Cuteness Overload
with Chase Barney & Emily Yong Beck
CERAMICS 663 001 | 3 credits | $225 Lab Fee
July 15 - 27, 2024
Cuteness and humor can be used to convey serious topics in a palatable way. Artists such as Robert Arneson, Magdalena Suarez Frimkess, Ruby Neri, and Beth Lo utilize these tactics in their clay practice to tell us stories from unique points of view. Students will learn hand-building techniques such as coil building, slab construction, pinch pots, and various surface design techniques, combining these skills with their interpretation of “cute” to achieve their desired result. This course allows students of all levels to work on projects, improve their ceramics skills and develop their visual vocabulary. Participants will have access to all materials in the ceramic studio and demonstrations will include hand-building, vessel creation, construction methods, proper firing methods, and encourage an intermediate understanding of drying times, methods for building sound pieces, techniques for minimizing loss, and studio safety. Taking inspiration from the California Funk movement and ideas about the aesthetics of optimism, as coined by curator Angelik Vizcarrondo-Laboy, students will be encouraged to listen to episodes of Vizcarrondo-Laboy’s podcast “Clay in Color”. Group readings and discussion will focus on Sontag’s “Notes on Camp”, we will screen episodes of Art 21 and Craft in America, as well as classic cartoons such as Looney Tunes and Hello Kitty. Assignments are designed to build an understanding of hand-building techniques, ceramic tradition, cuteness's place in the present art canon, and how to introduce humor and play into your practice. Assignments and exercises may include clay-exquisite-corpse, pinch pot coffee cups, and a narrative vessel. Instructors will be available to help facilitate individual projects and class critiques.
Chase Barney is an artist working with clay to create vases adorned with flowers, animals, and bright colors. The narrative in his work is loose, a mish-mash of Mormon dogma, fairy tale, and fable, as well as a deep love for cliché, pop culture, and family lore. Barney graduated with a BFA from the University of Minnesota and his MFA at The School of the Art Institute Chicago in 2022. Barney has exhibited across the United States and received numerous grants and scholarships supporting his work, including a 2020 Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant and the New Artist Full Merit Scholarship from SAIC. Barney is originally from Utah. He lives and works in Chicago.
Emily Yong Beck is an interdisciplinary ceramic artist who received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute in 2021. Currently based in Chicago, Illinois, her works are largely inspired by significant cultural pieces of craft, cartoon and kawaii culture. The appropriation of certain motifs are an attempt to create a dialogue about forgotten histories and propaganda. Beck’s work has been featured in the solo exhibitions Lions & Lambs, Gaa Gallery Provincetown, Massachuesetts, Spoonful of Sugar at New Image Art, Los Angeles, and a two-person presentation with Gaa Gallery and a solo exhibition at Gaa Projects, Cologne, Germany. Beck has been awarded residences such as The Residency Program in Versailles, France where the work made was featured at Lefebvre et Fils in Paris, France in a solo exhibition, Gimbap Paradise.
Chase Barney, Nonsense, 2023, glazed ceramic, 15 x 10 x 8 in.
Emily Yong Beck, Sailor Moon, 2023, glazed and underglazed stoneware, 24.8 x 19.6 x 18.8 in.