Benjamin Maier
Working in the studio gives meaning and rhythm to my life. As a potter I am interested in exploring the table as an installation environment. The table offers me a stage to showcase the theater of my work. Tremendous potential for exploration begins as the relationships between pots are examined. I make pottery holding functional qualities, plates, vases, cups or teapots, however, I challenge myself and my audience to look beyond function and use the medium to address artistic concepts including metaphor, perception, and human interaction. I continually question my relationship to pottery in daily life and how it has the potential to impact me and others.
The table and pottery have the capability to increase awareness of human interaction and stimulate conversation on a level that is slowly being eroded by the diminished presence of the table in our daily lives. Through my work, I am curious to examine the important role and presence of the table in contemporary society.
My work is influenced by architecture and design that reflect qualities of efficient, quiet strength. Atmospheric firing enhances the linear quality of my work, while offering reflections of the natural world. A story is told by the kiln and recorded on the surfaces of pots in atmospheric firings, especially in wood fired kilns. As I examine my own work, I am curious about examining the tension of form achieved not only from negative space around the pot but also by the expanse of volume from within a pot. Correspondingly, as the tension within the surface of a pot is engaged, another avenue for exploration is exposed through surface design and intense flashing . Artists such as Voulkos, Picasso, Brancussi and Matisse mastered these concepts in their work. I am intellectually engaged by these artists, and continually contemplating how they inform my work.
Through the engagement and creation of pottery, I strive to raise more questions about my life and existence rather than finding answers. I feel fortunate to have clay connect me to, and engage me in, the present moment of time.