Subject to Change without Notice - 2004

RAY MEEKER Subject to Change without Notice

and the Visual Arts Gallery present NATURE MORTE

Subject to Change without Notice

by RAY MEEKER

September 16 through 24, 2004

Catalogued with additional work from “Kurukshetra” Nature Morte, April 2001

RAY MEEKER, USC CERAMICS DEPARTMENT, 1969.

MONUMENTAL CHALLENGE

Ray Meeker's recent exhibition at the India Habitat Center, New Delhi, marks a turning point in his illustrious career moving from architecture to pottery to building kilns to firing houses to serious ceramic sculpture and large scale installation. Ray and his wife Deborah Smith are well-known in South Asia for their Golden Bridge Pottery in Pondicherry, famous for bringing beautiful stoneware and porcelain table accessories to India 35 years ago, and for training others in their way and work. Ray and Deborah have brought a singular new awareness to the understanding and acceptance of varied levels of contemporary style in Indian ceramic art. With their continuous research and development, both technically and artistically over so many years, they have spearheaded the culmination of ceramic artworks bymany others, and the growth of ceramic art in the Indian gallery scene. Interestingly, in this exhibition Ray has been accorded new stature in the aesthetic community. His traditional forms and elegant glazes are transposed into amazing sculptures of huge proportions and exciting textures, richly accented . Bearing some semblance in magnitude and in spirit to his well-known experiments in fired mud architecture, these new handbuilt hollow craggy forms, are imposing in the gallery setting, to say the least. Great strength and perseverance are essential to accomplish the technical feats needed to fabricate massive scale in clay. Ray has mastered and overcome these difficulties with such skill that only the art is visible, not the effort. Now Ray finalizes a long search for a definitive statement in clay, returning to themes that first appeared in his work over thirty years ago as an undergraduate in the ceramics department at the University of Southern California. In 2001, his explorations of monumental scale and environmental issues resurfaced in Kurukshetra , his first exhibition with Peter Nagy and the Nature Morte gallery in New Delhi. In Subject to Change without Notice we see this statement fully mature and yet know that without a doubt this show will form the basis for new beginnings, for the development of another layer piled upon the current structure, and that we will not be aware of the total struggle, only of the diversified understandings of form and clay quality that Ray's work brings to all who can make the connection. We hope for a continued growth pattern evidenced by new thoughts, for more boundless energy, and we look forward to Ray’s next visual explorations. Hats off to you, Ray! October, 2004 Susan Peterson Susan Peterson’s career spans more than fifty years. She established ceramic art departments at five universities throughout the USA, and is author of numerous books ranging from her compendium of material and process, The Art and Craft of Clay , to her works on Shoji Hamada, Maria Martinez, Lucy Lewis and Jun Kaneko. With limitless energy and a vision that is almost uniquely inclusive in today’s world of ceramics, she is recognized internationally as a leading force in the development of the ceramic art of the 20th century. with the patina of high temperature wood fire ,

Subject toChange, without Notice Chitra Padmanabhan

In 1957, Albert Camus spoke on art and society at Uppsala University in Sweden. If an artist desires to communicate “... about all and to all, one has to speak of what we all know and of the reality common to us all. The sea, rains, necessity, desire, the struggle against death... Dreams change from individual to individual, but the reality of the world is common to us all.” Today more than ever before, artists need to express this reality and break the spell of distraction perfected by mass cultures. Their arsenal is formidable: fast-changing screen images as the real thing; the deification of eternal youth; the promise of unending consumption; the market replacing the community with the consumer. The essence of this world is to produce more of the same–a replication of images and symbols ostensibly to facilitate individual ‘choice’ and ‘freedom’. The violence of appropriation that underpins the iniquitous relations between powerful and disadvantaged states or within societies is papered over with homogenized perceptions of development and art as never-ending consumption and entertainment. Even nature seems a human creation, eternal and unchanging, thus the notion of paying the price for spoiling this residence on Earth is unthinkable. Witness the strong tendency in art to idealize nature even as the reality of ecological imbalance as a concomitant of uncontrolled development has dawned upon the world. The terrorism of toxic waste, oil spills in seas, air pollution, global warming, and radiation effects produced in the pursuit of unsustainable lifestyles has created faultlines of unimaginable destruction on Earth. Among the few artists who have succeeded in transforming conventional mediums to express this disquieting reality is German graphic artist Klaus Staeck, whose mass posters question unbridled development with devastating satire. The poster of the ugly duckling, victim of an oil spill, says it all: no fairy tale transformation for it, only a promise of death. Nearer home, artists like Vivan Sundaram have powerfully articulated existing ecological-economic patterns that go back to colonialism (Riverscapes, 1992-93). A recent ceramic

