Ceramic art is a practice that spans centuries, a combination of functionality and stylistic creativity that has been passed down for generations. Whether merely decorative or serving a bigger purpose in the household, ceramics have existed for as long as civilization has in different forms within the community. This long cultural history especially exists for Philippine ceramic art.
The Philippines has its own vibrant traditions, rooted in indigenous culture, though its current form today takes influence from other countries and their practices. Its most distinctive feature is how it continues to evolve to meet the needs of today; even modernity and industrialization has failed to fully snuff out the practice as its practitioners find ways to survive.
“The history of crafts always continually absorbs what’s [the] new available techniques and materials,” Jon Pettyjohn said on the evolution of the craft. “That’s important. If you try to keep anything [the same], anytime you talk about purity, or keeping something, the traditional art, like, pure, that’s a very deadly thing because then it dies. If it cannot evolve, it’s finished.”
Some recent exhibitions centered on Philippine ceramic art challenges what we see as its important aspects. How do we evolve an art form that’s basically centuries old? How much can the form be evolved before it stops being what it once was?
BluPrint looks into how ceramic artists today explore that question, and some of the conclusions that they have found.
Painting and ceramics art have been entrenched together since civilization has existed. It’s the nature of the work: people desire to personalize the objects they see daily. And since both artforms have existed, there have been opinions on painting’s place in ceramics. Potters and ceramic artists like Jon Pettyjohn have specific opinions on the artform: the necessity that it adds something new to the form and not just to be used as a new sort of canvas for painters.
“I mean, the painting on pottery form is an ancient art,” Jon Pettyjohn said. “For thousands of years potters have thought about how to paint on a thing. Like, where do you put it? What is the pattern, the shape of it? What is the focal point? Things like that. In the world of pottery, there’s quite a canon about how that’s done.
“Often painters will approach—I mean a painter will get a plate, and then just do a painting as if it was a canvas. Which is kind of like, when potters see this, it’s like you haven’t said any[thing or] contributed anything except you’ve put your painting on a piece of clay, you know what I mean?”
With that in mind, an interesting recent exhibition related to Philippine ceramic art is Reflections, in situ from Jon and Hanna Pettyjohn. The exhibition in Silverlens Manila finds these potent points that meld the practices of ceramics and painting together to create a uniquely-singular work that even Jon, a master of the form, admitted was something he has not seen before.
The unique aspect of the work is how the glaze just runs over the paintings that Hanna created for the pottery made by her father. It’s an interesting method that partially covers the artwork at times, crafting unpredictable patterns to the end product.
These differentiating patterns create a new characteristic that allow a new inclusion to the long history of ceramic arts and the way it works in the medium. It adds more to the question and tradition of the place of painting in ceramics art as a whole.
In other places of the Philippine ceramic art scene, the artist challenges some of the more basic parts of the artform itself. Grip/Pulse by Sam Feleo functions in an uncommon capacity, the artist finding this sense of alienness through the way it combines an organic feel through a sculptural, inorganic medium.
In something that bucks the conventional wisdom of ceramic art, Feleo’s style does not glaze the pottery. Rather, she fires them through the kiln once to remove the moisture in the work before immersing them in a crystal growing kit. This allows her to really redefine the meaning of “organic,” probing the way we look at life forms and cycles in our own society.
“Weird talaga ang aesthetic ko,” she said. “I mean, never akong gumawa ng pretty pictures. [This works with] the idea of transforming or generating art, that challenges our preconceived notions of art as being a static object.”
It’s also an exhibit that questions the meaning of functionality in ceramic art. Historically, clayworks tend to be lauded for their use in daily life as much as for their creativity. Pots tell stories, and they can be used to store food and other objects.
But in Grip/Pulse, the artworks that Feleo creates can’t really be used in any other way than art. That aspect is interesting, and though it might not be intentional, it presents the idea of art just existing without the need for meaning from humanity.
The organicness of the works serves as a metaphor for the independence of life, its ability to just exist even without humanity’s intervention. We may have created it, but it lives on even without us, adrift in the background, serving as its own justification for being. Humanity creates artworks and inscribes meaning to them, but art can live on beyond that, even stripped of its meaning.
Speaking of functionality, other ceramic art exhibits function as a bridge between the creativity of the artist and the functionality of the works. Nerikomi by Winnie Go is interesting because the products that she created are still very useful in one’s day-to-day life. These are plates, tea cups, coasters, and other objects that tend to blend in our environment.
And yet, she finds a certain zing in their execution that differentiates her current outputs from her past oeuvre. She tried a new style of ceramics technique, nerikomi, and integrated her own interests into the process. It allowed her to experiment with showcasing her other interests, from abstract art to traditional ikat weavings, really blossoming her ideas into the forefront of the ceramics’ design.
“For me, it was a very playful process, which I really love so much,” she said. “And that’s why I love this body of work: in that way, it’s very unpredictable.”
Another recent exhibit of ceramic art, softly, firmly at Galerie Stephanie, also exemplified this process. A group exhibition, it showcased the way functionality and artistry can coexist within the medium. The pliability of the clay allowed the artists to experiment and express themselves while still creating useful products like “ritual paraphernalia, flower vessels, incense cones, and trinket plates.”
“The collection through its functional turn casts a paradoxical appraisal of the nature of clay that is malleable in its possibilities yet rigid in its ability to uphold form and intent,” the exhibit write-up said.
Philippine ceramic art is an ever-fluctuating field. There’s always going to be collisions and confluences between artists and movements as they take their ideas and influences from different places. Tradition battles with ideas considered sacrilegious in the past as they create conversation on where the form can go from here.
In the end, it creates our present state of evolution, reminding artists within the medium and beyond that ideas can never really stay static for long. Unlike ceramics, putting ideas under the fire doesn’t make them rigid and hard; it makes them more malleable as it rushes to meet the present.
Photos by Elle Yap.
Related reading: ‘A Light in Everything’: Finding Harmony in the Seas
Contemporary design refers to the constantly evolving design trends of today. With the power to design our built environments, architects have been experimenting with various architectural approaches. Whether that is through unconventional forms or the integration of smart technologies, BluPrint lists down Filipino architects who are defining contemporary architecture. Deo Alam Architect Deo Alrashid Alam […]
In the Philippines, adaptive reuse gained traction during the 1970s with the rise of conservation and environmental preservation movements. It offered an architectural solution that reuses existing spaces to fit modern needs. Across the country, several projects demonstrate how this approach is being applied—transforming heritage structures into active spaces for culture, hospitality, and community life. […]
From residential spaces to civic structures, lighting dictates the mood of a space. It controls the visual dynamics of an interior, serving as a guiding tool that highlights key design elements, including materials and textures. Related Reading: Lampscaping: How to Light up Your Home like a Pro Regulating the Mood: Natural and Artificial Light in […]
More and more Filipinos are flocking to condominium communities. Often tucked within busy city centers, condo living acts as a small respite from urban chaos. Faced with the challenge of transforming a cramped condominium into a warm living space, BluPrint lists condo interior design ideas that can maximize each square foot of small spaces. Purposeful […]
Modern bathrooms are no longer purely functional spaces. Increasingly, they are being designed as environments that support cleanliness, ease, and quiet restoration within the home. As daily life becomes more demanding and health awareness continues to rise, homeowners are beginning to expect more from the spaces where daily rituals begin and end. For architects and […]
From the moment a diner steps through the door, each detail shapes how a meal is experienced. Restaurant design has evolved, with architects and culinary professionals collaborating to create built spaces that are as intentional as the menu itself. The spatial atmosphere acts as an additional ingredient that can define the culinary experience. Taupe and […]
