Ceramicist Jonathan Ginnaty’s “American Dream in Terra Cotta” follows a long line of installations that use non-conventional materials to construct everyday scenes. Still, using breakable, clunky terra cotta to fashion a complete contemporary office provides a stark reminder of the clunky office equipment once regarded as high tech. (I finally discarded my bulky, 30-pound 1940’s Underwood typewriter a few years ago.) This stone-age version of the contemporary office includes computers, monitors, keyboards, printers, fax machines, copier, microwave oven, portable refrigerator, chair, sink and bar of soap, all assiduously crafted from breakable terracotta. Try moving a heavy chair or lifting a keyboard, as viewers are invited to do, and you might reflect on how much our world has changed to portable, light in weight, indestructible, pre-fabricated equipment. The show is an eye-appealing, mostly orange-colored interplay of the present and the past – with a wink to the world of the Flintstones.
Published courtesy of ArtScene ©2010
