The Grain of the Clay

The Grain of the Clay PDF

Author: Allen S. Weiss

Publisher: Reaktion Books

Published: 2016-09-15

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 1780236905

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Ceramics give pleasure to our everyday lives, from the beauty of a vase’s elegant curves to the joy of a meal served upon a fine platter. Ceramics originate in a direct engagement with the earth and maintain a unique place in the history of the arts. In this book, Allen S. Weiss sharpens our perception of and increases our appreciation for ceramics, all the while providing a critical examination of how and why we collect them. Weiss examines the vast stylistic range of ceramics and investigates both the theoretical and personal reasons for viewing, using, and collecting them. Relating ceramics to other arts and practices—especially those surrounding food—he explores their different uses such as in the celebrated tea ceremony of Japan. Most notably, he considers how works previously viewed as crafts have found their rightful way into museums, as well as how this new-found engagement with finely wrought natural materials may foster an increased ecological sensitivity. The result is a wide-ranging and sensitive look at a crucial part of our material culture.

Crossing the American Grain

Crossing the American Grain PDF

Author: Grady Clay

Publisher:

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13: 9781884532511

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Grady Clay has spent a lifetime trying to understand America's natural and man-made environments, their history, their design and their visual landscapes. With these carefully-selected excerpts from his long-running and popular public radio essay series, Clay scratches down into the surface of his investigations, discussing such unique concepts as "Arrival Zones," "Haunts," "Meeting Places," "Walking Distances," "The Boondocks" and the "Twilight Zone", and exploring the meanings of terms like "Disorder," "The Dark," "Out Back," "Uptown" and in "Earshot". Longtime fans will recognize old favorites from Clay's repertoire, and newcomers will delight in discovering his language-centric approach to contemplating this curious and fascinating world in which we live.

Jars of Clay

Jars of Clay PDF

Author: Pauline A. Brown

Publisher: Doorlight Publications

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13: 0977837203

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Out of the generation that grew up in the Great Depression and World War II, thousands of young Christians felt called by God to the ends of the earth. Pauline A. Brown, with her husband Ralph, and two other families, went to the Sindh Province in southern Pakistan in 1954 -- their goal, to share God's message love with Muslim Sindhis. This book is not just about North Americans abroad, but about a fellowship of ordinary people crossing cultural and linguistic barriers to take on the extraordinary challenge of establishing the Church in the Sindh desert. Jars of Clay is a story of laughter and tears, of danger and deliverance, of despair and hope, of victory and defeat. Above all, it is a story of perseverance in the face of great odds. The story of how the Church of Jesus Christ, small and fragile as it is, is taking root in the barren desert soil of Sindh in Pakistan, an Islamic Republic, is relevant more than ever in our post 9/11 world.

Vitamin C: Clay and Ceramic in Contemporary Art

Vitamin C: Clay and Ceramic in Contemporary Art PDF

Author: Clare Lilley

Publisher: Phaidon Press

Published: 2017-10-02

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780714874609

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A global survey of 100 of today's most important clay and ceramic artists, chosen by leading art world professionals. Vitamin C celebrates the revival of clay as a material for contemporary visual artists, featuring a wide range of global talent as selected by the world's leading curators, critics, and art professionals. Clay and ceramics have in recent years been elevated from craft to high art material, with the resulting artworks being coveted by collectors and exhibited in museums around the world. Packed with illustrations, Vitamin C is a vibrant and incredibly timely survey - the first of its kind. Artists include: Caroline Achaintre, Ai Weiwei, Aaron Angell, Edmund de Waal, Theaster Gates, Marisa Merz, Ron Nagle, Gabriel Orozco, Grayson Perry, Sterling Ruby, Thomas Schütte, Richard Slee, Clare Twomey, Jesse Wine, and Betty Woodman. Nominators include: Pablo Leon de la Barra, Iwona Blazwick, Mary Ceruti, Dan Fox, Jens Hoffmann, Christine Macel, James Meyer, Jed Morse, Beatrix Ruf, Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Nancy Spector, Sheena Wagstaff, and Jonathan Watkins.