RESEARCH

An Exposition on Ecospiritual Narrative in Contemporary Ceramic Art

This is a short introduction of my research at the Department of Design, Aalto University, Finland. The research is conducted as an artistic research in the field of contemporary ceramic art. It will result in a doctoral thesis composed as a monograph at the end of 2028. The research has an autoethnographic approach where the autoethnographic research process is seen as a possibility of transformation (Hernandez, et al., 2022). The general objective in the research is to investigate, by visualizing and verbalizing, the underlying spiritual dimension in contemporary ceramic art which, in the research, has a strong ecological connection. The purpose is to enhance questions of spiritual quality in art and design within the debate on environmental issues. 

There has perhaps never been a more important time for artists to engage the worlds of religion and spirituality (White, 2018, 13). Critical first-person perspectives on art and spirituality are needed, there is a demand for spaces where artists can give voice to their relationship to the spiritual without fear of ridicule, censure, or judgment. One challenge lies in locating an adequate vocabulary for narrating one's own relationship to the spiritual when no tradition is normative, a construction of spirituality from a variety of sources may not communicate the experience to a wider group of people than oneself. (ibid., 47-48) The interdisciplinary field of artistic research is a space where definitions of contemporary spiritual concepts can be tested, and presented, to be used in a secular and multicultural environment of higher education. In this research the terms spiritual and spirituality are used exclusively for addressing the notion of the spiritual from a vantage point outside of registered religious or spiritual communities.

Two essential elements are needed for making ceramic art: clay and fire. There is a timespan of billions of years hidden in a lump of clay. The atoms in the minerals which form the substance called clay originate in an existence long before the Earth came into being (Engqvist, 2020). Creation myths where humanity is created out of clay, or born from the Earth, are found in spiritual traditions throughout the world (Leeming, 1995), also fire has been connected to mysticism and divine forces (Kaliff & Oestigaard, 2022). The narratives that inspire ceramic artists into the making of ceramic art reveal concepts of the mystic, including questions about the origin of life and understanding of life as a whole. These questions take the ceramic artist further into questions of worldview, self-knowledge, and self-realization, which also may be understood as a spiritual awakening. Knowledge of the fundamental nature of clay and fire creates a strong emotional bond between artist and medium in ceramic art. This bond has a possibility to deepen into a holistic spiritual connection between the artist and the natural world. How is one to define this kind of knowledge which has grown into a deeper understanding of spiritual awareness? How is one to interpret the spiritual in ceramic art, by making ceramic art, without referring to any known symbols of any specific religious or spiritual tradition in the artwork? How is one to bring forth spiritual narrative in ceramic art as part of humanity's shared legacy in a way which would benefit all parts spiritually and intellectually? The research approaches these questions by applying the concept of a spiritual ritual into the context of making ceramic art. The aim is to investigate possibilities for bonding with the transcendent of the natural world within an artistic framework. Artistic encounters and spiritual insights indicate transformation. The final goal in the research is the attempt to exposit the process of spiritual transformation within the context of contemporary ceramic art.

Art, in the research, is understood as a philosophical practice whose underlying foundation is the aesthetic attitude (Noë, 2016, 2023). The strange-tools theory developed by Alva Noë (2016), professor of philosophy at the University of California, and the critical reflection on ceramic art made by potter and poet, PhD, Mary Caroline Richards (1973, 1989), support the viewpoint on art as a self-educational tool. The spiritual approach in ceramic art is clarified by insights from the emerging academic field of ecospirituality (Adow, et al., 2024). Ecospirituality describes how one relates to the sacred within the context of our natural, global, and cosmic ecosystems of which we all form a part (Wheeler, 2022). The intangible qualities of the artistic practice are derived from indigenous spiritual traditions in ceramic art (Pueblo Pottery Collective, et al., eds., 2022). The research recognizes artistic research made in the field of contemporary ceramic art which endorse autoethnographic methods (Mäkelä, 2003, 2006) and which acknowledge the subtle senses and performative methods (Falin, 2022). The theoretical framework in the research is grounded in the performative approach where meaning, spirituality, and medium, clay, meet to eventually evoke a transformational process within the practitioner. The artistic performance in the form of a spiritual ritual is in a key position as it connects meaning with medium and also visualizes this connection. Insights from the performative arts (Fischer-Lichte, 2008), and from ritual studies (Gordon-Lennox ed., 2017), are used to understand the role of the performative part in the research.

