~CASUAL ART FAIR: ESSEX FLOWERS . . RACHEL DOMM
MORE, MERRY PRANKSTERS . . at the fair !!
RACHEL DOMM, exhibits her whimsical clay ‘treats’ on the ESSEX FLOWERS table, Casual Art Fair,
Hester Street Fair venue – on the Lower East Side, NYC. Oct 2, 2016.
with her is JEFFREY TRANCHELL, founding member of ESSEX FLOWERS – who curated the Essex Flowers’ fair offering.
behind them . . are my 2 repaired vintage crib quilt projects – more on those, next post !!
ps: #puppylove – that’s Winnie . . on Jeffrey’s lap.
Rachel Domm’s clay pieces were fun, even joyful.
hurray for joyful . . in an often dark, harsh & brooding world. including the art world.
including the millions of years old Great Barrier Reef – dying.
small, interesting shapes – very lovely to behold, and actually to ‘lift up’ & hold, handle / they twisted the very ‘informed’ thin lines . . . between insider / outsider art . .
fine art vs. street smart / artisan workmanship, which in this case I would say definitely came down hard on: the fine art side of . . hand-made. there’s a intellectual ‘joker’ . . behind the craft.
and, even though definitely tweaking more to art than craft – their individual, one-of-a-kind hand-wrought hand-crafted nature: equals . . skills.
though I would never classify them as simply: craft. no way !!
especially within the variety of the surfaces, overall glossy vs . . those speckled ones, hurray !!
interestingly – they were also very on the ‘low-down’, unlike most of the ceramic work I’ve seen recently, which also joyfully criss-crossed the many lines between high and low art, serious concept, basic functionality, & social commentary, (Salon 94: ‘Satan Ceramics’ is a good example) – Rachel’s whimsical works were made of the more basic, low-fire clay medium, rather than the higher end / higher fire . . porcelain. but even so, as you can see, her conceptual starting point, and the finished shapes, and especially their multi-colored shiny, eccentric glazed surfaces – were quite . . delightful.
the advance pr, said her ceramic works were based on ‘snack’ shapes, so I was expecting much smaller pieces, so much for the ambiguous dimensions of digital photography – because the pieces were at least 4 times the size of their reference points, and therefore quite pretty to gaze upon, but especially . . to hold, and set down & gaze upon. so Shakespearean, medieval fair, or what ?!!
I think – this is a riff on a Ritz cracker ?
the relative ‘thick & thinness’ of the pieces – was a big plus, very sensory. sensual. very pleasing. tactile.
like holding a ‘game’ in your hand. or even a metaphoric . . ‘no words’ – book.
JEFFREY TRANCHELL, got it exactly right, when he wrote of Rachel Domm: . . “her ceramics are based on uncommon ‘snack’ shapes (crackers, pretzels, chips), and through this tonque-in-cheek vernacular, Domm finds forms that are immediately both abstract and literal.”
the Jackson Pollock of . . crackers ?
the reverse side was so interesting too, for laying the clay – bare.
yin & yang . . comes to mind.
the ‘holes’ are also a big . . visual ‘hit’.
they were really quite wonderful, and ‘wondering’ . . and ‘wandering’, if you can follow . . your imagination.
I mean, come on – it was like holding the primordial world – in your hand from the back, and cutting edge NYC flipped – over . . . raw vs glazed / primitive vs production.
all the while kinda – cracking an art world . . joke.
they were also priced between $20 – $85.
so . . no brainer.
yes, I would say that is quite a treat-ful . . handful !!
just downright . . smart, and . . lovely.
and, curious.
read about & see more of her work: RACHEL DOMM portfolio website
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH