Say Something: Tactile Voices in Clay

Saratoga Clay Arts Center seeks submissions of functional and decorative ceramic works by clay artists who work with alternative firing techniques. These works are created using altered atmospheres—those changed by wood, smoke, salt, or similar methods.

Juror Mark Shapiro, a Massachusetts potter, writes about the relationship between firing and the potter's practice: "The extent to which firing demands and engages the potter varies broadly, depending on type of kiln, its design, how it is loaded, fired, and even cooled. The continuum from computer-programmed electric top-loaders to gas kilns (in their heating and cooling and reduction cycles), and the many configurations of wood kilns from small 'fast-fire' to subway-car length amagamas that fire for a week or more, demand increasing preparation and commitment. Before pots even go into the kiln, there is wood to split, stack, and season, as well as teams of stokers to recruit and organize. In physically building the fire and manipulating it as it unfolds—adjusting burners and dampers, varying stoking rhythms and wood types, and playing with the atmosphere—we come closer to the impossible: we stand at the mouth of the forbidden chamber of the glowing kiln and actively alter the surface of our hardening wares. Physically engaging the firing at its source (the burner and stoke ports that make the heat), at the primary and secondary air vents that mix the combustion, and at its exit (manipulating passive and active dampers that control the flow), not to mention introducing sodium or building charcoal, we become palpably connected to the un-survivable interior of the kiln. Our fiddling, stoking, adjusting, and throwing stuff into the fire touches something transgressive, elemental, and essential."

Entry fee: $30.00. Submit 1-3 images of your work. Exhibition dates: March 13 - April 24, 2022. National eligibility. Contact: [email protected]