Dateline: 03/23/98
his week I would like to write about my favorite ceramics magazine Ceramics, Art and Perception. Established about 7 years ago by ceramic artist, writer and editor Janet Mansfield, the magazine quickly gained international recognition as one of the best full color mags on international studio ceramics around. Recently Ms Mansfield has created another publication called Ceramics Technical, which looks at technical issues related to studio pottery.
The Ceramics, Art and Perception web site is itself fairly extensive and while Ms Mansfield does want online readers to subscribe, there is none-the-less a lot on offer. The current issue has an article by Gisela Ecker on German ceramic artist Gabriele Schnitzenbaumer's Sculpture entitled Ritual Balance and Irony. Images from the magazine compliment the articles in most cases, so you can get a fairly good impression of the hard copy. Back issues offer articles on Gwyn Hanssen Pigott, Zsolt Faludi ('Alchemy and Objecthood'), the exhibition Earth and Fire, showing the work of eight Greek ceramists, and the Imagined Landscapes: The Tasman Map Reconfigured digital craft project.
Ceramics TECHNICAL is "a bi-annual magazine devoted to research in the field of ceramics that is of interest to ceramic artists, studio potters and all interested in the furtherance of skills and the understanding of materials and processes in ceramic art." Articles available online are Graham Hay's article More on Paperclay and Alistar Whyte's article Tools and Tool Making for Porcelain.
The site also has a page on the upcoming hands-on country ceramics event HyperClay Gulgong, which will be taking place at Red Hill, New South Wales, Australia from 7 - 11 May, 1998. There will be demonstrations, lectures, participatory projects, exhibitions, discussions and visits to local studios.
While I don't normally write about commercial web sites in this column, I do think that Ceramics, Art and Perception is one of the better ceramics magazines available and that the web site has enough good quality content to make it worth your while to have a look at. Of course there are other great online ceramics magazines around, which you can check out by following the link below.
Image: Jeff Shapiro, Form on Metal Stand, 1996. Ceramics Art and Perception, Issue 28, 1997.
Related Sites:
Ceramics Today - Ceramic Magazines