Satan Ceramics

Brain to Hand to Object [Clay]. —JJ PEET, The C̶o̶m̶m̶u̶n̶i̶s̶t̶ Contemporary Ceramics Manifesto

Ir/reverence

Mary Frey, Pat McCarthy, JJ PEET and Tom Sachs meet weekly to make, fire, and glaze. They met in a class at the 92nd Street Y taught by PEET, the group’s “leader” (or “master,” as with traditional Japanese workshops). The four New York-based artists, friends and collaborators included in Satan Ceramics, shape clay with a sense of irreverence, rites and ritual. Like “THE LADIES SEWING CIRCLE AND TERRORIST SOCIETY” – or, craft circles that second as clandestine political meetings – the work of the group taken as an idiosyncratic whole ties extremist functionality with subversive tendencies. Process, politics, labor, the handmade, tradition, humor, gossip, danger, historical nods and punk sensibilities are ultimately tied to the underlying collaborative strategies of integrity of the material and sincerity of the object. As Frey puts it, “Our weekly ritual takes place within the clubhouse where we eat together, share knowledge, discuss, make pots, talk shit and dream.”