ThoughtGallery.org > Avoiding the Wheel: The Value of the Handmade in the Digital Era

Avoiding the Wheel: The Value of the Handmade in the Digital Era

art talks new yorkAlmost everything made today is done so digitally, as to look polished and perfect. Companies like Apple have succeeded in creating products that have no seams and appear robotically made. For a ceramicist, using the wheel allows the maker to erase any evidence of the human hand. The origins of data reproduction always involved a wheel or disc. By shunning the wheel and then building by hand, the artist shows the fingerprints in the work—something Apple cannot and will never be able to do. Sculptor Tom Sachs employs this practice in all his work, and recently, has been using it in ceramics fired at the 92nd St Y. His tea bowls, inspired by Japanese chawan, are built using the oldest pinch-pot method, and his other sculptures show the scars of his labor. The dents, cracks and errors are evident in the handmade and are what make the product the result of an individual.











When: Wed., May. 6, 2015 at 8:15 pm
Where: The 92nd Street Y, New York
1395 Lexington Ave.
212-415-5500
Price: $30
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art talks new yorkAlmost everything made today is done so digitally, as to look polished and perfect. Companies like Apple have succeeded in creating products that have no seams and appear robotically made. For a ceramicist, using the wheel allows the maker to erase any evidence of the human hand. The origins of data reproduction always involved a wheel or disc. By shunning the wheel and then building by hand, the artist shows the fingerprints in the work—something Apple cannot and will never be able to do. Sculptor Tom Sachs employs this practice in all his work, and recently, has been using it in ceramics fired at the 92nd St Y. His tea bowls, inspired by Japanese chawan, are built using the oldest pinch-pot method, and his other sculptures show the scars of his labor. The dents, cracks and errors are evident in the handmade and are what make the product the result of an individual.

Buy tickets/get more info now