Fields + Frames

Photos: Caitlin Custer

Van Dyck Murphy shared that she was interested in challenging the students to think about how they might work at multiple scales. “I asked the students to explore the relationship between the field of ceramic components and the structuring frame for the artwork while focusing on notions of authorship, precision/imprecision, loose fit, scale, and tolerance,” Van Dyck Murphy said. “The students undertook a series of assignments where they moved back and forth between the design of the frame and the ceramic field to encourage them to design with both in mind rather than privileging one over the other.”

Ceramic 3D printing has been a research area for Van Dyck Murphy for several years. She previously led an installation of a 10-by-10-foot ceramic work on site at the Wainwright Building in downtown St. Louis. She was drawn to the medium’s ability to produce “a soft, visceral material that slumps and oozes,” when used as a 3D printing material. “I’m trying to embrace that more in my creative process and allow for room for imprecision and the idiosyncrasies that occur in the ceramic 3D printer’s formal language.” Another benefit of clay is its ability to be immediately reused if an error occurs during printing.

Students in the course also learned to work with a community partner through meetings with Cortex. They participated in site visits and selection, drawing ideas from the natural and historical setting as they developed forms, colors, and textures. They also practiced an important skill for any design professional: incorporating feedback from the client into their final production. Cortex also benefitted from the course, as the structures offered a chance to test how further intervention or permanent public art would function at the site. The works were installed late in the semester on South Boyle Avenue, near BJC at the Commons, and expected to remain on view until September 2024.