CAN Editor
Nick Weddell has been challenging pottery conventions his since his start, pushing the tightly held ideas about how to fire ceramic, apply glaze, or treat clay. In his first year in grad school at Alfred Univerity, he’s made a profound shift in perspective from using pottery to challenge conventions of the clay culture to using sculpture to challenge conventions held culture-wide. Weddell focuses exclusively on the cup form taking advantage of our universal understanding of the role of the cup in domestic life as well as our universal experience of the intimacy required to use it.
WIN this Bud Vase called “Honey Puff” by Nick Weddell
When asked about his focus on the cup form Weddell told Chicago’s Lillstreet Art Center:
“Cups are the most intimate of all pottery forms. You allow them into your hands and you press your lips against them and even allow parts of them into your mouth. These are things usually reserved only for lovers.”
There is a magical moment in some of Weddell’s work where his functional cups actually become sculpture representations of cups. His strongest work pushes aside the practicality of function to reveal veiled layers of concepts. Weddell’s work touches on Ron Nagle’s early cups, and the contemporary work of Tony Marsh, Morten Løbner Espersen, Brian Rochefort, and Takuro Kuwata – all finding success in the fine art market right now. His pots also scream with irreverence and humor similar to artist Dan McCarthy, a leading ceramist in the fine art world.
Weddell’s cups give a the middle finger to many conventions, challenging the viewer by, first, leading them to enjoy the work and then subtly initiating an internal dialogue asking: “Why do I like this ugly thing?….Is this even functional?… What is this even made of?… Is this well crafted or a total accident?… Does that matter?” These unassuming dumpy pots cause you walk away reevaluating your ideas about beauty, material, design, craft, and function with an ironically profound sense of enlightenment.
In recent years the ceramic has become the “it material” of the fine art world – a fascinating obsession after literally never being acknowledged as art by that community. The sudden acceptance that began in the last 5 years comes with one major caveat… the work cannot obviously show craftsmanship or skill. The result are pieces largely fitting in the “dumpy ceramics” category or focus on ceramic phenomenon – both categories are compelling facets of ceramic art that make purist functional potter’s shutter. By approaching ceramics from a “sculpture first” and “phenomenon first” standpoint, Weddell’s work fits well into these art market trends.
Weddell is in his first year at grad school at Alfred University and we’ll surly see massive strides in his work in the coming years. You can follow his glaze experiments and form exploration on his Instagram here. This month, Weddell has a show in Austin Texas at the East Side Pot Shop where you can purchase his newest work.
Nick Weddell