show in New Delhi by Pondicherry-based artist, architect and teacher Ray Meeker ended the drought of sharp political articulation of ecological issues. Organised by Nature Morte and the Visual Arts Gallery, Subject to Change without Notice visualized the environmental imbalance on the planet in a worst-case scenario installation of arresting proportions, urging a harmonized relation between development and the ecosystem. In effect, a call to replace wasteful consumption with a sustainable use of resources. In the center of the large hall, surrounded by raked gravel, a sculptural installation of surreal rock-like formations patterned with tire marks, nuts and bolts––the essence of industrial societies. A denuded landscape like a metal junkyard: the future of the Earth? A disturbingly beautiful presence. Atantalizing title: Kyoto Protocol. The schema of the Zen dry rock gardens of Kyoto, reflecting a codependence of man and nature, turned into an expression of violent imbalance. Awarning to nations to heed the United Nations framework resolution on climate change, the Kyoto Protocol––especially to the US, that with the largest ecological footprint in the world has rejected the protocol. Who pays whose environmental costs, wonders the viewer. The claustrophobia of Kyoto Protocol’s bareness: an echo of radioactive wastelands, Three Mile Island, Pokharan, Chernobyl. The defoliating power of Agent Orange. Behind Kyoto Protocol flew an aviary of 78 drones, a masterly reference to the predatory reach of remote controlled surveillance aircraft. The drones seemed out of control; or maybe the only survivors of the industrial world. On the surrounding walls were large platters reminiscent of satellite images of Earth and luminous pear vases recalling nature’s abundance. Cruciform fish totem vases spoke of nature crucified. The possibility of resurrection, indicated by the fish girl, was overshadowed by busts of George Bush flanked by Yasser Arafat and Ariel Sharon as the three monkeys: a telling satire on superpower realpolitik as a major polluter. Perspective on this conflict was restored in a towering clay sculpture outside the gallery at Delhi’s India Habitat Centre, now its permanent abode. Hegemony is inspired by the megalithic stone circles of Avebury in the UK. “It is a monument to an age, at a time when the opportunity to adapt––to modify the demands on our finite world––may unwittingly slip beyond our control, spurring the resurgent forces of a ruthless natural economy,” says Meeker. His simple theme of balanced development of Earth’s ecosystem––the room we all live in––is revolutionary. This ruthless natural economy can only be countered by a ruthless political economy of sustainable development, equity and co-existence. In the shattering silence of memories of a flawed development lies a reflection for humanity to correct the balance sheet. What better way to illustrate this than to design a newway of seeing with clay or earth? What better way for an artist to side-step distraction and propaganda than to create art proudly rooted in social realities? First published in Tehelka, October 9, 2004. Now an associate editor at Tehelka , Chitra Padmanabhan has worked as a journalist for 19 years, writing on art and the politics of culture.

Page 8: KYOTO PROTOCOL: detail.

Right Wall, AVIARY, 2003, 25’ w

Right Floor: KYOTO PROTOCOL 2004, 53’ x 14’ - 4”

HEGEMONY, 2004 112”h, 116”w, 30”d

HEGEMONY Hegemony is inspired by the megalithic stone circles of prehistoric Avebury in the U.K. Avebury dwarfs the more familiar Stonehenge and is perhaps the most impressive prehistoric stone circle anywhere in the world. The building of Avebury in 2600 B.C. was a Herculean task. Hauling six meter high 50 ton stones for a mile or more and then levering them into the vertical involved respectable engineering skills. Avebury was architecture, unifying and coherent, establishing a domain for man, creating a space of order and permanence in a life threatened constantly by the domination of the appalling forces and chaos of nature. Today those same skills, never more formidable, may well be pushing the natural balance beyond its capacity to sustain life as we know it. In Hegemony we see the mark of this astonishing ingenuity on a massive, fractured, stone-like form. An ingenuity that has come to dominate what the poet Wallace Stevens has described as our “Earth of physical hugeness and rough enormity, ... a disparate monstrosity, full of solitudes and barrens and wilds... that dwarfs and terrifies and crushes.” Hegemony is a monument. To the power of man to direct and manipulate? Or to traces of that manipulation, the fossil remains of a past dominion? It is a monument to an age, at a time when the opportunity to adapt–––to modify the demands on our finite world–––may unwittingly slip beyond our control, spurring the resurgent forces of a ruthless natural economy. In the most positive sense it is an appeal for balance, a pause to acknowledge that the Earth of Wallace Stevens is very much present today and can be every bit as threatening as it was 5000 years ago. Our capacity to invent is virtually without limit, but are there the will and the imagination to strike the necessary balance?

Ray Meeker Pondicherry August, 2004

HEGEMONY: detail

PLATTER, 2002, 23” dia.

PLATTER, 2004, 23” dia..

