Van Cline photo Rob V inn edge, collection of Ms. Patricia Schaefer and Mrs. Tove Stimson.
o f a woman strapped with explosives.
Cross-cultural sources inspire his practice,
including his glazing technique that draws
on Tang Dynasty funerary sculpture. Fre-
quently culling ideas for plot and character
from preliminary drawings, Yuh carefully
builds up his clay forms. Then he cedes con-
trol to the kiln, firing twice, once before
and once after applying as many as 40 layers
of high-fire glazes. The final compositions,
with colors bleeding over crackled surfaces,
evoke by turn, humor, sadness and menace.
Like Yuh, Van Cline conflates Eastern
and Western influences. In particular, as-
pects of Japanese Noh theater and classical
Greek statuary mark her immersive, mixed-
media tableaux that feature black and white
photographs set in between panes of optical
Far Left:
Mark Newport
Raiv Hide K id
, 2004,
acrylic yam, buttons,
72 x 2 6 x 6 in.
Left:
SunKoo Yuh
Fortune Pig
, 2007, glazed
porcelain, 25 x 16 x 15 in.
Bottom:
Mary Van Cline
The Ocean o f Memory
W ithin
, 2008, photosen-
sitive glass, pate de
verre, 30 x 60 x 6 in.
glass or onto photosensitive glass within an
architectural context. In
Cycles o f Relation-
ship o f Time,
2000, the transparent image
of an isolated cove occupies the center
of a Shinto-shrine-inspired form, where
a draped woman looks down on a man in
a fetal pose. Including several pâte de verre
components, the work is pierced in the mid-
dle and topped with a stylized torii gate,
traditionally the portal to sacred ground.
But this same opening also thwarts the
sense of timelessness by returning the real-
ity of the gallery into focus. Here as else-
where, Van Cline’s enigmatic dramas create
serene meditations on the passage of time
that extend fully into the viewer’s space.
In “Staged Stories,” guest curator Kate
Bonansinga not only identifies the narrative
as an important marker in contemporary
craft, but also highlights artists who draw
inspiration from the past. As they passion-
ately engage the history of their field and
explore the physical nature of materials,
they find new ways to riff on tradition and
bring out its vast potential. Their stories
of transformation trigger lasting impres-
sions of personal and universal experience.
Sarah Tanguy is an independent curator
and critic, as well as a curator for the A rt in
Embassies Program, based in Washington, DC.
*
The catalog, text by Kate Bonansinga,
is $24.95 from the Renwick Gallery.
More reviews on americancraftmag.org.
dec/jan 10 american craft 039
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