I recently traveled to the Gardiner Museum to meet with one of the collections managers about possibly displaying some of my work. I had only recently heard about this museum dedicated specifically to ceramics, so it was a treat for me.
As you may or may not know. I am from New York City and during my high school days, I sometimes would skip school to go to The Metropolitan Museum of Art or the Natural History Museum for more inspiring education than public school had to offer. Later when I studied find arts at City College, going to galleries and museums was sometimes part of the assignment or homework. I did so with great zeal. I say this not to brag but rather to provide context.
Museums in cities are part of who I am and I'm no stranger to the richness and variety of works that are in people's collections. But like everyone I have a bias. So, for me the Gardiner Museum seemed like a hidden gem. Maybe not to the people in Toronto - since it is centrally located in the downtown area nearby swanky universities and high fashion boutiques and department stores. However, to a newbie to the area it was.
All this to say if you grew up in New York City with the Met and Guggenheim or Paris with the Louvre, then maybe you don't know about the Gardiner, but you should!
This place has something to offer everyone. From the start, seeing the building, you are greeted with contemporary examples of ceramic excellence. A ceramic vase set on human legs stands guard, or rather witness to the traffic passers-by, while a deconstructed Haudenosaunee vessel reminds people of the presence of First Nations peoples and cultures who were displaced during European expansion and continued waves of immigrations. The vessel also stands as a reminder that the Haudenosaunee remain!
Entering the space presents an airiness and lightness to the visit. The first-floor lobby has of a variety of vessels in a case long showing a variety of earth works. Opposite the entrance door is the current display titled "Genealogies of Sustenance." One of the cool things about this exhibit featuring the ceramic work of three Black Queens of the African Diaspora is the organic nature of their work and the themes of hybridity, lineage, and "the transformative possibility in activating polyvocal lineages, the sharing of stories and kinship, and in relationship building with the roots and fruits of the land and the sea" (Sarah Edo - Curatorial Resident, 2024).
From a technical point of view the fact that some of the work uses "the ancient practice of graphite-burnishing" intrigued me. As a cLady that thrives on burnishing my work, I am excited to delve into the research and experiment with the technique. Edo writes, "while traditionally used as a sealing and decoration tool, Pasipanodya is particularly drawn to graphite because of the reflective quality of its metallic lustre finish and its capacity to mirror the viewer's gaze."
Opposite the reception desk and tucked find the Museum store is the artist studio where the current artist in resident creates. It is also a space that host's community classes.
I was met by Karine, who is the historical collections manager. She took me around and gave me context for the museum and their collections. She explained to me that the museum had been created in the 1980s and as a result had been arranged with colonizer mindset of social-evolution - like most other museums the Met included! She explained that management inherited the old style of presenting material culture in a hierarchical manner which grouped African, South American, and indigenous arts together since they were considered "Primitive."
And yet examining ceramics from Central and South America the viewer is confronted with a plethora of creative and intuitive vessels that rival the realism and stiffness of Greek and Roman statues that were so highly regarded in colonial days. In fact, examining the facial features of many of the sculptures shows each artist's mastery of the material, as well as their ability to capture the likeness of lived people that the images were surely modeled after.
Brilliantly, tucked between pieces that were made between 100 AD and 700 AD (or BCE - before common era - which is more commonly used in a move away from the Christian hegemony of Anno Domini) is Kukuli Velarde's (2019) "A Mi Vida IV." The Peruvian artist created a beautifully smoothed life-sized sculpture of a baby whose ears have been replaced with those of a mouse and whose hands and feet have been replaced by the paws of a non-human animal. The piece is in dialogue and connection with the ancient works of her Moche ancestors, linked by the stirrup spout of the baby's belly button challenging the ideas of primitive and contemporary.
Items that were collected during colonial times were put together. This in part stemmed from anthropology studies. Sir Edward Burnett Tylor - famous British, armchair anthropologist divided humans into the evolutionary categories of savage (all indigenous peoples), barbarian (Asians, Arabs, and Indians who had writing and great technological feats, but fell short of the European industrial revolution and enlightenment) and civilized (the epitome which was the UK - talk about bias!). At the height of colonialism during the 18th and 19th centuries, collecting material specimen for sciences and arts and cultural items for display. Ancient Greek and Roman, Assyrian, and Asian art were often placed together and seen as being of higher quality and realism than arts of Africa or Oceana. The items were made from marble and stone, thus more complex than the primitive Global South. Coinciding with Civilized came arts of Europe, in the Gardiner's case porcelains, both of Asian and European located on the third floor of the museum, reiterating the hierarchical notion of civilization and creativity irrespective of material availability or ingenuity.
