Photograph by Stephen Kobasa
Chris Alexiades, Jar, 2010, Anagama-fired stoneware
Photograph by Stephen Kobasa
Laura Litvinoff, Leaf platter, 2009, Tenmoku glaze
Chris Alexiades
Laura Litvinoff
What if the story of Plato’s cave was revised, and instead of viewing shadows on the wall, the only access to the world was by touching it? If that applies, then the surface of this stoneware jar is as close to the real as one can get. Marked by fire, encrusted, a container for the past, its shape can only be understood by placing a hand on it. Sight tells us too little.
The shaped platter, on the other hand, requires looking. A leaf on the surface of a pond, dampened but afloat, the glaze appears still liquid, pooling into mirrors for the bright world above it.
Both potters agree on the “torturous” center of their art, waiting outside the kiln with the possibility of disaster. But then objects such as these emerge, like Job’s servant, escaped alone to tell us what we would not otherwise know.
For some 12 years, the two have worked together in their shared storefront gallery and studio on Howe Street that has become almost invisible by surviving. It is time to stop and look.
Additional images and contact information for the artists here.