SIGNS OF THE TIMES
Sculptures that are signs and relics of what California artist Marjie Fries refers to as the “Age of Walls” are currently being shown at the Artisjok Galerie, Tjerckwerd, Netherlands. The theme of arbitrary barriers, their creation and their obstruction of freedom has been central to Fries sculpture. In the current collection, which she completed during an artist-in-residency at a functional pottery in Germany, Fries has extended the subtle imagery of her former raku and sawdust fired work. Capturing first the direct pushing, incising, and tearing of the clay. She then used the pottery’s salt kiln to enliven the touch of the artist on the wall-like structures with warpage, further tearing and firing marks, as well as the action of salt on coloring oxides. Continuing the use of box-like forms, which she has shown for many years, these new pieces are related in having an inner energy which tries to break through the exterior walls. They retain a rigid box appearance but within the form, the walls of the boxes are breaking away, cracking, exposing an inner dimension. Individual sculptures, may be seen as abstractions of conceptual ideas, yet within each piece the intriguing relationships of edges and textures are literal translations of familiar forms found in landscape, nature and the human body. The deliberately small sculptures establish a relationship of mental intimacy with the viewer. Fries sees her sculpture as a visualization of her individual thought process. Strongly influenced by world events, personal history and travel; she refers to work as journal keeping or clay poems. These enigmatic forms focus, at their best, on one visual point which sometimes passes through the piece, supported by surrounding surfaces that give the quality of an uncut jewel. These images stimulate the viewer to identify with the vision of the artist and to bring to the piece their own rather than the exclusive interpretation of the artist. |
1990 GERMANY/NETHERLANDS
I worked on all of these pieces with a general background idea of signs of this age. It may seem bizarre to most people, but I am always aware in some corner of my being, that clay is one medium most likely to survive the nuclear age. It is not with a sense of responsibility or ego that I work; rather an awareness that clay may preserve the human touch into the unforeseeable future or abyss. This is frankly, why my work must be visually and tactically fresh; so that one can see how the clay is pushed together and shaped. This is more important to me than the final form. And then I amuse myself by developing within a piece a visual language, derived I feel from the collective unconscious, my link to the human stream – which may speak to some now and perhaps those in another age. |