Peter Pincus

I want to encourage tradition and modernity to coalesce. Grasping at the pulse of progress forces American culture to abandon the tradition that is at the core of ceramic culture; digital replaces distinctive. But this doesn’t have to be so. I intend to redirect attention from replica to original, and the archetype of functional ceramics is the appropriate tool for that mode of communication.

But to speak effectively, one can’t play solely to the field for which they call home. My forms belong to 18th century Sevres and are made through an exhaustive, intricate process. This strong connection to the ceramic milieu, however, is esoteric to the culture-at-large. So, for the sake of lucidity, I look to the Couture dress, the bourgeois hat, the pop-culture jacket, the yuppie tie, the snowboarding boot and the tattoo. Each brings new colors, shapes, patterns and lines to form the concoction that is this generation’s distinct language. I drink this language in and appropriate the good stuff.

This blatant use of contemporary vernacular sets the stage. Emilio Pucci and Rachel Berry (among many others) give strong visual advice and I gladly take it—right to the skin of the work. Because everything evolves through a tedious ceramic process, my goal is to maintain the spirit of the appropriation while experimenting with fresh surfaces. The skeleton, on the other hand, is physiologically rooted in 5 distinct ceramic archetypes: the Urn, the Jewelry Box, the Perfume Bottle, the Decanter and the Cup—profound ceramic containers that declared social affluence in their culture and time.