Amy Gogarty

×

Expand

Amy Gogarty, “Balancing Act,” 2020

ceramic, metal hardware, cone 6 electric and cone 10 soda, 18” x 7” x 13” (courtesy of the artist)

Ceramic vessels sail in motley convoy at All Consuming, a show by Vancouver artist Amy Gogarty at the Craft Council of British Columbia Gallery. 

Unlike giant cargo ships with their tidy, opaque containers, Gogarty’s ship-like forms, on view until Aug. 4, are jumbled arrays that evoke the afterlife of consumer goods. Crumpled cans have realistic rims and tabs while their surfaces flare with coloured glazes or earthen speckles. Wilted, wheel-thrown tubes seem lumpy, as if one could squeeze out one more dollop. Thin ceramic sheets with pale glazes are rumpled to evoke rags, fast fashion or tattered plastic. 

Gogarty, who taught for years at what’s now the Alberta University of the Arts in Calgary, adds sculpted clay forms such as seed pods, small apples, lifeless twigs and, sometimes, a tendril with a leaf. The latter suggests nature attempting to sprout from the detritus, or invasive species hitching a ride. 

×

Expand

Amy Gogarty, “Trans Mountain,” 2021

ceramic, metal hardware and cone 6 electric, 15” x 9” x 9” (courtesy of the artist)

Marine traffic entails the use and transport of fossil fuels. While some of Gogarty’s vessels sport luscious colours – she works with a range of glazes and repeated firings – one ship, titled Trans Mountain, is a tarry black. Its cargo, too, seems soaked in oil. Despite being small enough to pick up with two hands, it has an outsized foreboding presence.

×

Expand

Amy Gogarty, “All Consuming,” 2022

installation view at the Craft Council of BC (courtesy of the artist)

Dutch Pronkstilleven paintings from the 1600s served as a reference. These cluttered still lifes froth with masses of flowers, slain birds and teetering piles of fruit. Early documents of colonialism and capitalism, they forecast consumerist excess. Yet almost everything in the paintings is biodegradable. Today’s consumer binge leaves an enduring wake of plastic waste and environmental devastation. Gogarty punctuates the entire exhibition with small orbs covered in pock marks or rashes of alarming red dots. Disease, too, has long circulated in the economy.

×

Expand

Amy Gogarty, “Wachet Auf,” 2020

ceramic, metal hardware and cone 6 electric, 26” x 12” x 18” (courtesy of the artist)

Shiny glazed heads peer out from the vessels – an enigmatic but interesting cargo. They face sideways or are reclined, unaware of what’s ahead. Some seem partly submerged, visible only from the nose up, or are planted upside down. They are often part of a precarious balance: tree stump, head, tube, twig. Funnels – used historically in sugar production – cram yet more items into the heads, the way advertising fuels desire. The cargo between our ears may be the most difficult to unload.

×

Expand

Amy Gogarty, “Burrardview,” 2021

ceramic, metal hardware and cone 6 electric, 1” x 8” diameter (courtesy of the artist)

The walls that surround the vessels offer portholes – ceramic vignettes of harbour activities. Painted with detailed views of natural settings – mountains, riversides and optimistically blue water – they also feature industrial components as a reminder of what underpins the North American lifestyle. Bulbous-nosed freighters, cranes and conveyor belts disgorge coal and sulphur, as well as endless containers of consumer goods. These vignettes point to the less visible impact of consumerism on the hinterlands, where raw materials are sourced. Have our values have become as disposable as plastic spoons and frayed T-shirts?

Gogarty studied painting at the Alberta University of the Arts and received an MFA from the University of Calgary. She exhibited as a painter for many years on themes of gender, science and ecology. Her interest in ceramics grew as she taught art history, including the history of ceramics. She began to incorporate ceramics into her painting exhibitions, likening throwing and then distorting clay to “intuitive and flexible” drawing. 

In this show, Gogarty’s disciplines merge into an installation of strange and evocative imagery. The COVID-19 pandemic has allowed her time to reflect on consumer supply chains and the proliferation of online retail. She believes awareness of the environmental costs of unbridled consumerism is growing. The delicate tendrils that sprout from her vessels may, in fact, be signs of hope. ■

Amy Gogary, All Consuming, at the Craft Council of British Columbia Gallery in Vancouver from June 16 to Aug. 4, 2022.

PS: Worried you missed something? See previous Galleries West stories here or sign up for our free biweekly newsletter.