PLATE, 2004, 24” w

BASKET VASE 2003, 24” h

PEAR VASE 2004, 22.5” h

WINGED TORSO 2003, 22” w

CRUCIFIX VASE, 20” h 2001,

RESURRECTION, 2004, 22” h

“OH LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM”, 2003, 30” L

KURUKSHETRA, 2000, 57” L, 50” w, 32”h

PRAYER BOWL, 2000, 32” L

MADONNA, 2000, 7”h

ICARUS, 2000, 30” h

CATERPILLAR, 2000, 5 ½” h

Ray Meeker

Born July 4, 1944, NewYork City, U.S.A. 1962-65 Pepperdine College. Studied art on an athletic scholarship for basketball. 1965-70 University of Southern California. Four years ofArchitecture School. BFA in ceramics. 1971 Came to India. Founded Golden Bridge Pottery in Pondicherry with wife Deborah Smith, producing a varied line of wheel- thrown stoneware pottery. Runs training program for students fromall parts of India. SelectedArchitecture/Construction 1997-99 Fire-stabilized shrine for Nrityagramdance community, Bangalore. 1995 Six low cost fire-stabilizedmud houses for the Volontariat, Pondicherry. 1994 Began 50 fire-stabilizedmud houses for SalemDRDA, Tamil Nadu. Only six houses were fired and one finished. 1993 Design forAuberge Hotels, Pondicherry. 1992 Staff housing/office/lab/security for MinotaAquatech Ltd., a subsidiary of The Indian Tobacco Corporation, Tuticorin. Fire-stabilized construction. 1990 Satyajit/Chintan house, fire-stabilizedmud inAuroville. 1991 Demonstrated fire-stabilized construction for low cost housing atAuroville Information and Reception Center. 1988 Built Agni Jata. First fire-stabilized mud house in India for a very courageous client inAuroville. Produced a 30 minute video on the process. 1985-87 First experiments in fire-stabilizedmud building. Exhibitions/Awards 2004 Subject to Change without Notice . Installation at India Habitat Center with Peter Nagy, NatureMorte, NewDelhi. 2001 Kurukshetra . Exhibition of sculpture and pottery with Peter Nagy, Nature Morte Gallery, New Delhi. 2000 Perennial Earth, Quickening Fire. Exhibition of stoneware at Cymroza Art Gallery, Mumbai. 1999 The video Agni Jata wins Bronze medal at the Ceramics Millennium, Amsterdam. 1998 Fourteen Potters. Studio potters exhibtion, Cymroza Gallery, Mumbai. 1996 First one-person show of ceramics, Eicher Gallery, New Delhi. 1985 Exhibition of salt-glazed ceramics with Dutch artist Johnny Rolf at the Adyar Gate Hotel, Chennai. 1980-83 All India Studio Potters Exhibition, New Delhi.

Lectures/Workshops/Consultancy 2003 NCECA. Presentation on Indian ceramics with Deborah Smith and Jane Perryman.

1996 Lecture, Developing a Fired -building Technology , for “Enduring Image. Treasures from the British Museum,” NGMA, Mumbai. 1991 Conducted one-month workshop for village potters from the Pudukkottai/Tanjavur area of Tamil Nadu for theMadras Craft Foundation. 1990 Lecture on fire-stabilized construction at MarylandArt Institute, Hunter College, TheAgaKhanFoudation, M.I.T., SouthernCalifornia Institute of Architecture, Hartnell College,MontereyPeninsulaCollege, HUDCO, NewDelhi. 1989 Six weeks as design consultant to GTZ's Ceramic Promotion Project, Nepal. 1986 Lecture on fired building process at the International Conference on Mud Architecture, (MUD MUD), Trivandrum. One month as design consultant to GTZ's Ceramic Promotion Project, Nepal.

Selected Bibliography

Nath, Deeksha, “Earth Bound,” Art India, v ol. ix, issue iv, quarter iv, 2004. Danisch, Jim, “Ray Meeker’s Fired Houses,” Ceramics Monthly, January, 2001. Desai, Prajna, “Firing the Imagination,” The Art News Magazine of India, Vol. lll, Issue lll, July '98. Perryman, Jane, “Houses on Fire,” Ceramic Review, November, December, 1996. Grewal, Royina, “The Potter Architect,” Inside/Outside, October, 1993. Manivanan, T., “The Baked Houses of Pondicherry,” Indian Express, November 3, 1991. Kundoo, Anupama, “Agni Jata,” Indian Architect and Builder, November, 1990. “Attitude, Imagination and Innovation,” The Last Word , supplement to Indian Architect and Builder , 17th Anniversary Edition, November, 2003. “Save the rural potter... and all that,” The Econonic Times, May 3, 1992. “Mud. Towards a Fire-stabilized Mud Building Technology,” Architecture+Design, April, 1991. “Kiln Technology. A Demonstration and a Challenge,” Indian Architect and Builder, November, 1990. Selected Published

NATURE MORTE A-1 Neeti Bagh New Delhi 110049 naturemorte@hotmail.com

Visual Arts Gallery India Habitat Center Lodi Road New Delhi 110003

PHOTO CREDITS John Mandeen: cover, 12 Ireno Guerci: 16 Joginder Singh : 4, 8 Shailan Parker: 17, 18, 19, 20, 23, 24, back cover

Sukhdev Ray Meeker: 9, 13, 14 Hari Laxman: 22, 25, 26, 27 Rathod: 29

Graphic Design: Prisma, Auroville

MAQUETTE, 2004, 8” h