|
|
 |
|||
|
Introduction Reference
|
Pathways is a juried show of some of the finest examples of turning. Held at the Cleveland State University Art Gallery from June 11th - 30th 1998. This section has an essay by the show co-coordinator, a calender of the show development and narrative, as well as the original call for entries. Accompanying the text are addtional photographs from the show catalog, and the show itself.
|
|
|
|
|||
Much like the grass-roots effort of Fall 1997 that produced OUT OF FOCUS, turners’ first Internet salon de refuse, PATHWAYS is an independent venture. It received support from a variety of private and public sources, and suggests the potential of what can be accomplished by a few dedicated individuals with vision and enthusiasm. For the first time, practitioners were offered an exhibition opportunity with distinct categories which acknowledged the variety of attitudes and avenues within the field. Sculpture was recognized as having distinct and separate intentions from other work which addressed utility, scale, material, or the major vessel types. The Peaseware component of the exhibition presents a portion of the field’s past in the belief that history helps to nurture contemporary investigations; an attitude that was integral to the American Association of Woodturner’s 1997 TURNED FOR USE exhibition, and is very much a part of the Wood Turning Center’s mission. This catalog continues the interest in documentation via the affordable black/white format which was established by the two previous AAW exhibitions while it raises the standards for size and presentation quality and adds a distinctive color component. The jurying process for both TFU and PATHWAYS, were as bias-free as I can imagine possible. The integrity and the varied experiences of the jurors were brought to bear in the selection of the best work – not what they "liked," but a body of work which spoke to the jurors’ common understanding of terms, concepts, processes, and issues which form the foundation for all that is good, effective, and intriguing in art and craft. The show, like the group of jurors, is an exciting, high-quality mix. The work ultimately required four viewings, with a large number requiring repeated discussions to arrive at a compromise concensus for each piece’s acceptance or rejection. For the second year in a row, there appears to be very little turned work that is innovative or inventive in the areas of "use" - utilitarian housewares, furniture, and architectural elements to name a few; or very little interest in exhibiting that work if it does exist. Investigating the union of utility and sculpture or enhancing items of "use" to please the senses, attributes common to works produced by most pre-industrial cultures, seems rich with potential – but apparently with few contemporary advocates. Even though the most intense investigations continue to take place in the crowded and competitive spectrum of platters, bowls, vessels, and containers, there are many pathways available to turning. PATHWAYS offers a look at where we are now on a few of those paths, with the promise of an exciting future of exploration.
|
The show coordinator lives
in Warsaw, New York. He is an educator, an author, a turner, and a sculptor. He is
currently Director of the School of Art, the School of Design, and the School for American
Crafts at a leading university in NY. His areas of expertise in teaching
are introductory three-dimensional design and sculpture. His work is exhibited and collected internationally. He is a frequent commentator on contemporary wood/turning, with articles appearing regularly in publications in the USA, England, and Australia. He conceived of and helped jury the 1997 AAW TURNED FOR USE exhibition, and is co-coordinator of PATHWAYS.
