to erase it, there is still an imprint in the paper where the pencil once applied pressure to the page. Building at a life-sized scale and beyond demands that my muscle memory and intuitive responses are active. The hands-on manipulation of large clay slabs parallels how I work with horses: moving, pressing, and collaborating for desired outcomes.
Meet Me that Day
When I return to the studio to continue working on a piece, I have expectations for that workday of where the sculpture's dryness should be and how much more I should add to it. I unwrap the clay sculpture to find that the plastic has kept too much moisture in, and the work will not support any more weight. If I fight with the clay and try to make it work for me, the process would be frustrating and could ultimately lead to losing the piece. This is not how I would ride a horse, so why would I work with clay like that. I adjust my plan for that studio day, maybe add detail to the clay that needs to dry or start something new. Choosing to work this way has a mantra I call "meet me that day." I recognize where something is, and I meet the occasion even if it is less exciting than what I had anticipated. I am responding to the clay's agency.
This mantra is not limited to material or an animal being ready to be worked with; sometimes, "meet me that day" is introspective. If I, the artist, am not in the best
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mindset to be delicately carving a fragile part of the piece then maybe I need to throw slabs instead. Not only is the clay's agency important, so is an awareness of our energy and capability. I know the dryness of clay must be different at the neck to support the head compared to a delicate ear that must be wrapped in plastic to keep it from getting too dry. I also know what kind of patience and calm I need when making an eyelid compared to the bold attitude I need to build a shoulder.
Academia trained me to recall one answer on demand. For some things, this linear methodology works, but it does not for other things like riding or working with clay.
It took time for me to realize that with material, whether that is an animal or clay, there are many ways to get the desired result. I had to rethink how to approach the task to achieve my desired result. Some hand-building methods work great with one clay body but not another. Using your legs a certain way while riding can get a specific outcome with one horse but not with another. Problem-solving with compassion or "meeting" something where it is on that day is more beneficial than trying to force a linear method to work. This is not just about me: it is about the thing I'm interacting with and the process it must undergo.
I think about the !"#$% as material and body. &'()
When an artist is asked “What material do you use?” my reaction is “The material uses me.” Various materials ask me to behave differently. The material can be anything, but you move with it. I think about the horse as material as much as I think about clay as body, moisture, muscle, compression.
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The Third Space
In psychotherapy, there is a theory called the third. In relationships, people often understand themselves as individual entities. For example, “You do something to me, I do something to you.”1 In the third theory, when people understand one another and see the whole person for who they are, that Relationship creates a "third" space. My mantra, "meet me that day," is assessing the third space on an intimate level. I want the gallery to function as that third space on a communal level. I am looking forward to that day when the gallery is that third space and meet it that day.
Ceramics and Equines Technology
The horse and the brick were both fundamental in the development of civilization.
Cultural anthropologists categorize horses as technology. Horses are animals we learned to utilize for our benefit; even today, we measure a vehicle's power in "horses."
Ceramics has a significant history in food production as a vital architectural role.
Ceramic tiles, bricks, and plumbing enabled our cities to grow bigger and accommodate more people. Ceramics has an essential role in computer motherboards and other modern technologies. In both artmaking and horseback riding, there is a delicate intention that comes from the hands. The word digital comes from digit, which has the
Latin root "digitus," meaning finger or toe. Technology has this tactical origin based on a
1. Abumrad, Jad. How Dolly Parton Led Me to an Epiphany, 2020. https://www.ted.com/talks/jad_abumrad_how_dolly_parton_led_me_to_an_epiphany?la nguage=en.
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relationship to the body and, more specifically, our hands. Both the horse and ceramics play a huge part in society from many periods, especially in the development of civilization, and still play a current role in our culture. Because of the parallels both have, I feel ceramics is an appropriate material for illustrating the horse.
The Horse in Modern Culture
What I want to do with the image of the horse is change the human approach from "what is this horse doing for me" to "what is the relationship with my body relative to this body and what are the consequences of my actions." The equestrian image is still represented in the present. How do I change the approach we take to an animal that has historically been in service to humans? We see images of the cowboy in pop culture, much as Meg Thee Stallion and Tyga music videos.2 The actual discipline of riding is still seen today; most familiar are show jumping, cross country jumping, rodeos, and horse racing. But horseback riding is not just an elitist sport. Horses are still used for community outreach through 4-H clubs and barns located in the inner cities like The
Compton Cowboys. Images of horses are seen in fashion as well. Clothing brands like
Ed Hardy feature an iconic horse head with their mouth open with its history related to old American tattoos, and Gucci embellishes their bags with miniature bits.