Karine told me that due to the museum's limited budget they had not been able to redesign the galleries, so to reimagine and create a fuller, more nuanced and.
equitable version of history, their tactic was to juxtapose contemporary pieces that spoke back to historic works in the same limited space. The museum team would then create signage to dig deeper into the story and contextualize the juxtaposition.
One of the most fabulous examples is the European porcelains of teatime. A porcelain teapot with floral design hides in plain sight amongst a large series of other tea set items. However, different from the cups and saucers, a dainty floral teapot is blackened by what confounds the viewer as a pattern of black curly queues or squiggles. Embossed and overflowing. On the shelf below there is a toppled teacup and saucer with the same small, black, squiggles spilling out of the vessel. The title "Hair Matters" communicates and reminds people of the dark history of sugar production and tea culture is underpinned by chattel slavery and the lives and suffering of black and brown peoples. Sharon Norwood, a Jamaican born artist and the Gardiner team, brilliantly disrupt the quaint practice of teatime within the British Isles and colonies to remind people of the brutality associated with the consumption of tea and sugar.
Another way, the curators of the museum challenge the associated whitewashed history is through the use of setting up an 18th century Tea Table with sugar sculptures. Beautiful in their own right. There are descriptive panels that break down the destruction and dehumanization of the plantation sugar industry - a process that continues to this day.
Moving through the gallery, another brilliant display that counters the romanticized notion of European expansionism and manifest destiny into Turtle Island (aka North America) is a display case propped up by large pieces of Wood. For this reason, the case is different from the rest of the displays. However, like the quaint tea sets, this case presents porcelain items in the form of platters from the 19th century produced in England. The highly decorated blue or black and white imagery precents a romantic view of the United States of abundance. Artist Mary Anne Barkhouse responds by creating a blue and white chainsaw turned tureen mimicking the colors of the porcelain platters as a vessel of her Indigenous Kwakwaka'wakw and European experiences on the Arcadia landscape.
Beside the taming teeth of the chainsaw tureen is a sky-blue platter holding a white beaver juxtaposed to the platters of old times, romantic patterns, and plates depicting landscapes. Barkhouse again plays with the fictional plate-scapes to create ones with greater historical accuracy. Instead of images of deer, lions, and flowers boarding scenes of European encroachment on Native territories, Barkhouse positions the introduction of various invasive species as a raised center point that confronts the viewers. Thus, romantic notions of the West become pensive moments of change and resilience.
One of my favorite portions of the museum was the second floor that was hosting.
The pottery of Magdalene Odundo. Over 20 of her Low fire burnished coil pots were on display in conversation with inspirational artworks to the artist. This represents her "first exhibition in Canada and her largest in North America" (Gardiner Museum 2024).
The items were picked by the artist herself because of their inspiration on her work and thinking about art as a universal practice but also as a ceramist.
Working in similar styles. I was blown away by the smooth magnificence and elegance of her work. The even tones, the thinness and delicacy, the licks of the fire flames on the surface were all enthralling. One of her inspirational items, which also inspired me was the porcupine quill crown from Cameroon.
Having a collection of quills gifted by my grandfather I played with ways to highlight their natural beauty. But American porcupines are much smaller than their African counterparts. So, the quill work done on Turtle Island is delicate because of the size. As far as I know the quill work done on the continent differs greatly because of the size. Below is an example of my work. But, watch this space for a crown.
I felt very lucky to have caught the exhibit because it only has one month left on display. In fact the entire Gardiner Museum will be closing in June 2024 for about a year to be completely overhauled.
Although it was a long day over 6 hours of driving back-and-forth, I was amazed to have found such a wonderful resource of ceramic art. And the timing of my visit couldn't have been better. Anyone interested. Should definitely go visit before June 2024, otherwise, you will have to wait for the complete opening in 2026 when they are fully open to the public. Hopefully, my work will be on display and I'll see you there!
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