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NWCF Lecture: Julie YOrk 540 cosan

The North-West Ceramics Foundation is pleased to announce
Julie York as the featured speaker at a free public lecture Wednesday,
October 13 at 7 p.m. Please note: this is a change in date from what
was announced previously in the July/August newsletter. The lecture
will be held in the IDS room in the North Building of Emily Carr
University of Art + Design (1399 Johnston Street, Granville Island,
Vancouver).

Julie York is an Assistant Professor of Visual Arts and Material
Practice at Emily Carr University. She thinks of herself primarily as a
sculptor who works with clay and other materials. Using an essentially
industrial process, slip-casting, she often submerges her forms in baths
of water or mineral oil, or she encases them in boxes reminiscent of
commercial display. Early in her career, she cast forms such as dolls,
mannequins and other objects associated with feminine culture. Her
more recent work utilizes a formal vocabulary based on anonymous,
abstract or industrial objects. Her family was in business manufacturing
health and beauty products, an industry in which artfully designed
packaging and effective display are paramount. York recalls working
on an assembly line in the family establishment. Responding to the
repetition, organized chaos and what she calls the “amalgamated piles”
of objects found in manufacturing, she developed fabricating skills
with rubber, plastic, glass and metal, which she combines with the
cast clay.

York’s interest in industrial materials often takes her to scrap yards in
search of interesting new forms. She is particularly alert to the impact
humans make on the natural world. Travelling in China, she researched

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Reflectionnoitcelfer, 2010, wood, metal, clay, mix media, H15cm x
W50cm x L20cm.

contemporary ceramic manufacturing sites such as Fuping rather than
historical centres of handmade ceramics such as Jingdezhen. Her focus
on industrial forms and use of slip-casting ensure a strong resonance
between the conceptual core of her work and the materials and
processes with which she manifests her ideas.

Working originally in white earthenware, she shifted recently to
porcelain, which she sands and polishes at the bisque stage prior to
its final fire. In this way, she produces satiny surfaces that appear

Continued on Page 10, Industrial materials

Potters Guild of BC Newsletter - September 2010 9