2. Morones, Amanda, Elissa Chojnicki, Elissa Chojnicki, Brian Espinoza, and Philip DeFranco. Bill Pickett to Lil Nas X: The Untold Story of Black Cowboys...
YouTube, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsZDvKIn8ts&t=240s.
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Repeated Image
There is a repeated image of the horse with its mouth open in art, mythology, drawings, and sculpture. I am not fond of it. As a young person, I thought the animals' faces looked distorted, tragic, goofy, and cartoon-like. Two common tropes involving horses are romantic and heroic. The romantic is often a woman on a horse who has gained freedom through a companion. The heroic tends to be a man riding a horse being elevated with power and, therefore, closer to God. In both, the horse is being held back with a bit of its mouth while the rider is calm, passive, and stoic. The horse opens their mouth to not feel pressure from the bit. This is what an equestrian would call
"escaping the bit." In all these repeated moments, there is a historical reminder that horses have always responded in this way to placing steel in their mouths.
How do we understand the dancer of the past without film? How can we understand a movement from the past? How do we go about understanding horses from the past? I use this moment of the horse opening its mouth as a dynamic way of illustrating the horse's head and referencing its history of use. I find it interesting that so many depictions of horses trying to escape the bit are unwavering and repeated across history. I believe it is notable to anyone observing a horse being ridden or illustrated in art: the beauty of riding a horse can be suddenly disrupted by this garish moment of the horse opening its mouth widely.
Her Story (History) of the Horse
The horse is commonly represented in historical art as well as contemporary art.
Usually, the horse is a feature representing the time or a symbol for who holds power.
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Often in art history, we see the horse as a pedestal for a person or illustrating the violence of a historical event. Many artists are using the horse in this narrative, but few deviate from this trope and use the horse as their subject. As an example of a few artists that have approached the subject matter of the horse in an alternative way are
Berlinde De Bryckereday, Rosa Bonheur, Brooke Kerr Rosa, and Deborah Butterfield.
Artist Berlinde De Bryckere uses taxidermy horses as a signifier for the loss of life in concepts about World War I. Her work symbolizes something more significant than just the empathy for the horse, but compassion for each other—whether that's animals or humans. Bryckere felt that the horse parallels how society treats women.
She sees a parallel between the use of horses and the use of women. She uses domestic furniture as pedestals for her taxidermy horses.
Rosa Bonheur's horse paintings were featured in the Paris salon in 1852. She dressed as a male while observing her subjects to avoid sexual harassment from horse traders and dealers. At the time, Bonheur's had to get permission from the police to cross-dress. This was the best way for her to observe the equestrian subject.
Deborah Butterfield creates emotionally moving horses with a variety of materials. She uses the horse as a stand-in for the female body and self-portrait.
Butterfield said in an interview that she felt the human self-portrait had been done before, and this was her take on illustrating herself. The horses she creates are more significant than life-size, about one and a quarter-scale often made from old metal or found driftwood. Her more recent works have been bronze castings from her originally driftwood horses at one-quarter scale. The patina of the material makes it appear to be
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still made of wood. I interpret it as her commentary on equestrian monuments because most public monuments are cast in bronze.
I think these artists have a unique approach to the subject and material that they are using. Their subject goes beyond just a historical icon but something the viewer can have empathy towards. They offer a new vision of the subject without falling into the trope of the romantic or the heroic. Butterfield and De Bryckere talk about themselves through their work as women without entering an anamorphic representation of the horse. I believe in some capacity by using the horse as the subject in work can offer an opportunity to bypass the male gaze. I can relate to that feeling myself, but this is not to say I or any of these artists are using the subject as an alternative; instead, it is a vehicle for a more direct conversation about the content.
