Clinch VI. Photo by Haruhiko Sameshima.
Ceramic artist and associate professor Caroline Earley is fascinated by conceptions of the in-between – the tension that lies in between interactions of technology and the body, for example, or between digital creations and traditional craftwork. This fascination is telegraphed in her work, most recently in the white, amorphous forms with interlocking vestigial appendages visible in a piece titled Clinch VI. It is for this piece that Earley recently won New Zealand’s highest ceramic honor, the 2016 Premier Award in the Portage Ceramic Awards.
“I’m fascinated by things that are starting to form but have not quite become what they are yet,” Earley said. “When ceramics people talk about pots, they talk about the human form: shoulders, waist, foot. I started to think about the bits that stick out as vestigial appendages, starting to form but not quite becoming what they are yet. Or if you think of children sleeping, when you hold them their bodies shift shape to fit to yours. The feeling is soft and lovely, but it’s not their natural shape. It’s an attachment, and that attachment can soothe and comfort, but it can also hold. It’s an unbreakable attachment. I see it as a metaphor for the tension of relationships, what dwells in that in-between space between doing what you should do and want to do.”
Boise State’s art department was proud to celebrate Earley and her professional accomplishments.
“During her time at Boise State, professor Earley has maintained an impressive and accelerated research agenda of creative activity including the exhibition of work at numerous international, national and regional exhibitions,” said Kathleen Keys, chair of the art department. “Likewise, Earley has distinguished herself as an intensely committed and passionate educator through innovative teaching and service practices.”
Caroline Earley, left, stands with exhibition judge Janet DeBoos in front of her winning piece, Clinch VI.
The simplicity of the piece belies the complexity of fabricating it. The forms used in Clinch VI were created using a 3D-printed mold created in two sizes. Then, Earley had to work with the clay in a state called “leather hard,” meaning the clay can be carved but not malformed, to add the interlocking appendages so that they moved but did not separate.
“The idea of digital craft is a bit of an oxymoron but a lot of practitioners are diving into that space,” Earley explained.
“It raised questions both in its concept and fabrication,” said international judge Janet DeBoos of Clinch VI. “The pearly smooth, almost featureless surface of the work obscured the darker associations of its title, and certainly initially obscured the difficult, clever process by which it came into being.”
Earley, who has dual citizenship in New Zealand, taught in the country from 1997-2000, at which time she emigrated with her partner to teach at Boise State. She exhibits her work nationally and internationally. Earley was the grand prize winner of the 2013 Idaho Triennial Exhibition and her work will be included in the upcoming 2017 Idaho Triennial Exhibition held at the Boise Art Museum. Her works also recently appeared in the 2015 Portage Ceramic Awards, the 2014 Wallace Art Awards travelling exhibition, the Objectspace Window Gallery, the San Angelo National Ceramics Competition in Texas and the 2011 Gyeonggi International CeraMIX Biennale in the Republic of Korea.
BY: CIENNA MADRID PUBLISHED 10:17 AM / NOVEMBER 21, 2016