References

https://www.aalto.fi/en/doctoral-education 

Adow, A.H.E.; Safeer, M.M.; Mohammed, M.G.H.; Sayeed Alam, M.; Sulphey, M.M. (2024). A synthesis of academic literature on eco-spirituality. Global Journal of Environmental Science and Management, 10(4): 2163-2178. DOI:10.22034/gjesm.2024.04.40 URL: https://www.gjesm.net/article_713338.html

Enqvist, Kari (2020). When Dead Stars Come Back to Life. pp. 31-33. Lautenbacher, Nathalie, editor (2020). Kantava maa. Solid Ground. Aalto-yliopiston julkaisusarja. Taide, muotoilu, arkkitehtuuri 2/2020. Aalto ARTS Books.

Falin, Priska (2022). Relating to Clay. Tuning in to the Workings of the Aesthetic Dimension in Ceramic Practice. Aalto University publication series. DOCTORAL THESES 116/2022.

Fischer-Lichte, Erika (2008). The Transformative Power of Performance. A New Aesthetics. Routledge.

Gordon-Lennox, Jeltje, editor (2017). Emerging Ritual in Secular Societies. A Transdisciplinary Conversation. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. London. Philadelphia.

Hernandez, Kathy-Ann C., Chang, Heewon, Bilgen, Wendy A. (2022). Transformative Autoethnography for Practitioners. Change Processes and Practices for Individuals and Groups. Myers Education Press. LLC. Gorham. Maine.

Kaliff, Anders, Oestigaard, Terje (2022). Indo-European Fire Rituals. Cattle and cultivation, cremation and cosmogony. Taylor Francis Ltd. 

Leeming, David, Leeming, Margaret (1994, 1995). A Dictionary of Creation Myths. Oxford University Press. New York. Oxford.

Mäkelä, Maarit (2006). Framing (a) Practice-led Research Project. pp. 60-85. Mäkelä, Maarit, Routarinne, Sara, editors (2006). The Art of Research. Research Practices in Art and Design. University of Art and Design Helsinki.

Mäkelä, Maarit (2003). Saveen piirtyviä muistoja. Subjektiivisen luomisprosessin ja sukupuolen representaatioita. Taideteollisen korkeakoulun julkaisu A43.

Noë, Alva (2015, 2016). Strange Tools: Art and Human Nature. Hill and Wang. A division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux. New York.

Noë, Alva (2023). The Entanglement. How art and philosophy make us what we are. Princeton University Press.

Pueblo Pottery Collective, Poon, Elysia, Kinsel, Rick, editors (2022). Grounded in Clay. The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery. Merrell Publishers. London. New York.

Richards, Mary Caroline (1962, 1964, 1989). Centering. In Pottery, Poetry, and the Person. Second Edition. Wesleyan University Press. Middletown. Connecticut.

Richards, Mary Caroline (1966, 1973). The Crossing Point. Selected Talks and Writings. Wesleyan University Press. Hanover and London.

Wheeler, Rachel (2022). Ecospirituality. An Introduction. Fortress Press. Minneapolis.

White, Grant (2018). Introduction. pp. 13-17. In a Space between Spirituality and Religion: Art and Artists in These Times. pp. 41-51. Brümmel, Frank, White, Grant, editors (2018). Imaging the Spiritual Quest. Explorations in Art, Religion and Spirituality. Writings from the Academy of Fine Arts (6). The Academy of Fine Arts. Uniarts Helsinki.