The Human Object
I have not felt the need to illustrate myself as human in my own work. My work is about the perspective I give; the image of a horse as someone who has worked with the animal and understands the movement rather than the relationship of a person on the horse. It is the alternative to the equestrian monument. It is the horse without the question of who holds power. More recently, I have been navigating this perplexity with the human object. Some of my recent works have featured human object parts, such as a hand holding the reins or pelvis bone sitting on the horse's back. I believe my work is growing to understand the horse rider together as collaborators while being wary of the dangers of what some equestrian monuments represent.
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Monument
Monuments are often placed as a marker. In remembrance of something: an event or an idea. They are commonly placed in public spaces under the guise and scrutiny of the public. Over time they are often broken, past importance, disheveled, and irrelevant. I am making a monument that can move forward with time, objects that can stay current despite however much time passes. By deliberately making my sculptures look old, the viewer is given an opportunity to put their meaning into the work. The horse is an icon, and it comes with its baggage and its context based on culture and our own experiences. Its archaic style allows the viewer to draw their own meaning and give it context.
The Dangerous Monument
Society is ever-changing; nothing is as static as we assume it to be. It takes critique and deliberate action to see changes for the better in our world. In the United
States, there is a large number of confederate monuments that stand to this day that actively foster racism. Many are of confederate soldiers sitting on horses. These statues, which represent racism and the division of our country, have been widely scrutinized for remaining up in public spaces. Only recently, in the wake of George
Floyd's death and one of the biggest demonstrations seen in civil rights history, have some of these problematic monuments been removed. I do not believe monuments should last forever. We assume that they are an unwavering testament that will outlast time. The Greek marble statue of Venus is the epitome of sexualizing women has not
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stood the test of time well, she is missing her head and arms for crying out loud! People and societies change, and monuments are edited and dissolved with those changes.
Dismantled Power
Why are some people so resistant to the idea of change? Especially when it comes to monuments in public spaces? Sure, they are a part of history. Then move them to a museum and give proper educational context to them. Do not let these old ideas stand in our cities and provide a few people reasons to believe that racism is a pillar we let stand. This country was founded as a promise to escape oppression.
History repeats itself. The concept of removing an oppressive monument has happened before. During colonial times in the United States, people were oppressed by King
George III. In response to declaring independence, the equestrian monument of King
George III was torn down, and the metal was repurposed for bullets. Many historical paintings depict this event. The only part of the statue that survived was the tail of the horse. Art is the pulse of humanity. As time passes, we change, and I believe it is necessary to edit these monuments or remove them entirely.
My current work is about the dissection of the monument in parts, and the vivisection of the active ideas are still represented or "living" in those monuments.
Acquit the unwitting animal from its western and colonial rider. It is about the horse and itself relative to the body. I am exploring large equestrian forms in a modern context as an archaic remix. The remix comes in how I orient forms on unusual axes as well as in parts. When the horse is alone, it can function more widely, as the icon. As a viewer, I should be able to approach these works as they are and investigate these things from my perspective while being confronted with forms that offer something new.
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Archaism
In my work, I think about the equestrian monument when it is disrupted by being broken into pieces. Archaism is the act of making something purposefully look old.
Howard Morphy and Morgan Perkins define archaism as "...a tendency to make things that look old, or resemble some degree an ancient tradition, without actually reproducing some particular object..."3 Clay's materiality has a prominent ability to portray time and nature. The artist as a mortal and the ceramic as immortal give us a taste of how time accumulates in an object. Even when an artist dies, their object lives on in the accumulating information as time marches on. When an object is rough and may be broken, the process that it has undergone allows the viewer to apply a different and unconventional kind of beauty. I believe artists access this type of beauty by making it in an archaic way. When an artist breaks 4a part of an object on purpose, they distort themselves from the object and give it a sense of collected time.
My work embodies the intersection of both clay and horse. The work is meant to isolate the relationships and emphasize how communication works beyond words, using body language and movement. I want the gallery to facilitate these conversations to happen in the third space. I am deconstructing and vivisecting the equestrian monument, illustrating the removal of the human, letting the horse have its power. This work is the alternative to the equestrian monument; it is the equine monument. It is the
3. Morphy, Howard. And Perkins, Morgan. The anthropology of art: a reader
Oxford: Blackwell. (April 4, 2009)
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horse as something that seeks the viewer's empathy. I am not merely pursuing a fixed image. I am exploring how movement is experienced over time. I want viewers to engage with kinetic materiality through my sculptures. In spending time with these objects, viewers are invited to transcend the static and investigate embodiment, change, the third space, ephemerality, and the gigantic. I aim to reconfigure the equine icon as a vehicle for understanding empathy for the greater consciousness of humanity.
