Almost everything made today is done so digitally, as to look polished and perfect. Companies like Apple and Sony have strived to create products that have no seams and appear robotically made. For a ceramicist, using the wheel allows you to erase any evidence of the human hand. Building by hand, the artist shows the fingerprints in the work- something Apple can and will never be able to do. Sachs employs this practice in all his work, and recently, has been using it in ceramics fired at the 92nd St Y. His Japanese tea bowls (chawans) are built using the pinch-pot method and his other ceramic sculptures all show the scars of his labor. The dents, cracks and errors are evident in the handmade and are what make the product the result of an individual.
Join the conversation 8:15-10pm EST, Wednesday, May 6, 2015
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Participation requires free download and installation of Fuze software. **
Tom Sachs is a sculptor, and contemporary artist based in New York, probably best known for his elaborate dub-versions of various icons of Modernism—all of them masterpieces of engineering and design of one kind or another. 
A lot has been made of the conceptual underpinnings of these sculptures: how Sachs samples capitalist culture: remixing, dubbing and spitting it back out again, so that the results are transformed and transforming. Equally, if not more important, is his total embrace of “showing his work.” All the steps that led up to the end result are always on display. This means that nothing Sachs makes is ever finished. Like any good engineering project, everything can always be stripped down, stripped out, redesigned and improved. His fascination with the Japanese Tea Ceremony made its first appearance in Space Program: Mars his 2012 installation at the Park Avenue Armory.
This event is part of 92Ys Virtual Clay™ series: offering first of a kind, real-time online classes that gather a vibrant community of artists, designers and art historians to speak with you about important topics in ceramics. The conversations are meant to challenge preconceptions and explore new territory, inspiring you to think about the world in fresh and different ways … all of this in the comfort of your home, studio or classroom.
- Registrations must be purchased by noon of the day of the event. An email with login instructions will be sent to all participants prior to the event.
** System Requirements: High speed Internet connection, internal or external computer speaker and internal or external computer mic.
