Jack Orgill - 2024

Artist's Statement

As we continue to move towards an ever-increasing disconnect between what we need to sustain us, and what we have, there are many questions that arise. One might find themselves asking” Where does the food we eat come from? Do I agree with the practice of what I choose to consume? Where did our building materials originate, specifically? Where do our raw materials come from?” and I found myself asking the same thing. In ceramics, our practice ebbs and flows with the ever-changing industry that relies on the materials we use. Everything from Soda Ash as a sandblasting medium, to iron and calcium used to take radioactive minerals out of the water, the materials we use rely on a larger industry. That larger industry revolves around industrial use and operates on a larger scale than a craft. Looking at larger, resource-based corporations, there have been ample examples of those corporations misuse of power to gain profit. In recent memory, there has been the light shed on meat-packaging plants in America, and their mistreatment of workers. Another example being amazon and their mistreatment of workers, and union blocking. Tesla with the exploitation of labor in the Congo cobalt mines. There is a long list of these occurrences, but for the sake of this, I will use one example that specifically ties to ceramics. The Lafarge concrete corporation recently (Oct,2022) plead guilty to providing material to foreign terrorist organizations, ISIS and The Al-Nusrah Front were named. The materials that are used for concrete, can also be used for ceramics, and that tie to that bigger industry and their misdealing’s is something I have not found being addressed. While the implications of this on a local level are minimal, this raises a larger question of what are the hidden systems that influence our materials? This is a question that I’ve pondered on my own for some time, but through this class this concept has been explored and elaborated upon. Through gaining this knowledge and the ability to think critically about systems, I have been able to construct valid criticisms of those systems. To tell this story of systems, I would create a platform where you would be able to see where the materials used come from, specifically in relation to ceramics and track them to their origin corporation, or locality. Through this knowledge, one would have a better understanding of what goes on behind the scenes of the industries that we rely on so heavily for not only our wellbeing, but for our expression as well. My Project deals with this materiality, and in doing so, I have created a body of work based solely on the matereilas that I have found and recycled from the surroundings of Logan Utah, and created a piece based on that. All these materials are collected by hand, by me. The materials used range from recycled glass, to milled basaltic tuff, and the range of useable glazes varies. From this, I created a simple system of testing materials amounts in relevance to each other, and through these blends of material, I created art, as well as process, that I can truly call my own, outside the influence of these larger systems. This is my way of reclaiming that story of materiality, and creating a new process, in which I am not reliant on the systems that hurt people, exploit nations, and abuse our natural resources for profit.