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Burden - Supporting Poem You fill me
I am content I am happy I have purpose
I am full of things you asked me to carry I hold them willingly But those things you asked me to carry are heavy
I have to ask you to lead me You do it but only because I ask We walk the same distance But I must do it while holding on to all those heavy things you asked me to carry
You leave and I am still here Holding on to all those heavy things you asked me to carry
You never unpack them You never find spaces for them I just hold them I bear the things you cannot
I want you to give me purpose, real purpose I thought I was your well Deep and plentiful ready for you to take from Instead, you’ve given me all those heavy things
I am not your well I am a compromised bucket I don’t want to hold those heavy things you asked me to carry I want you to find the will to unpack them and put them away
I long to be emptied I want to be hollow again Because what you are doing isn’t fulfilling me anymore
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Bibliography & References
Abumrad, Jad. How Dolly Parton Led Me to an Epiphany, 2020.
https://www.ted.com/talks/jad_abumrad_how_dolly_parton_led_me_to_an_epipha
ny?language=en.
Morones, Amanda, Elissa Chojnicki, Elissa Chojnicki, Brian Espinoza, and Philip
DeFranco. Bill Pickett to Lil Nas X: The Untold Story of Black Cowboys...
YouTube, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsZDvKIn8ts&t=240s.
Morphy, Howard. And Perkins, Morgan. The anthropology of art: a reader
Oxford: Blackwell. (April 4, 2009)
Stewart, Susan. On Longing : Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir,
the Collection 1st paperback ed. Durham, N.C: Duke University Press, 1993.
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Artist Statement
I am thinking about the dissection of the monument in parts and the vivisection of the active ideas that are still represented or "living" in those monuments. I am exploring large equestrian forms in a modern context as an archaic remix. The remix can be seen in how I orient forms on unusual axes as well as in parts. Also, how when the horse is alone, it can function more widely, as the icon. This work is the alternative to the equestrian monument; it is the equine monument. It is about the horse and itself relative to the body. I am not merely pursuing a fixed image. I am exploring how movement is experienced over time. I want viewers to engage with kinetic materiality through my sculptures. In spending time with these objects, viewers are invited to transcend the static and investigate embodiment, change, ephemerality, and the gigantic. I aim to reconfigure the equine icon as a vehicle for understanding empathy for the greater consciousness of humanity.
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Technical Report
I build my forms with slabs that are 24” x 10” and 2” thick. I score and slip the slabs together to make large cylinders. Once the cylinders are chocolate hard then I turn it on its side to create a horse ribcage. I fire to cone 2 and glaze at 04-03.
Akio Takamori Stoneware Mid Zircopax 10
Range Kelly’s Lo-Fire Shino Flesh Glaze
Hawthorne Fire Clay 32lbs 04
Lincoln Fire Clay 31lbs Lithium Carbonate 29
OM4 Ball Clay 21lbs Neph Sye 70
Wollastonite 21lbs EPK 11
Rutile 6
Grog 20.50 10lbs Manganese Carbonate .5
Grog 20 10lbs
Low Fire Shino Glaze 04-03
3 rolls of toilet paper for fiber and Neph Sye 56
dry strength Lithium Carbonate 22
Kaolin 12
Matte White Glaze 04 Rutile 5
Ferro Frit 3195 44 Soda Ash 5
Grolleg Kaolin 28
Neph Sye A270 18
Whiting 10
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Lisa Orr’s Gold Glaze 04 Aventurine Glaze 04
Frit 3110 67 Flint 40
Gerstley Borate 10 Borax 39
Soda Ash 16 Boric Acid 2.7
EPK 5 Barium Carb 2.2
Bentonite 2 Kaolin EPK 1.4
Red iron 12
Alfred Glaze Lab Clear Glaze 04
Ferro Frit 3195 44
Grolleg Kaolin 28
Neph Sye 18
Whiting 10
Zircopax 10
Music
Welcome To The Black Parade - My Chemical Romance
Famous In A Small Town - Miranda Lambert
Dead Skunk - Loudon Wainwright III
Summer - Real Friends
Other
Acquired a cat