Symposium Schedule

Friday June 9, 6:00 – 8:00 pm
What’s The Function?
Keynote Speaker: Nicole Seisler

Ceramic objects have always been in dialogue with the world around them—the cup in the hand, the pot ensconced by fire, the sherd buried in soil—but now more than ever artists worldwide are deliberately exploring how objects, the materials from which they are made, and the places or conditions from which they emanate can exemplify and animate the interconnectedness of the world with/in which we reside. In this talk, Los Angeles-based artist/educator/curator Nicole Seisler examines these shifts, thereby reframing the meaning of ‘functional’ ceramics in the contemporary field.

Saturday June 10

9:30 – 10:00am
Doors Open, Registration, Continental Breakfast

10:00 am
Welcome Remarks
Sequoia Miller, Nicole Seisler

10:15 am – 11:30 am
Panel: Ecological Bodies
Speakers: KC Adams, Saffronia Downing and Sameer Farooq
Moderator: Nehal El-Hadi
This panel will explore ways that we emerge from, relate to, and return to the earth. The minerals and water that enter our body also form the geology that surrounds us; how do we see ourselves as water and rock, not just connected to the geology of this planet, but actually constitutive of it? How do we leave our collective memory in the land, and how does its memory mark us, through objects and other traces?

11:30 am – 12:45 pm
Panel: Animal Bodies (Part 1): Subsumed
Speakers: Mary Anne Barkhouse, Susan Collett and Jess Riva-Cooper
Moderator: Carmela Laganse
Humans often prefer to believe that they are in control—of themselves, of their circumstances, of their futures. The truth is that much, if not most, lies beyond our control. This panel considers the ways in which all animal bodies are subsumed by time and place, as well as the possibilities that can arise from such inseparability.

12:45 pm – 2:00 pm
Lunch in the Terrace Room

2:00 pm – 2:30 pm
Presenting: The Raphael Yu Collection
Speaker: Julie Hollenbach
This presentation will focus on a group of artworks in the Raphael Yu Collection at the Gardiner Museum to explore how Canadian artists have been engaging questions of human and animal autonomy and interdependence.

2:30 pm – 3:45 pm
Panel: Animal Bodies (Part 2): Constructed
Speakers: David Harper, Janet Macpherson, Nurielle Stern
Moderator: Suzanne Carte
The constructed animal body lies somewhere between the real and the imagined. The artists on this panel approach this liminal space by composing fragments, staging a still life, or entering a dreamscape. Collectively, they question how the animal body exists beyond the physical realm.

3:45  pm– 4:00 pm
Break

4:00 pm – 4:30 pm
Presenting: Future Bodies
Speaker: Stephanie Hanes
Artist Stephanie Hanes delves into the radical place of in-betweens, movement, and how futuristic bodies can open access to unknown aspects of ourselves and the politics of our inter-relation.

4:30 pm – 5:00 pm
Presenting: Limitless Bodies
Speaker: Stacy Jo Scott
If each of us is a universe, our bodies may not stop but rather expand. Could our container be limitless? Do the digital and ethereal point to a new horizon? Join Stacy Jo Scott on the limitless body.

5:00 pm – 5:30 pm
Follow-up conversation with Stephanie Hanes and Stacy Jo Scott

5:30 pm
Closing Remarks
Sequoia Miller and Nicole Seisler

Confirmed Speakers:

David R. Harper, Carmela Laganse, Janet Macpherson, Jess Riva-Cooper, Julie Hollenbach, KC Adams, Mary Anne Barkhouse, Nehal El-Hadi, Nicole Seisler, Nurielle Stern, Saffronia Downing, Sameer Farooq, Stacy Jo Scott, Stephanie Hanes, Susan Collett, and Suzanne Carte.

About the International Ceramic Art Fair

The International Ceramic Art Fair (ICAF) is a 10-day celebration of some of the most compelling recent ceramic art, featuring works by emerging and established artists from a wide range of backgrounds, as well as online and in-person programming by artists and curators.

Many artists are reconsidering how we define ourselves as a species and how these changing definitions can alter our relationships to each other, to other animals and life forms, and to the land we inhabit. The separation of the human and non-human is increasingly understood as porous or insignificant. Clay can be seen as a mediator between the human and non-human, blurring the boundaries with its life-giving properties, its capacity to record and hold human memory, its characteristic of absorption, and its capacity to connect us to the land.

How can we re-orient our relationship to the planet through a more nuanced understanding of our connection to other forms of life? How can emerging discourses of the human shift us toward new and generative understandings of our bodies place in the world?

Join us to view the works at ICAF and participate in the accompanying programs to explore these and other questions.

With thanks to our 2023 Honorary Committee

The Hon. Hilary M. Weston, Chair / James Appleyard / David Binet / James Burn / Yvonne Fleck / Ydessa Hendeles / Victoria Jackman / Nancy Lockhart / Gay Longo / Margaret McCain / David Mirvish / Kent Monkman / Melanie Munk / Mia Nielsen / Lynda Prince / Eleanor Shen