Produite lors de la Nuit blanche 2014 à Paris, cette vidéo présente la vision du réalisateur Thomas Savary et du musicien Thomas Lozano sur “Parade”, une installation artistique interactive issue de la collaboration entre le studio de création interactive Dpt. et l’artiste céramiste Laurent Craste.
À l’intérieur d’un imposant cube en bois, une lampe de chantier suspendue révèle les ombres portées de deux vases de porcelaine mollement avachis sur un socle. Il suffit qu’une personne pousse la lampe pour que les ombres des vases prennent vie et s’animent, comme par magie, au rythme des balancements de la source lumineuse. À la manière du théâtre d’ombres, “Parade” dévoile le spectacle fantasmagorique des silhouettes des vases qui, dans un ballet tragi-comique, tentent de retrouver leur forme originelle, leur gloire passée.
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Produced during Nuit Blanche 2014 in Paris, this video presents the vision of director Thomas Savary and musician Thomas Lozano on “Parade”, an interactive art installation born out of a collaboration between digital creative studio Dpt. and ceramic artist Laurent Craste.
Inside an imposing wooden cube, a suspended work lamp reveals the shadows of two porcelain vases slumped on a pedestal. As soon as someone pushes the light, the shadows come to life as if by magic, moving to the rhythm of the swinging light. Much like shadow theatre, “Parade” presents the fantastic spectacle of the vase silhouettes which, in a tragicomic ballet, try to regain their original form, their past glory.
Documentary in which Ros Savill, former director and curator at the Wallace Collection, tells the story of some incredible and misunderstood objects – the opulent, intricate, gold-crested and often much-maligned Sevres porcelain of the 18th century.
Ros brings us up close to a personal choice of Sevres masterpieces in the Wallace Collection, viewing them in intricate and intimate detail. She engages us with the beauty and brilliance in the designs, revelling in what is now often viewed as unfashionably pretty or ostentatious. These objects represent the unbelievable skills of 18th-century France, as well as the desires and demands of an autocratic regime that was heading for revolution.
As valuable now as they were when first produced, Sevres’ intricacies and opulence speak of wealth, sophistication and prestige and have always been sought after by collectors eager to associate themselves with Sevres’ power. Often the whims and capricious demands of monumentally rich patrons were the catalysts for these beautiful and incredible artistic innovations.
The film explores the stories of some of history’s most outrageous patrons – Madame de Pompadour, Louis XV, Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI, as well as their foreign counterparts like Catherine the Great, who willingly copied the French court’s capricious ways. Ros tells how the French Revolutionaries actually preserved and adapted the Sevres tradition to their new order, and how the English aristocracy collected these huge dinner services out of nostalgia for the ancient regime. In fact, they are still used by the British Royal Family today.
In this video, ceramist Angela Mellor discusses the process she uses to create her handbuilt bone china paperclay vessels.
Discover how Angela makes her work in the full step-by-step masterclass inside CR 298 (July/August 2019). You can order current and back issues of the magazine from ceramicreview.com.
The MacKenzie Art Gallery was pleased to host, as part of the weekend opening events for Victor Cicansky: The Gardener’s Universe, a panel discussion on Regina artist Victor Cicansky. Cicansky’s artistic universe is firmly rooted in place and in his garden. For over fifty years, ideas for sculptures in ceramics and bronze have grown out of his intimate relationship with gardens, plants and trees. His approach embraces both the immigrant knowledge of his Romanian-Canadian family and more contemporary concerns around urban ecology and environmental sustainability. Rooted in local realities, his work speaks to the wider world of the joys and trials of supporting life in an urban prairie space. Each panelist was invited to present a 15 minute version of their essay to be included in the forthcoming exhibition catalogue. The presentations cover Cicansky’s early days as a student of Jack Sures (University of Saskatchewan, Regina Campus) and Robert Arneson (University of California, Davis), his Funk and Nut-inspired sculptural ceramics, his monumental ceramic murals, his later bronze furniture and his garden. The panel presentations are now available on the gallery’s YouTube channel. Below is the order of the presentations.
VICTOR CICANSKY AND THE GARDENER’S UNIVERSE: A PANEL DISCUSSION
Saturday, June 8, 2019 – 1:00–3:30 pm
Shumiatcher Theatre, MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
Welcome – John Hampton, Director of Programs, MacKenzie Art Gallery
Introduction – Timothy Long and Julia Krueger
PART 1 – “Entering the Garden Universe”
An exploration of how Victor Cicansky’s garden imagery engages art, history, community, and environment.
Trevor Herriot – Writer, Regina
“This Garden Universe”
Timothy Long – Head Curator, MacKenzie Art Gallery
“The Whole Earth Romanian Icon”
RESPONSE – a conversation with Victor Cicansky, Trevor Herriot and Timothy Long + questions from the audience
PART 2 – “Troubling Paradise”
An appraisal of how Victor Cicansky has challenged and expanded the definitions of “folk,” “craft,” and “prairie” through his murals, furniture and sculpture.
Susan Surette – Art Historian, Concordia University, Montreal
“Victor Cicansky’s Fine Folk”
Julia Krueger – Craft Historian, University of Western Ontario, London
“Radioactive Fossils and Virtual Gardens: Victor Cicansky’s Craft Redux”
Alison Calder – Poet and Professor, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg
“Victor Cicansky’s Post-Prairie Imaginings”
RESPONSE – a conversation with Victor Cicansky, Susan Surette, Julia Krueger and Alison Calder + questions from the audience
