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Form and FunctionThe Surface and BeneathDigital AntiquesSierra Starr ’08 explored the intersectionMatt Goldenberg ’08 combined historicalAre the photographs of Clara Dennis ’08 reallybetween form and function, eventually realizing research about covered jars with a personalas old as they seem? Yes, and no. For herthat function sometimes impeded her art.artistic vision. The result: a carefully craftedexamination of an antique photo process knownInspired by certain people who don’tcanopic jar in the shape of a jackal; ginger jars as kallitype, Clara found vintage photos andlisten, Sierra sculpted a giant pile of earsdecorated with Chinese words (meaningdigitally imposed them onto photos she shot of(below), originally thinking it would be a vase. curiosity, ambition, wonder, and eternity); and an old farmhouse—the Henry David Thoreau“When I got away from function, the piece had a soup tureen inspired by a children’s book.birthplace in Concord. “I raided antique shopsmore impact,” she said. In contrast, addingIn general, form comes easily to Matt, and bought old family portraits,” she said. “Ifunction—a teapot—to a reclining nude “added including the sometimes difficult relationship basically found characters.”a whole new dimension” to the Titian-inspired between a jar’s body and its lid. For his study, he Under the guidance of Visual Arts Depart -work.found himself focusing most on surfacement Head Cynthia Katz, Clara scannedSierra, who was advised by ceramicsdecorations—the hieroglyphics on the canopic negatives and old photos and, using Photo Shop,teacher Kate Oggel, has worked on a pottery jars, the Chinese characters, the raisedcut out her characters for the scene—thenwheel since she was nine. By the time hervegetables on the soup tureen.seamlessly melded old with new.EPENDENCEindepen dent study was completed, she realizedMatt, who was advised by ceramicsTo Clara, who first studied kallitype during awhat she had really learned from the experi -teacher Kate Oggel, knew he was hooked on summer course, a digital negative could restence: “Halfway through the semester, my focus pottery in Ceramics 1. “Once we got to thecomfortably alongside the nineteenth-centuryshifted from producing beautiful work towheel, I never left the studio,” he said. Matt is kallitype process, which allows control oflearning about myself as an artist.”also intensely interested in origami and sees contrast and densities. She explained: “I wasparallels between the art forms: “Out of aapproaching an old technology with a modernsquare piece of paper, you can make something. viewpoint.”Out of a ball of clay, you can make something.”For Matt, the power of pottery is heady.“I like having that direct effect from my hands,”he said.A commentary on poor listeners,by Sierra Starr ’08Ginger jars by Matt Goldenberg ’08Ceramics photos by Kate OggelClara Dennis ’08 combined modern and vintagephoto techniques.31WWW.CONCORDACADEMY.ORG SPRING 2008