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Melding Cultures,
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surface the column so the figure read as one.”
As for the melding of cultures in her ‘muse’
creations, Birstein saw the muses as “open-
handed, ready to receive and offer, to come
alive and be impassioned in the most positive
sense”. She notes: “This would be my dream
for our world.”

The individual works in the column-based
series integrate into a harmonious whole, yet
each is laden with layers of intricate details
and imagery. Handbuilt with slabs of clay,
the sculptures glow with Birstein’s melting-
pot of brilliant colours and metallic tones.
The clay is disguised under richly-coloured
glazes, underglazes, gold and mother of
pearl lustres, rust and turquoise/aged copper
patinas, while the ‘Greek’ columns, painted
in complementary and contrasting hues,
have become African drums, vessels or ‘legs’.
Motifs from the nine columns, whether
roses, classical Greek women draped in togas,
African drums or crouching elephants, are
echoed in the colours and themes of the
ceramic sculpture above.

To examine some of the nine sculptures in
detail: African Queen, perched atop a painted
column with two turquoise crinolines that
seem to put the figure in whirling motion,
reveals on both sides a mask-style face
crowned with bronzed horns evocative of the
chiwara or African antelope. On one side,
the dominant face is a primitive African-
style mask, with rich scarlet lips, blue cheeks
and a purple headdress on either side of the
horns. The torso below that imposing head
is bedecked with a dramatic feminine face,
evocative perhaps of a Frida Kahlo image but
more deliberately intended to refer to the

The above photo shows the design. These
items are typically about 18 inches tall and
hold one cubic foot (26 litres) of wine.

African Queen, from Dance of the crinolin‘d
Muses, by Suzy Birstein.

masks worn in the traditional African Gelede
masquerade performance of the Yoruba,
which pays tribute to the power of women as
mothers, elders and ancestors,

‘The first of Birstein’s sculptures in the Muse
series is titled Who are you really and what were
you before? a quote from the film Casablanca.
Fittingly, this sculpture is based on Ganesha,
the Indian elephant-shaped god who confers
good luck on new ventures and can be the
remover of all obstacles. Birstein’s tall ceramic
Ganesha is a noble figure, carefully posed on
his column with quizzical downcast eyes and
a lustrous white trunk.

Perhaps the most “classically” Greek of the
Muse series is Moon lights up the night... a
sculpture built atop, and inspired by, the
four women in the Minoan Crete style that

form the column base, dressed in classical

WANTED! Amphoras

The Surrey Museum is producing an
exhibit about B.C. Wineries. For the
historical portion of the exhibit we would
like a replica of an ancient amphora. We
cannot afford an actual artefact but would
commission one. Unfortunately we can
only afford about $200.

The exhibit opens Labour Day weekend.
If you can help with this request, please
contact:

Greg Yellenik, Exhibit Preparator

Surrey Museum 604-592-6959

17710 56A Ave

Surrey, BC V3S 5H8

draped togas, bedecked by roses that evoke
the lushness of the Mediterranean. Again,
the hues of the column carry through to the
sculpture atop, which has not only front-and-
back images but also a startling gold African
Cote dIvoire style Goro mask on the shoulder
of a white-faced Caryatid-style figure. She has
glamorous Cleopatra-style eyes painted over
the white-glazed clay face, with ruby lips and
rosy-purple cheeks. White columns on her
torso, just below her gleaming gold breasts,
reference the Parthenon and on her head is a
purple vessel.

This dizzying synthesis of eras, cultures
and mythologies is all entirely intended and
indeed, celebrated by Birstein. Her visual
eye finds echoing references in images from
all eras and all cultures. She works with
the metaphors that have moved artists for
centuries, researching their meanings deeply
but also instinctively embracing the figure,
the colour, the line and the presentation of its
surface image that attracts her eye and makes
her yearn to recreate the juxtaposed icons and
images from a host of cultures and eras.

Birstein intends her ceramic sculpture to
combine disparate influences in a harmonious
way, and firmly believes the world would be
a better place if we all admired and wanted
to experience other cultures. Her drive is to
create startlingly beautiful sculpture, with all
the mythological and iconic influences that she
has gleaned in her own experience and from
her ongoing passionate self-directed study of
world art history. Yet the process of creation
for her is not one with a predetermined goal.
“I dont start out thinking what to create; as
I work I'm constantly discovering what is
coming out of the clay, with my hands, it’s like
being in an altered state,” notes Birstein. “I
feel a strong connection through the creative
process to the art of other times and places; I
feel connected to all those other artists from
times past.” For Suzy Birstein, the return to
her spiritual origins as an artist in the idyllic
Greek islands will continue to inspire new
work while allowing her to share the gift of
complex and varied techniques with other
artists, in the land that likely first gave birth
to the sculptural arts.

Suzanne Fournier is 2 Vancouver-based journ-
alist and author who is also a student of ceramics.
Suzy Birsteins work is represented by Jonathon
Bancrofi-Snell Gallery in London, ON. Suzy is
again offering a two-week workshop on the
Greek island of Skopelos Sept. 10-25. For
details see: www.suzybirstein.com

Photos of sculpture by Kenji Neai.

Potters Guild of BC Newsletter « July/August 2040

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