POISE: Peter Christian Johnson
November 18–December 31, 2016
Ferrin Contemporary
1315 MASS MoCA Way, North Adams, MA
EVENTS
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 19, 4–6pm
“POISE explores the tension between acts of labor and collapse, between precision and failure. It is a meditation on entropy that uses Gothic cathedrals as a foil to examine the dichotomy of beauty and loss. For this exhibition Johnson has created a series of highly organized architectural forms based on the floor plans of historic cathedrals. These forms are distorted and deconstructed under the weight of the glaze in an attempt to find virtue in brokenness.” — Peter Christian Johnson
Click here to view more work by Peter Christian Johnson.
Click here to view or download press release.
EXHIBITION CATALOG
Glenn Adamson has written an insightful essay on Johnson and his work in POISE.
“In the kiln, the works melt, crumpling into themselves. The ceramic grid is unable to support its own weight, and that of the heavy, glassy, colored material on top. By the time the piece is fully fired, it seems on the verge of total collapse, a few degrees of heat away from becoming a heap of slag. And that, of course, is just how Johnson wants it.”
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