The nature of aesthetics in the ceramic field has changed. Diversity and pluralism have become the norm. It is as if the river that was formerly a fairly confined craft based field of ceramics has fanned out as it meets the sea of the art world and formed a series of unnavigable tributaries in a delta of confusion.

Challenging assumptions about what was once considered “good” in the field of ceramics, some “ugly”or deliberately naively crafted ceramics are a trend in craft based contemporary art and  parallel developments in the fine arts.

 The terms ‘maximalist’ or ‘maximalism’ and 'sloppy craft' have been used in order to describe the style of work that rejects refined craft skills and the pared down quest for simplicity and naturalism evident in the minimalist modernist aesthetic. Whilst ceramics has experienced excursions into abstract expressionism and  humourous and ironic Pop sensibilities with such movements as Vouko’s expressionism and West Coast Funk,  recent  work in ceramics is often characterized by unsettling subject matter, warped forms and figures and clashing, unnatural colors that seem to signify a sense of disquiet, disturbance and anxiety combined with a deliberate lack of refinement and skill.

Such works are more concerned with aesthetic provocation, a rejection of skill and a response to ugliness rather than beauty, if this polemic can ever be determined. They explore societies’ complex relationship with beauty, taste and refinement and perceived illusions of purity and status associated with a conservative privileged, and by implication, classical ideal of what is attractive. 

It is as if the aesthetics of taste has become inverted and elegance has become something to be sneered at.

Ayanna Dozier in Artsy recently quoted curator Dean Kissick in a recent article about contemporary painting, but nevertheless relevant to contemporary ceramic practice ”There is something comforting, therefore, about an ugly work—it can speak more honestly about how we’re feeling and the time period we’re living in. It’s a weird time. We’re surrounded by ugly and tasteless aesthetics.” If an artist’s work is a reflection of their experiences in the world, inevitably, the work’s aesthetics will match that reality. Simply put, we live in ugly times. Ugly works can offer us a way to confront this ugliness and find beauty in it.” 

Are 'beauty' and  'ugly'  terms that actually have meaning in terms of contemporary craft?

Or is the term 'sloppy craft' more apt?

Is 'sloppy craft' something to consider as a vehicle to express societal activism, indigeneity, gender disparity and the reversal of traditional roles associated with craft?

Is parody and self-conscious naivety more relevant in today's world than caring about refinement, finish, elegance, gracefulness, stylishness and 'good taste'? 

What are some of the ramifications of this shift?

What is the future for the field of ceramics?

The major difference is perhaps the quiet appreciation of the Unknown Craftsman of the latter- rather than the valorization of the maker (and their name). Both shared a ‘truth to materials’ approach, and ‘nature’ was seen as integral, even if the Mingei aesthetic leaned to the abstract and philosophical, and the Arts & Crafts Movement towards a stylised - but representational- approach.

In contrast to this somewhat evolutionary development, the more recent break between the Mingei aesthetic (particularly in ceramics) and what has been called ‘Sloppy Craft’ is stark and deep.

In Sloppy Craft- Post-Disciplinarity & the Crafts^[1], the editors canvas contemporary craft’s rejection of apparent ‘unconscious skill’ in favour of intentional breaking of the rules of craft practice formally on display. Although ‘Sloppy Craft’ has been identified particularly in the textile arts, it is well worth using the idea as a lens through which a meaningful examination of contemporary ceramic practice may be viewed. 

So just how do we identify ‘sloppy craft’? What are its characteristics?

^[1] Sloppy Craft- Post-Disciplinarity & the Crafts’, a collection of essays edited by Elaine Cheasley Patterson and Susan Surette, (Bloomsbury, 2015)

In memory of a plane crash and the objects or material goods that have washed up on the shores from people who died in the crash.