PROMISES

A Selection of Recent Ceramic Sculptures
by Keiko Narahashi, Elisa Soliven and Marla Sweitzer

May 15 - July 31, 2020 

Jason McCoy Gallery is pleased to present Promises, which features a group of recent clay sculptures by Keiko Narahashi, Elisa Soliven and Marla Sweitzer. All of these unique works were built and glazed by hand. 

Conceived of and selected during the pandemic, this exhibition marks the gallery’s first project to be curated virtually. In fact, one of the artists, Marla Sweitzer, was only recently introduced to the gallery through our ongoing weekly Drawing Challenge, which invites all artists to share their work in response to specific poems, lyrics, and literary excerpts. Though this first initial presentation of Promises will occur online only, we are looking forward to showcasing the work in the gallery in the near future.

The exhibition’s title and concept were directly inspired by an excerpt from Louise Bourgeois’ Ode à Ma Mère (1995). On page 32 of this exceptional artist book, Bourgeois describes how she imbues her work with meaning and without revealing too much; how she offers the work to the viewer by consciously holding on to some of its secrets. The “promises” she mentions are less an assurance of something particular to occur in the future than a form of playful connection with the viewer. Bourgeois writes:

Consequently,
I give and then I take back.
I make promises
And then I change my mind.
I drop hints,
I imply things,
The better to deceive. [1]

The works assembled in Promises reflect the sentiment expressed by Bourgeois in that they also establish a flexible bond between viewer and object, which is not so much sparked by specific expectations, but rather by an awakening of curiosity. In that, they remain consciously ambiguous; neither descriptive nor simply gestural, they hover between the concrete and amorphous. 

As we as a society are adjusting to the realization that certain predictions for the foreseeable future seem almost impossible, we might take strength in the fact that the promises that do hold resolute are those made in earnest - to each other, to our families, and to ourselves.

[1]  Louise Bourgeois, Ode à Ma Mère, Paris: Les Éditions du Solstice, 1995, page 32

Keiko Narahashi: “Sometimes, my works feel to me like externalizations of a pre-dawn state, of newborn body sensations and wordless impulses. They arise from a conviction that even an abstracted form can be imbued with emotional and psychological meaning which can then be intuited by the viewer. In general, I like to use clay in a stretched-out state, as slabs, or as a skin between inside and outside, carrying traces of actions: pushing, bulging, swelling. It feels as if I am simultaneously acting on the clay and groping inside my own body. For me, there is a sort of undermining humor in using clay this way. It feels ambiguous and feminine, like a woman with a beard.”

Elisa Soliven: “I am drawn to clay for the immediacy with which it conveys the working process, and for the way in which it captures a sense of the talismanic in the ordinary. The sculptures serve as a record of my inquiry to capture the essence of my subjects both figurative and abstract, as well as to preserve a frozen history of gestural mark-making. I symbolically transfigure the subject through an archaeological accumulation of modeled layers of clay and embedded ceramic. Working with constructed forms in clay and found materials, I rework the familiarity of the everyday object of the vessel into idiosyncratic inventions.”

Marla Sweitzer: “Using the three-dimensionality of clay forms as a painting surface, I explore form as a metaphor for presence. Layered with color, clay and hue create a language of abstracted signs. Here, the ground plan of each structure acts as a centralizing axis that holds the form in alignment. Walls, buttresses and arcs perform as stabilizing appendages that divert weight downward so that each object has a hold on the ground. Softened squares and arcs are architectural and organic — resembling both rock formations weathered by time and earth architecture formed by hand. Elements are repeating among forms — slightly modified in scale, orientation and direction. Materials contrast and bounce off of one another. Predominately monochrome, the single overall color imbues a new layer of life to the forms, setting them aglow.”