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Espace Sculpture

Regina Clay: Worlds in the Making Greg Beatty

Sculpture & humour Number 76, Summer 2006

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ISSN 0821-9222 (print) 1923-2551 (digital)

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Cite this document Beatty, G. (2006). Regina Clay: Worlds in the Making. Espace Sculpture, (76), 41–42.

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Regina Clay: Worlds in the Making

Greg BEATTY

"Make Pottery Not War!" may not member) to do have been a rallying cry for anti- so. Beth Hone, wife of long-time Saskatchewan artist MacGregor Vietnam War protestors and other Hone, was one ofthe first counter-culture types in the teachers. "Those people haven't 1960s, but given the subversive been recognized, so this exhibi­ tion gives them some credit," says nature of clay as an artistic Long. "Then, of course, when Ric medium at that time, at least Gomez arrived [from California] in among professors and students at '64, his job was to set up a sculp­ ture department, and to advise in the University of Regina, it might the setting up ofthe ceramics well have been. That's just one of department. He [and Marilyn Russell CICANSKY, Self-Portrait (Aries), 1973. the subtexts in "Regina Clay: Levine were] instrumental in hiring Earthenware, glaze, paint. Jack Sures. Once you had Jack and Worlds in the Making," a fasci­ 28.8x23.6x29.8 cm. Ric, you had the makings of a MacKenzie Art Gallery, nating survey of clay practice in University of Regina [first-rate department]." Collection. Photo: Don Regina in the late 1960s and early Sures, who received his BFA Hall. 1970s curated for the MacKenzie from the in 1957, and his MA from Michigan Art Gallery by Timothy Long. State in 1959, was trained as a "The genesis for the show painter and printmaker, but came from a visit I made to the turned to ceramics shortly after graduating. He subsequently U of R archives in 1998," Long spent a year in Europe as part recalls. "I thought I'd do a small of his self-education process. show of ceramics Vic Cicansky and "I found this place in Chelsea," he recalls. "They made decorative David Thauberger had given to the plates that they shipped all over archives, supplemented by a few the world. They had a few wheels works from the MacKenzie's that they rented out. So I paid sixpence an hour, and another collection. But then it struck me sixpence a pound for the clay. 'Maybe we should do a bigger I got friendly with the guy who show looking at that entire loaded the kiln, so I got free firing." Upon returning to Canada, period?'" Long proceeded to do entering one room, he saw a pile internationally acclaimed group of Sures worked for three years as a of bricks in the middle of the floor. abstract painters known as the just that, gathering over 130 works studio potter in Winnipeg before He happened to glance up, and , the university, at the from fourteen artists, including being hired by Lochhead's spotted scorch marks on the time of Sures' arrival, was a successor as dean (and fellow such nationally and internationally ceiling. He put two and two bastion of formalism. Clay, with Regina Five member) Arthur together, and shutdown the both a functional and decorative known figures as Joe Fafard, McKay in 1965. "It was a great makeshift kiln. While Sures aspect to it, was not consistent Marilyn Levine, David Gilhooly and opportunity," he says. "I was doesn't recall that particular inci­ with this aesthetic. "I had to carve struggling to make a living. Vic Cicansky. dent, he agrees that the ceramics out a space for myself at the At the university, I had this great department's beginnings were university," says Sures. "But I According to Long, the stage salary-1 think it was $8900, which modest. "We got one room in never had a big brawl with them. was set for Regina's emergence as in 1965 was pretty good. I only what is now the Extension used to say 'Craft is a clay hot-bed in the 1950s when had to teach 18 hours a week, and Building. It was in the basement, something you piss in, and art is the Saskatchewan Arts Board's the rest ofthe time was my own." and was used for storage. We something you piss on.' There was Norah McCullough hired Patricia While doing research on a branched off into the next room. that attitude, it still exists today. Wiens to make pottery from local related topic a few years ago, There was this old incinerator. It But I think most intelligent people clays in the Saskatchewan town of I heard an anecdote from one had a big chimney that went up understand that a vessel can be as Eastend. Wiens subsequently set prominent Saskatchewan artisan three floors. That's what we fed important an art object as a non- up the first ceramics program at about a fire inspector touring the our kilns into." vessel." The formalist mindset, the University of Regina, over­ university's old College Avenue Thanks to the influence ofthe adds Sures, extended to the coming resistance from then Dean campus shortly after the ceramics famous Emma Lake workshops in MacKenzie Gallery itself. "When of Fine Arts (and Regina Five program was established. Upon the 1950s, which spawned the and [who

