Public spaces interventions; city curb cavities repaired with ceramic material decorated in Blue & White, earthenware, oxidation, glazed, variable dimensions, standard curb, 2005
spaghetti sauce (mold) and commercial plates, commercial plate, decoration is painted with spaghetti sauce, 55 cm (dia), 2016
Wall grouping of multiple cast porcelain plates decorated with chalk in Blue and White, (variable sizes and shapes), cast porcelain, high-fire reduction, underglaze, chalk, 1820 overall cm (W), 2008
wood and ceramic tiles with chalk, handbuilt porcelain, high-fire reduction, underglaze, chalk, 396 x 167.9 x 304 cm (H x W x D), 2005
intervention decals are fired on site on the wall downtown Winnipeg, Manitoba, manufactured brick, mixed media (portable kiln) building brick, low-fire glaze enamel, wall brick each 6.4 x 19 x 9 cm (H x W x D), 2011
Building bricks, glazed and fired with portable propane kiln in gallery, manufactured brick, mixed media (portable kiln) building brick, low-fire glaze enamel, wall 772 x 1391 x 15 cm (H x W x D), 2007
Installation blue fence is an investigation into the blue willow pattern and the underlying violence of the story, cone 6 porcelain whiteware, underglaze transfer (blue and red), wall 1600 x 4000 x 22 cm (H x W x D), 2016
digital print representing the flow of a blue willow pattern using digital manipulation form an original underglaze transfer print, Gliclee Print on archival paper Arches, 102 x 66 cm (H x W), 2006
digital print proposal for decal printing and firing on found brick wall, Gliclee Print on archival paper Arches, 102 x 66 cm (H x W), 2011
Public spaces interventions; cast porcelain final part of a group of 12, decorated with blue, attached to defunct parking meter Medicine Hat, Alberta, cast porcelain, high-fire, reduction, approx. each 17.8 x 10.2 cm (H x dia), 2006
Artist Statement
Questions are the core of my making. What current and historical roles has ceramics played in art, craft and design and how can we continue to push our understanding of the built environment and our place and impact on the environment as a whole. My interests in process and materials are hopefully not divorced from my surroundings. I see my work as a set of contradictions, a kind of social formalism, with a strong commitment to ceramic process and imagining what connections can be drawn between experience and a medium with a long material history of making. I cannot escape that ceramics is in all of it’s refinements and technologies made from the earth. While my approaches are at times multidisciplinary, this is primarily to see ceramics as an activity, as a subject of research and to challenge my own perceptions and understanding. I strive to make new associations in the medium and to communicate those through new forms. My intent is to create new audiences for contemporary ceramics, by pushing the processes, science, technology and craft in new ways. Many of my works are experimental gestures, which to this point continues to force innovations in site-specific installation, public intervention, small objects, ceramic surface, the impact of digital space on our imaginations and the development of ideas around public craft.
-- Rory MacDonald
Bio
Rory MacDonald is interested in the many roles for ceramics within the practice of craft, design and art concentrating on the development of new public audiences and spaces for contemporary ceramics. Central to his research is the exploration of the concept of public craft. MacDonald’s current work explores the contradictions of temporality in ceramic art. He has developed site-specific firing and new techniques for glaze applications to architecture and public space. His studio work and small objects explore display and surfaces concerned with haptic change. He has been exhibited nationally and internationally. participating in numerous residencies including at the Experimental Sculpture Factory (China) and Thematic residency-Imaginary Places at the Banff Centre (Canada). MacDonald received his M.F.A from Alfred University (1999) and is currently Associate Professor of ceramics at NSCAD University.