Making Clay Work
DON ABBOTT
In 2021 Auckland Art Fair hosts a new set of Projects, a curated series of artworks by young and emerging practitioners. Australian writer and curator Michael Do has invited three artists to contribute to a programme called Present Tense. His brief is succinct yet full of potential. Do writes, ‘drawing upon the concept of gifting and exchange, this project will commission artists to create endless copies of an object to be given away to audiences at The Cloud’.
In the times of a pandemic and from her waiting room). Do’s brief is a—thankfully safe—subversion of the distancing requirements we experienced during strict lockdown. The act of giving allows for and encourages a level of human interaction that relies on communication, honesty and trust—qualities that confirm our humanity, and which were made difficult during levels 3 and 4. Now, in level 1, such attributes are like muscles, requiring exercise to restore strength and regain currency.