Click on the following images for a larger version:
|
||
| August 1997 Organizational meeting develops show theme October, 1997 December, 1997 Jan-Feb, 1998 March, 1998 April 11th, 1998 May 15th, 1998 June 11th, 1998 June 30th, 1998 August 1st, 1998
|
Dr. Claire Van Ummersen, Cleveland State University President, opens the show, June 11th, 1998
Image from the Catalog. |
||
| In the winter of 96-97 two events affected our
woodturning club. First, the American Association of Woodturners (AAW) announced that they
would hold their 12th annual symposium in Akron, thirty miles south of Cleveland. The
second event was less dramatic- a sculpture professor from Cleveland State University
joined our club. He had little experience working with wood- specializing in metal sculpture. But he added woodturning to the sculpture studio at Cleveland State- installing a Oneway lathe, and working with our club to bring a well-known British turner to an exclusive Cleveland visit of classes and a seminar in 1997. His woodturning advanced rapidly- two of his pieces were selected for Turned for Use, the AAW's 2nd juried show, held at the 1997 symposium in Texas. One of the jurors was our show coordinator. While featuring some excellent examples of turning, the small number of entries for Turned for Use inspired our coordinator to pen an essay on future show possibilities. Learning the Symposium would be in Northeast Ohio, our newest club member negotiated with the Art Gallery at Cleveland State, which rearranged its schedule to accomodate a turning show. Just as things started to get going, the AAW informed us that they would not be holding the show. In August 97, we hosted a meeting of members of the two northern Ohio turning clubs, along with future show coordinator. With gallery space available, but no sponsor, we had to decide whether to have a show, and, if so, what format. Turning exhibitions are an opportunity to display the growth and breadth of this expanding field- this was too good an opportunity to pass up. Our format possibilities included curated, invitational, and juried shows. The original essay suggested a concept called "Pathways," to document the development of techniques as they were refined and extended from artist to artist- for instance, an Ellsworth thin wall vessel, along side a Jordan> thin walled classic vase, and, then, a Trent Bosch vessel within a vessel. An interesting and worthwile project, but one needing more research than the time available. We selected a juried show, but chose the PATHWAYS name to reflect the different directions that woodturning is going- functional, artistic, utilitarian, decorative, etc. We selected 10 categories, and a jurying process to judge entries within a category- so that utilitarian pieces, for instance, would not be competing with sculptural pieces. We announced the show everywhere we could think. The AAW Journal provided us with a two page colored flyleaf, for an announcement (see below) and entry form. The easy part was done- the majority of the work still lay in front of us. And, the one pitfall of the juried show- not knowing what kind of repsonse we would get. With the gallery reserved, and initial funding from the two turning clubs, we knew that we could support a basic show. But, additional funding was needed to enable us to publicize the show, and to print a show catalog. The amount of the funding would determine the scope of these ancillary aspects. The AAW supplied us with a grant, as well as the Wingate foundation. And many of the businesses in the community helped as well. We also received a day of photo-studio time, to photograph items for a color insert and cover for the catalog. Northcoast members built pedastals for the show during the winter, while we waited for entries to come in. Two weeks before the show, and we had but a handful of entries- I was surprised to find that we were quadruple the entries of the previous show, at the same time before deadline. As the final days came, the mailbox filled up, and we had a show. The pace really quickened in April. The jurors met, and selected the items for the show. The text for the catalog was prepared, we started notifying the entrants. At the beginning of May, I really started to get involved with the catalog. My computer had the requisite hardware for preparing this publication, and the overhead involved in transferring large images made it most practical to work on one computer. I arranged for scanning the slides, and imported the text and page layouts that had been prepared. For the next two weeks, I cropped and shifted images around, preparing draft copies; everything looked feasible. About 2/3rds of the pieces arrived by the middle of May- and were taken to the studio for photographing the color insert pages. The goal was to try to get every piece shown in color; the only way was to group them into 8 half-page shots, and the cover. After pushing pixels around on the screen, it was really exciting to see these items up close and in person. I didn't realize that the Michael Lee "Ammonite Pod" was open on the side- the black and white photo didn't show the depth clearly at the resolutions I was working with. We tried to prepare for the opening. Local companies supplied beverages, and we found a small group of volunteers to help make appetizers (including 800 swedish meatballs.) But, we had no idea how many people would show. We had some coverage in the local newspaper, but the main story wasn't set to run till the Sunday after the show opening. The AAW symposium was opening the next day in Akron, and the AAW was supplying bus service to ferry early arrivers up to the show; but no one knew how many to expect. As we put the final touches on the show, the local newspaper reporter stopped in. She had come the night before, to prepare the story, and had submitted it at 2:00AM that morning- but the show interested her enough to make her want to see the final product. The show's opening hour arrived, and visitors started arriving. Busses came up from Akron, and the gallery was packed for the rest of the evening. At best estimates, well over 500 people attended the opening alone. On the 30th of June, the show had to be taken down. As the final hour ticked off, visitors were still coming into the gallery. I'm glad that we are able to extend the time and reach of the show, both with the catalog and this web site. Epilogue Three things made this possible: the gallery was available, the many people who helped, and most importantly, our vokunteers' tireless work in all aspects of the show- obtaining the gallery space, publicity, fund raising, designing and writing the catalog, contacting the artists, receiving and shipping the turnings, designing and hanging the gallery show. I now understand why my sister thought 10 months was so optimistic. I am no longer naive.
