◄ Overview
Tom Sachs
The Twelfth Night
In 2014, Salon 94 staged a bracingly unusual sort of pottery show, entitled Satan Ceramics. It featured four artists, only one of whom (JJ Peet) was a trained ceramist. Peet helped the others get a grip with the medium – and among them was Tom Sachs, the inveterate tinker, absurdist product designer, and general mayhem-maker. For the show, Sachs produced (among other things) tea bowls of broadly Japanese shape, as one might see used in the tea ceremony, but with one key difference: the red NASA logo was emblazoned on the side. This produces a collision of worlds – tradition and technology, east and west, the Japanese cultivation of accident and the space program’s attempt to eliminate variation of any kind. Sachs has made bowls in the series ever since, sometimes incorporating gold seams (kintsugi) by which breakages are highlighted through the act of repair.
Tearsheet
Artist
Tom Sachs
Material
English porcelain, high fire reduction, Temple white glaze, NASA red engobe inlay, gold luster, Kintsugi
Contributing Gallery
Salon 94
Date
2018
Dimensions
3.5 in × 5.25 in × 5 in
8.89 cm × 13.335 cm × 12.7 cm
ID
Image credit: Courtesy of Salon 94
The Twelfth Night, 2018
3.5 in × 5.25 in × 5 in
English porcelain, high fire reduction, Temple white glaze, NASA red engobe inlay, gold luster, Kintsugi
Salon 94
$0
In 2014, Salon 94 staged a bracingly unusual sort of pottery show, entitled Satan Ceramics. It featured four artists, only one of whom (JJ Peet) was a trained ceramist. Peet helped the others get a grip with the medium – and among them was Tom Sachs, the inveterate tinker, absurdist product designer, and general mayhem-maker. For the show, Sachs produced (among other things) tea bowls of broadly Japanese shape, as one might see used in the tea ceremony, but with one key difference: the red NASA logo was emblazoned on the side. This produces a collision of worlds – tradition and technology, east and west, the Japanese cultivation of accident and the space program’s attempt to eliminate variation of any kind. Sachs has made bowls in the series ever since, sometimes incorporating gold seams (kintsugi) by which breakages are highlighted through the act of repair.
