Weight, Gather, Sort
2016
I repurpose, create and combine in search for affinities among objects that together come to speak of something more. I imitate geologic processes, tumble clay shards with sand and water to make small stone-like forms, inspired by those the sea turns up and contrasting large flat clay slabs that with block and tackle let me experience its weight. Forms left from the production of one thing are gathered to find form together or are sorted in invented taxonomy. The installations are responses to the physical nature of these parts--the weight of the clay, the natural way a pile of arcs forms and falls, the way objects speak to each other.
Brief bio:
Judith Motzkin studied Asian Studies at Cornell University ’76, focused on Asian Art, History, and Chinese. It was there that she began working with clay while studying the history of ceramics in Asia. Influenced by travels to Mexico and China, while at Clay Dragon Studios (1977-1985), she began to experiment with smoke and fire on polished classical, sensual clay forms. She went on to establish her own studio in an old stable next to her Cambridge home. Over time, her work has expanded to include mixed media, assemblage, installations and photography
Jude has had several solo shows and her work included in gallery and museum exhibits nationally and internationally. She was founding director of the original Cambridge Artists Open Studios (CAOS), one of the first neighborhood based open studios events, carrying on a tradition of inviting people into the working studio that began at Clay Dragon. She curated “Smooth and Smoky” ( 2009) an international exhibit of pit, smoke and saggar fired ceramics, at Vessels Gallery, Boston and co-curated the exhibit “Legacy of Fire: Clay Dragon Studios Revisited” (2015) at Fuller Craft Museum. Her saggar fired work is in permanent collections including the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Fuller Museum, Crocker Museum of Art, and Jingdezhen Ceramics Museum in China. She has taught at MIT, Harvard, and Castle Hill Center for the Arts and other workshop venues.
