Ajisai (2002) detail. photo by Yamaoka Yasuhiro at Taipei County Yingge Ceramics Musium, February 2003. Tray Sculpture Statement of Intention My sculpture arrangements are based on experienced impressions of specific locations. Not intended as conceits, they function as selected memory traces of perceived situational phenomenon such as the effects of light on forms and the color relationships of the forms to each other. Simultaneously referring to landscape, architecture and stage setting, they are re-inventions intended to evoke the mood of specific encounters such as the positioning of a colorful Buddhist temple and its’ pagoda adjacent to an austere Shinto shrine, surrounded by trees, fronted by the sea and backed by mountains; all while maintaining their identity and integrity as ceramic vessels. As re-inventions, my forms are historically referential, gleaned from a multiplicity of pre-existing cultures, they have been dissected and reformulated; some times through smooth transition, but often with abrupt juxtaposition. I allude to timelessness, but the results are intended to bridge the gap of history, bringing the forms into the present as a vehicle to convey some semblance of the feelings central to the experience of life during the waning period of the Twentieth Century and the beginning of the Twenty first Century; distilled to its’ abstract essence. I am a process formalist. Concern for formal values is primary. Line, edge form, rhythm, color, surface, and gesture are orchestrated as elements of each piece so that the proportional relationships are perceived as an intuitively balanced, unified whole. Process is evidenced through mark making. Mark making is articulated through the choreography of a series of complex, interactive phenomenon. Variations in the weight of finger pressures are coupled with ascending or descending gesture. Read as modulation, the visual rhythm are established through the control of wheel speed rotation. The fossilized activity is offered as evidence of living process and life force mediating between an inherently inert concrete material and the abstract quality we designate as time. The structure of time as a linear, sequential progression is signified by, and controlled through the circular motion of the potter’s wheel passing through an infinite variety of speeds. Time sequences themselves are replayed and overlapped, but as singularly unique encounters, never repeated. Within the context of a concentrated dialogue, they form a continuum and enter a state of virtual suspension. Time held in duration becomes plastic, and the times become interchangeable, simultaneously representing present time, all time, and no time. The total accumulation of sensations is projected as a series of three-dimensional lines in space. Woven together, they form the structured fabric of the wall membrane which is given expression by the degree to which the limit of its’ changing outer surface extends from the central axis. The relationship of the forms to each other as occupiers of defined localized space, and the shaped voids between them are of equal importance. The drama of the activity is isolated within the context of a spatial environment determined by the presentation tray. Through the choice of tray form, the quality of line, the degree of edge manipulation and inflection, the staging space is either physically compressed and constricted, contained by geometric implication, or extended into infinite, unbounded space. Color is employed for emotive value and is used to suggest a range of mood possibilities, from highly reserved and formal, to that of abandoned celebration. — James Makins