Jessika Edgar's Art Puts Threatening Feelings in Bubbles at Santa Fe Clay

The fashion world is the epicenter of trends with the top designers inventing and identifying the aesthetics that will seep into our daily lives in the form of clothing, products, graphic design, and art. The largest events are watched by the world’s top trend-setters afraid of falling behind and wanting to be on the cutting edge. One of the most anticipated fashion events, Paris Fashion Week, kicked off this week and it’s easy to spot 2018’s emerging trends expectedly highlighting female empowerment in form, pattern and even text. Doir lead the week with a knit sweater reading, “C’est non, non, non et non!” (translation: “It’s no, no, no and no!”), cleverly touching on the history of women’s role in craft paired with a strong empowering modern-female mantra. Grazia Chiuri focused on personalized-feeling style like patched coats, embroidery, and intensive floral patterning on exaggerated strong-shouldered women’s coats. Four days ahead of Paris Fashion week in New Mexico, Santa Fe Clay kicked off their exhibition of ceramic art by Jessika Edgar and they could not be more on-trend.

Jessika Edgar’s exhibition “Everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers…” is inspired by pop-culture, mainstream trends, and fashion. Her work pairs try-hard intensive adornment with tall figure-like ceramic vessels. The craftsmanship is decidedly unsophisticated, but not amateur, and the plastic jewels lining the entirety of interiors make me feel nauseous, but Edgar’s ability to frame these feelings within contained works of art creates a beautiful rare experience. The immediate reaction to these aesthetics is to recoil – ceramic artists are insecure about “poor craft” threatening a pillar of their practice; art appreciators are worried that their friends will see their elitist hobby mixing with low-culture; men are worried about being emasculated by flowers and feminism; and the fine art world is worried about being tainted by the craft history of pottery…But Edgar’s vessels create a safe vacuum in which to experience these alarming feelings without having them viscerally affect us. Her vessels act as controlled hermetic bubbles, like observing threatening animals in a natural history museum from behind thick glass… you know… just to be safe.

Photo: Santa Fe Clay

Edgar explains her intentions for the exhibition at Santa Fe Clay:

“Everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers… is a direct response to the current obsession with extravagance and the space inhabited by a simultaneous feeling of distaste and desire. The pieces reference contemporary fashion trends capitalizing on the political climate and eagerness for social change. The work is all hand-built ceramic and mixed media, incorporating textiles, faux fur, beading and other adornment.”

Jessika Edgar is sculptor based in Las Cruces, NM, where she is Assistant Professor and the Area Head of Ceramics at New Mexico State University. She earned her BA and MA in Art from California State University Northridge, CA, and in 2011, received her MFA in Ceramics from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Her current solo show titled “Everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers…” is currently on view at Santa Fe Clay (Feb 23-March 24th, 2018) and the work is available for purchase here.

Follow Jessika Edgar on Instagram here and visit her website to see more work.