“What are the historical roots in Western Culture, coimeidant with modernism, that determine the parameters of
pottery a8 an expressive format? What combent can functional, utilitarian pottery embody in this age of media
synthesis, materialism, and scientific proof? Hag pottery followed architecture from an aesthetic of beauty,
through pininalian (or stparatisn), into an age of synthetic beauty (or appropriated style}? Can pottery,
because 1¢ actively operates =o close to the center of intimate human activity, help ue begin to see and feel
what 4a inherently, truly Funan in 1ifel....

“The word "function" has become a catchall, ued mera from habit than understanding or personal interpretation.
Theugh function has come to describe the mechanics of pottery, the context of the word ig larger. It suggests

activity and selationship cutsida itself. When pecole ard chjesie function, thora is an action and response, 4
Talationship..

"Linitation ia net native te pothery, it hae been applied ta it. The paransters defining historical pottery
fre net rigid borders, and thosa that define uae are no less organic. Redefinitien dees net always occur at
the froctder or edge of hair—eplitting definitions. It can happen at the heart of where wa live. In the easy
gesture of placing med apales in a Victeria green bow], both visual and utilitarian function are demonstrated,
Has Qecir Potarson aver complained that ha ia linited by eignty-aight keys on the piano? Pottery 18 no more
Tinited than those eighty-eight keys. Consumariam, technology, and formalism hawe atbenpbed to simulate a
connection to deep human meaning, ewen transcandant human develogment, urging us te ferget real being for the
synthetic subetitrbee ef material, mind, and idealisn, or Libopia.

“The slogans of modarnism had thair origin in Gppcaitien to tha bourgeois values of nineteenth-cantury Europe.
Thay warm used to stir up peopla's smnsibilities, thair sence of order. Unfortunately, these maxita have in
turn become dogna, tha current, sanctioned convention. It is a different order in a different time, enforcing
a system of limitation ad Separation. The perception that utilitarian pottery ia "Timdted" coms from this
mss, cultural] sanctioning, and the develooed view of a tool and treagure value system. Exclustonism is the
furdarertal flaw evident in all of furan histery. It is the peinary principle which leads te the downfall of
al) forms of governments, religiess, and art movements. Degra always creates duality. When one truth (or
espect of truth) is alevated and made "official," anerther will be suppressed,

"Pottery, utility, and function are not single entities, nor have they ower been Just one thing. The
traditions have detailed a spectrum which 15 yet to be exhausted. Hithin cur culture the intimate conastic
asmects of life may have been distinishad but not yet extinguished.

"Bottery has always oocurred because it i¢ necessary and specifically appropriate to (ts tim, culture, ard
technology basa. The ceranic traditions have detailed a range yet to be exhausted. With many of them in
print, thea possibilities for utilitarian pottery are expansive. To the extant that utilitarian pertbery meets
geopla on a deep huewn level, its content and meaning can function as a threshold te fesling parcaption.”

efdapted from Andrew Martin, "“Sealler than an Aten and Larger than the Universes
Role of Functional Pottery”