opening reception of RADICAL FUNCTIONS: Queer Functional Ceramics

Please join artists Nicki Green and Caitlin Rose Sweet for the opening of their pop-up show, Radical Functions: Queer Functional Ceramics, on display in the Dirt Palace Storefront Window Gallery. From the artists: Queerness is a rich arena to discuss ceramic process, culture and theoretical analysis, and this show, a collaboration between two queer-identified ceramic art makers, initiates these conversations to be had. These two artists approach functionality in relevant, but dissimilar ways, and their practices, as the two have agreed, “have been quoting each other for years.” Sweet’s use of obscure and abstract objects as creative envisioning works perpendicularly to Green’s focus on the immediacy and recognizability of reinterpreted everyday forms. Both work with conceptual tropes steeped in queer community dynamics- Sweet's focus on lesbian identity and historical lesbian craft practices and Green's imagery of urgent transgender community archiving and revolutionary organizing. It is clear that both artists have a deep commitment to craft and practices steeped in interdisciplinarity and discursivity, and the combination of the two work to reinterpret and recall the past, and also envision a future designed for the queer body explicitly. Together, these two use functionality as a lens with which to explore their very different, but inherently connected queer bodies in the world, and begin to unpack the complexities of very queer lives lived steeped in history and impelling revolutionary potential. Radical Functions will be on view from Thurs 3/26 through Saturday 3/28. Come see this little queer pop up show while the artists are in town!