Aretha Facey 'Pea Tea', stoneware. Sana Rose, Contributor
THE REVOLUTION Gallery's first annual juried and invitational exhibition has manifested itself in the form of a show that puts the spotlight on a well-known object the teapot.
'Tea, Glorious Tea!' features the works of guest exhibitors, Jean Taylor Bushay from Jamaica and Natalie Kurzuk from Canada alongside artists who vied for the People's Choice and the Red Rose (tea) Trophy. International participants in the juried section of the show are Rachelle Chinnery from Canada and Miguel Colombo from Venezuela.
'Tea, Glorious Tea!' is a good example of how a simple, common object can be transformed and reinterpreted in creative ways. While clay is the popular medium in the show, textiles and metal are also represented as not only ceramists responded to the Gallery's call for
entries but also three sculptors, one a textile artist and a jeweller, Jennifer Gibbs, who submitted a papier mache wall-mounted teapot form titled, 'Aladdin's Delight'. The artists rose to the challenge and presented to us interesting concepts of the teapot that are functional to sculptural. The only challenge that is not met is that of scale as all the pieces in the competition are confined to small proportions.
The show unites a number of exciting concepts of the teapot realised by young and well-known artists alike.
Marjorie Keith uses the body of the teapot as a canvas depicting common scenes in Jamaica such as in 'Market Day', 'The Cricketer' and 'Port Royal Fishing Village'. She, however, stretched her imagination in terms of form to realise the union of the teapot with a stone which resulted in 'Rockstone!', a seemingly mutating teapot with irregular protuberances.
Michael Layne opted for mixed media and gave birth to two sculptural pieces that combine driftwood handles with partly woven slabs of clay. Aretha Facey shows versatility with her three-tiered teapot 'Tea for Three' and the donut form in 'Pea Tea' which found an echo in Patrick Hall's 'Cannon'.
Wazari Johnson recalls the form of a fire hydrant in his brilliantly coloured orange and black teapot, 'Brilliant' which complements the rich green in Margaret McGhie's 'Green Tea'. Like her other two offerings, 'High Tea I & II', 'Green Tea' draws its inspiration from the geometric form the cone. For her efforts, McGhie received both the People's Choice award and the Red Rose Trophy.
Guest artist Jean Taylor-Bushay, a ceramist who often makes teapots, offers two
untitled works with earthy tones that utilise her preferred flattened forms and Canadian artist Rachelle Chinnery enhances the gracefulness of the tea setting with nuances of green and yellow on her porcelain teapot and cup embellished with curvilinear shapes in relief.
INTIMATE AND DECORATIVE
The sculptors, not to be outdone, presented an inventive display in metal, which provides a contrast to the pliable clay used by the ceramists. Denise Forbes conceptualises the teapot as a cage from which a human form has escaped and is left to dangle from one of the bars while Nosbourne C. Lee and David Betton redefine the teapot as a recycled metal construct that alludes to a scientific marvel.
Invited artist, Natalie Kurzuk, whose works are presented in a small solo display, harmonises with the concept of the show. Her pieces are mixed media collages, which consist of materials such as cloth, acrylic paint, leather, and the ubiquitous teabag. The works, done on a small scale, are intimate, decorative and tactile. They seem like pages from a diary, which is underscored by their stencilled and printed imagery on and around the teabags, which beckon close inspection, an intimate examination of the surface of each piece. The Canadian artist uses a warm colour scheme combined with grids to divide the picture plane, which arise from the organisation of the teabags on the canvas or wood surface. The resulting images appear as small windows with metaphorical content.
For example: shells and butterflies in 'Transformation I & II', the image of Buddha in 'Tea for Me?' and the scroll format of 'Life Force I & II'. One is sensitive to the aura of story-telling in Kurzuk's work but she only offers us small puzzle pieces. Through the fusion and layering of recycled materials including the teabags, which are gathered from various places including New York and England she creates personal symbolism.
RITUAL
She associates the serving and drinking of tea with the idea of a ritual, which consists of exchanges between people and juxtaposes this with her personal messages and thoughts. Kurzuk, who also creates works in the form of clothes, states in her personal statement that her work "is influenced by and reflects responses to my personal journey. Each piece is an outer expression of my inner self."
'Tea, Glorious Tea!' highlights artists who rose to the challenge of rethinking the familiar and traditionally functional teapot and in the process introduces us to Natalie Kurzuk who attaches symbolism to the teapot's companion, the teabag. Wrapped up within this show, which included a workshop by Kurzuk and a tea party on opening night, is personal exploration steeped in creativity. The show ends on September 20.