ESPACE 76 ÉTÉ / SUMMER 2006 41 Russell CICANSKY, Prairie Waterworks, 1973. Earthenware, glaze, wood, sand, enamel paint, epoxy, plastic flowers. 48.3x71.1 x 45.7 cm. MacKenzie Art Gallery, University of Regina Collection. Photo: Don Hall. what you wanted, to break the production in Canada]," says rules." Sures, "but it was the most inno­ Another touchstone of the vative. There was a lot of ceramics counter-culture movement was coming out of Nova Scotia, also present, he adds. "The 'Back Quebec ... but it was very hand­ to the Land' movement had a craft [based]. had a lot of significant role to play when you ceramists too. But it was vessel- consider that of the fourteen orientated across Canada, except artists in this exhibition, at least here." In Regina, conversely, clay six moved out of Regina to small was employed primarily as a towns. The artists were interested sculptural medium. Albeit with a in living where it was cheaper, but nod to traditional ceramic prac­ also in raising their own produce tice. "Even when I was making and living a more natural wall pieces [like a mural commis­ lifestyle." Six of the fourteen sioned by the Canadian Museum artists in the show are also of Civilization for its Group Visitor women. "The whole question of entrance in 1990] and more sculp­ feminism was in the air at the tural pieces I never got away from time," says Long. "Some of these pots," says Sures. "I'm trained as artists were actively involved in a painter and printmaker. When I feminist organizations like the do functional ware-plates, mugs Regina Voice of Women. The work and stuff-they're surfaces to that was created wasn't neces­ decorate, that's how I see them." sarily 'feminist' in its intent. But "There was this notion [across it does have some interesting Canada] that Regina was this connections to feminist art prac­ place of Funk ceramics," agrees tices [particularly in the use of a Long. "Trajectoires '73 [which was non-traditional art material to exhibited at the Musée d'art served as assistant director from people. [Gilhooly] was a big influ­ subvert the privileged position moderne in Paris in 1973] included 1965-71, before assuming the ence on Joe Fafard and Russell accorded painting and sculpture a whole section on Regina director's post at the Edmonton Yuristy. But he was only here a in the art pantheon]. If there was ceramists." Art Gallery] ran the MacKenzie, couple of years. I went back to a stereotype, it was that men were Since then, Regina, thanks in they were strictly New York ... clay and we let him go." more interested in throwing clay large part to the university's that kind of 'Five' mentality. It was Abstraction in its various while women preferred hand- ongoing commitment to ceramics, painting. Ted Godwin also used to guises—abstract expressionism, building." which included the establishment say 'Sculpture is something you post-painterly abstraction—was Ultimately, some ofthe values of a first-rate facility when a new back into when you're looking at then entering its fourth decade as championed by the ceramists who Fine Arts building was painting'. That was the attitude North America's dominant art emerged from this strange constructed in 1997, and the then. It wasn't until Nancy Dillow movement. But because it was amalgam of prairie practicality creation of the first ceramic art in the early '70s ... I don't know, heavily theory-driven, with little and California whimsy —a concern history course in Canada in 2002, saw the light. Then Carol Phillips." sense of pleasure or play in both for local identity and history; has continued to be a leading During our interview, Long its execution and viewing, and an ironic detachment; playful centre of ceramic excellence, with described 1969 as a "miraculous" overarching concern for the engagement —came to be associ­ artists like Jeannie Mah and Ruth year in the development of universal and ethereal at the ated with the post-modern move­ Chambers pioneering the field of Regina's clay community. It began expense ofthe local and personal, ment. So despite the decidedly ceramic installation. in February when the Hone-James many artists who grew up in its retro nature of their medium, they "Saskatchewan has a very strong Studio [operated by Beth Hone wake came to regard it as a were definitely ahead of their history in ceramics," says Sures, and Ann James] hosted a work­ profoundly alienating form of art time. "This was a movement that who retired from the university as shop by California funk artist and rebelled. Neither was this arose without a theory attached to Professor Emeritus in 1998. "It's James Melchert. A concurrent exhi­ intergenerational dispute confined it," says Long. "Artists in the late well-known all over North bition at the MacKenzie exposed to the artistic arena, reports Long. '60s and early '70s were making America, and Europe too." < Reginans to leading ceramists "It was the era of student power. things that were far in advance of Regina Clay: Worlds in the Making from the then burgeoning Cali­ A lot of the conflicts that emerged what the critical thinking was. And Mackenzie Art Gallery fornia scene. That summer, one in the department, like around I think that's really interesting. November 18, 2005-February 26, ofthe artists in that show, David grading practices, were perceived It wasn't until the late '70s that 2006 Gilhooly, was hired by Sures. as a breakdown of academic tradi­ people began to write critically on "In 1969,1 became chairman of tion by the existing hierarchy. this work in connection with the Gregory BEATTY is a Regina-based freelance the department," Sures says. With that kind of mood in the air, emerging discourse on region­ arts and culture writer who also works as a "I didn't want to teach as [my clay, which as a medium was alism." contributing editor for the alternative magazine other responsibilities] were too considered of secondary impor­ In this regard, Regina, as it prairie dog. much work. So we decided to hire tance to painting and sculpture, had been during the reign ofthe David Gilhooly. Ric Gomez knew was a great thing to be doing if Regina Five, was again at the of him because he went to school you wanted to thumb your nose forefront of artistic exploration in with Jim Melchert, Richard at the Establishment because it Canada. "I wouldn't say Regina Shaw-all these big California allowed you the freedom to do was the leading [centre for clay

42 ESPACE 76 ÉTÉ / SUMMER 2006