Course Description

This course is meant to be a space for you to examine and deepen your relationship to the field and your own practice through readings, discussions, and presentations.  The readings are meant to expand your perspective on the field of jewelry and metalsmithing, to define its particularities and concerns in relation to the discourses of the contemporary art world.

Together we will explore a series of seminal theoretical texts, seeking ways to relate them to our own practice.  Through these texts we will encounter a series of themes and historical perspectives that are crucial to the field of jewelry, while also delving into fields and areas of inquiry, that have not commonly been related to our field, but perhaps should or could be.  Our aim is to get a historical and interdisciplinary perspective on where we are as artists/makers today, how we got here and where we could go from here. The course aims to bring up critical questions on why we make, whom we make for and the meaning of our practice beyond the studio and the jewelry and metals world.

This is a chance to practice your skills in connecting theory, reading and writing to your work and to build a vocabulary and ground of reference around your ideas, interests and intentions. It’s a chance to take part in an intense discourse around your field, which you might be asked to do many times in the future of your career.

The Wednesday meetings will adopt the form of a reading/talking circle. Your role in the group is important and the success of our conversations will be based on your participation and engagement. We will all take turns in presenting and leading the discussion and also examine what “research through practice” might mean for us, by exploring some ways of connecting theory and making. 

Oct 5, 2009

FLW- Ennis House: 1924 Mayan Revival, Textile Block Pattern

This is not new news to anyone who's has access to Wikipedia, but the house and reproduction of the Textile Block pattern from Ennis House (Wright, 1924, Los Angeles, CA) have been used in more than several movies since 1959. I'd like to share images of replica 'Mayan Revival' Textile Blocks that I shot with my iPhone while watching one of my favorite movies; Blade Runner.

What I like most about the block pattern construction is its' ability to create mood and establish atmosphere. I also like that it is not simply surface decoration but an element of the construction and correlative to the function of the overall space. Yes, kind of like the pyramids...

If you find yourself getting into cast concrete construction you should check out the List Art Center, Brown's Studio Arts Building, just up College Street. What I respond to most about that building is the ghost relief of the plywood impression in the surface of the facade. Plywood was used to face the cement while it was curing.

I understand that the FLW Textile Blocks were all poured separately.

-rt
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