This exhibition integrates two very different aesthetic approaches to ceramics, but intellectually both artists address the same concern. Carson and Sauvage question the boundaries and limitations of ceramics within the domain of fine art.
Steven Carson's fetish objects are visually humorous and cheeky. China cups and saucers, upturned glass goblets, pottery amphora vases, statuettes and artificial flowers are some of the objects he manipulates. Hiding these non-ceramic 'readymades' with vibrant acrylic paint he redefines the use of ceramics. With a crude, garish, colour sense, Carson liberally applies his splotches in red, yellow, blue, lime green and hot pink. Given a black canvas to begin with, he allows the wealth and majesty of purple and gold to enrich his message. There is a small amount of clay in these contemporary icons but this hardly matters, as it is camouflaged anyway. Clay, as a token element, is concealed by the use of mixed media although the work can still be considered to be within the realm of ceramics.
In his visual treatment the objects become glitzy ornaments, the epitome of bad taste. Carson invites us to indulge in our own nostalgia with fervent memories of the gaudy and tacky. Here too, he is making reference to the sentimentality with which we treat our precious but outdated,‘trophy-like' icons.
Carson seems well justified in conveying his pursuit of the anti-ceramics aesthetic. His work emulates the continual redefinition and re-evaluation of ceramics' status in the fine art arena. Where does the craft end and the intellectualism begin? When is ceramics viewed with the same critical eye as fine art? Carson, in masking his objects is denying the ceramic element. He is recontextualizing the status of