|
Author of the
newsletter for the North Coast Woodturners, of Cleveland Ohio. A member of the original
Pathways commitee, he developed the original call for entries, edited the catalog for the
show, and published this website.
|
||
| Next June, the second international juried
exhibition titled PATHWAYS ’98, Turning Towards the New Millennium will
be on display in the Cleveland State University Art Galleries, Cleveland, Ohio. The dates
for PATHWAYS are June 11 through June 30, 1998; admission is free to the public. The
opening of the exhibition corresponds to the American Association of Woodturners’
twelfth annual conference which will be held in nearby Akron, Ohio on June 12-14, 1998. Following in the footsteps of this years "Turned for Use", PATHWAYS ’98 is a juried exhibition of the finest international contemporary work in which the process of lathe turning was utilized as a significant aspect of its creation. Ten categories were created to provide selected groups of objects to represent the breadth of divergent pathways presently being explored in woodturning, globally. Submitted work should be original in design showing innovation, excellence, invention, or personal interpretation but not imitation. Judges will consider the totality of each work, for example, its demonstration of idea/concept, execution, techniques selected, and choice of materials. Other criteria such as aesthetics, proportion, and finish will also be evaluated, by a panel of independent judges selected from both within and outside of the woodturning community. The ten categories are:
There is a $15.00 entry fee, for up to 3 entries, which must first be submitted in the form of 35mm color slides. All entries must be received by April 3rd, 1998. A special historical component of this exhibition will be a museum quality display of nineteenth century Peaseware, which was produced in northeast Ohio, and sold countrywide. Organizing committee, Professor of Sculpture at Cleveland State, and exhibitor at "Turned for Use", commented about the show format: "I believe this format could be used each year. Perhaps adjusting some categories, but by having overall continuity, we should generate more entries. Having a specific theme can work against you, as I’ve found in some of our student shows. If a possible entrant’s specialty doesn’t match the show theme, they either have to work real fast to get a piece together, or skip the show altogether... they usually do the latter. A broader show really invites a wider representation, as you are letting the artists’, rather than the organizer’s interests, determine the show- In this way, it is much more democratic." The Pathways name was selected because it suggests woodturning as a means, rather than a destination. Pathways also exemplifies the explorative phase of woodturning- where some paths may become mainstream foundation, and many will lead to further discovery. Committee member, Director of the School of Design at Rochester Institute of Technology and Juror for "Turned for Use" explains: "My new theory is that turning should become like rock’n’roll - rather than fracturing, it should look toward accepting, welcoming, absorbing, and translating other influences. Use the stuff of sculpture, furniture, art, creativity, and design (as pathways) to create personal work that is still tethered to these central concerns" While this year’s "Turned for Use" was an artistic success, we were disappointed in the turnout. "Low entry numbers were apparently a combination of the problems faced by any first-time venture. Most apparent was the lack of AWARENESS of the show… Additionally, some were hesitant, while others just didn’t think through their possibilities." He adds- "We had only one rolling pin entered- yet I know of hundreds of turners who make them. When I asked one of them why he didn’t enter, he felt that he didn’t have a chance against all the other turners. " The December 1996 issue of American Woodturner’s Perspective section has two articles with good advice about submitting work for a show: Roger Austins’ Gallery Wakeup Call (pg 7) goes into detail on the construction of pieces, and Stephen Garavatti’s Mock Jury submission (pg 9) gives excellent advice on the jury and slide process. Instead of being run by the AAW, a local committee was formed to organize this year’s show: Cleveland State University, Cleveland’s Northcoast Woodturners Association, and Akron based Buckeye Woodturners Association are joint sponsors, along with the AAW. |
This is the text of the original announcement and call for entries, as it appeared in the AAW Journal, December 1997 | ||
