Botanica - An Introduction

Although it may not appear common amidst the early chronological development of ceramics evident in archaeological records, the prominence of the vase today argues for it’s status as the archetypal ceramic form. The vase is both utilitarian and an expression of the vessel, however it’s impact goes beyond both of these to carry symbolic properties. In its shape, the vase reflects many of the characteristics of other functional ceramic forms. It is a freestanding shell, an amphora, a bottle, or the foundation of a jug. It is decorative, useful and sculptural. The vase is very often the ‘form of choice’ for ceramic artists, an icon of the medium akin to the framed two dimensional space in painting. It provides a three dimensional field for interrogation of ideas.

                                         

In this work of Peter Voulkos, the orthodox representation of the classic vase shape is upturned. Rather than the smooth, sinuous lines of a Chinese Sung dynasty porcelain vase, the rugged stoneware form is both physically and metaphorically ‘thrown’ on the pottery wheel, fractured and then reassembled. It’s vigorously handled surface is scarred and seemingly accidental in contrast to a more restrained, refined glazed surface, yet it exudes confidence. Whilst using similar techniques to the Sung potters, Volkous imbues the vase with completely different aesthetic properties, an energy and vision characteristic of the 20th Abstract Expressionist movement that launched his work to International prominence in 1960’s. 

Under the above conditions, the role of the flower, and the arrangement of botanical material is suppressed, but this has not always the case. In the work of Andrea Branzi, the celebrated Italian, ex Memphis designer, the flower becomes freed as abstract element in the composition of the designed object that represents the vase as an ‘idea’. In his ‘superego’ series, Branzi uses the ‘picture frame’ literally, as if to ‘script’ this notion of representation, often using the minimal placement of botanical material in a spatially asymmetry that recalls Japanese ‘Ikebana’ floral arrangements, or creating the a ceramic vessel component that mimics botanical material.

These examples reflect on how the expression and meaning of the vase can be conveyed,  not only through its form, but by the role of the material it contains,  it’s shape and configuration; by its relationship to the three dimensional space in which it is sited, the context of it’s location, and by it’s own surface.

Left: Tzu Chou Vase, Sung Dynasty. Right:  Chun glazed vase Sung Dynasty                                          

An example of the vase’s rise to prominence can be found in Yuan’s “A History of the Vase”, an important 17th century early example of the burgeoning late Ming literature of connoisseurship. This work discusses the vase, associated floral arrangements and their traditions, the relationships of vase to it’s surroundings and it’s social context. This rich arrangement develops develop strong symbolic representations of the vase that have endured, influentially, in both China and Japan, and appears one of the prime inspirations of Ikebana. At the time Yuan’s work was published, the Ming Dynasty is described as a world within which everything, including knowledge, had become commodified, where taste was marshalled as   

 “an essential legitimator of consumption” 1

Although this may sound distant from today’s China, it reflects much of the condition of current western capitalist culture in which the role of designed objects, particularly the vase, can be similarly contextualised.

1. ¹ Craig Clunas Superfluous Things: Material Culture and Social Status in Early Modern China (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991).