'Setomonogatari'
Ceramic Practice as an Archaeology of the Contemporary Past
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.32417Keywords:
archaeology, art, ceramics, ruins, Seto, JapanAbstract
I will argue that my creative ceramic practice has much in common with archaeological approaches to the contemporary past in that it takes the form of a “creative materialising intervention”, focusing on marginal or otherwise overlooked aspects of person-object interaction. This will be illustrated by reference to recent artworks made in Seto, Japan, a traditional centre of pottery production. By reanimating old moulds and repurposing discarded sherds, my work explores the site’s changing materiality through time and is itself a proactive contribution to the archaeological record, capturing an enduring glimpse of the past and present of this ceramics community.
References
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Kidron, C. A. 2012. “Breaching the Wall of Traumatic Silence: Holocaust Survivor and Descendant Person-Object Relations and the Material Transmission of the Genocidal Past.” Journal of Material Culture 17 (1): 3–21. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359183511432989
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____. 2016. “The Crinson Jug from Clay to the Grave (and Beyond): Exploring the Ceramic Object as a Gathering Point.” In Contemporary Clay and Museum Culture, edited by C. Brown, J. Stair and C. Twomey, 121–131. London and New York: Routledge.
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____. 2013. “Memory.” In The Oxford Handbook of The Archaeology of the Contemporary World, edited by P. Graves-Brown, R. Harrison and A. Piccini, 204–218. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199602001.013.026
Pennell, S. 2010. “‘For a Crack or Flaw Despis’d’: Thinking about Ceramic Durability and the ‘Everyday’ in Late Seventeenth- and Early Eighteenth-Century England.” In Everyday Objects, edited by T. Hamling and C. Richardson, 27–40. Farnham, UK: Ashgate.
Piccini, A. and C. Holtorf. 2009, “Introduction: Fragments from a Conversation about Contemporary Archaeologies.” In Contemporary Archaeologies: Excavating Now, edited by C. Holtorf and A. Piccini, 9–29. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Pollard, J. 2004. “The Art of Decay and the Transformation of Substance.” In Substance, Memory, Display: Archaeology and Art, edited by C. Renfrew, C. Gosden and E. DeMarrais, 47–62. Cambridge: McDonald Institute Monographs.
Shales, E. 2013. “Tools Fit for the External Hard Drive.” In Topographies of the Obsolete: Critical Texts, edited by A. M. Mydland and Brownsword, 20–25. No location: Topographies of the Obsolete Publications.
Ulin, J. 2009, “Into the Space of the Past: A Family Archaeology.” In Contemporary Archaeologies: Excavating Now, edited by C. Holtorf and A. Piccini, 145–159. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Were, G. 2013. “Imaging Digital Lives.” Journal of Material Culture, 18 (3): 213–222. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359183513489927
Wordsworth, W. 2004 [1799]. “The Ruined Cottage.” In W. Wordsworth, Selected Poems, edited by S. Gill, 3–17. London: Penguin.
Barad, K. 2003. “Posthumanist Performativity: Towards an Understanding of How Matter Comes to Matter.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 28 (3): 801–831. https://doi.org/10.1086/345321
Basho. M. 1966 [1689]. Basho: The Narrow Road to the Deep North and other Travel Sketches. Translated by N. Yuasa. London: Penguin Books.
Buchli, V. and G. Lucas. 2001a. “The Absent Present.” In Archaeologies of the Contemporary Past, edited by V. Buchli and G. Lucas, 3–18. London and New York: Routledge.
____. 2001b. “Presencing Absence.” In Archaeologies of the Contemporary Past, edited by V. Buchli and G. Lucas, 171–174. London and New York: Routledge.
Connerton, P. 2009. How Modernity Forgets. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511627187
DeSilvey, C. 2013. “Photo Essay: On Salvage Photography.” In The Oxford Handbook of The Archaeology of the Contemporary World, edited by P. Graves-Brown, R. Harrison and A. Piccini, 642–653. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199602001.013.031
Edensor, T. 2005. Industrial Ruins: Space, Aesthetics and Materiality. Oxford: Berg.
Edwards, E. 2009. “Photographs as Objects of Memory.” In The Object Reader, edited by F. Candlin and R. Guins, 331–342. London and New York: Routledge.
____. 2010. “Photographs and History.” In Museum Materialities: Objects, Engagements, Interpretations, edited by S. Dudley, 21–38. London and New York: Routledge.
Gibbons, J. 2007. Contemporary Art and Memory: Images of Recollection and Remembrance. London: I.B.Tauris.
González-Ruibal, A. 2005. “The Need for a Decaying Past: An Archaeology of Oblivion in Contemporary Galicia (NW Spain).” Home Cultures 2 (2): 129–152. https://doi.org/10.2752/174063105778053355
Hastrup, F. 2010. “Materializations of Disaster: Recovering Lost Plots in a Tsunami-Affected Village in South India.” In An Anthropology of Absence: Materializations of Transcendence and Loss, edited by M. Bille, F. Hastrup and T. F. Soerensen, 99–114. Berlin: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5529-6_6
Holtorf, C. 2005. From Stonehenge to Las Vegas: Archaeology as Popular Culture, Lanham, MD: Altamira.
Ingold, T. 2013. Making: Anthropology, Archaeology, Art and Artchitecture, London and New York: Routledge.
Kidron, C. A. 2012. “Breaching the Wall of Traumatic Silence: Holocaust Survivor and Descendant Person-Object Relations and the Material Transmission of the Genocidal Past.” Journal of Material Culture 17 (1): 3–21. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359183511432989
Lucas, G. 2006. “Historical Archaeology and Time.” In The Cambridge Companion to Historical Archaeology, edited by D. Hicks and M. C. Beaudry, 34–47. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CCO9781139167321.003
____. 2013. “Ruins.” In The Oxford Handbook of The Archaeology of the Contemporary World, edited by P. Graves-Brown, R. Harrison and A. Piccini, 192–203. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
McHugh, C. 2013. “Towards a Sunderland Pottery for the Twenty-First Century: Materializing Multiple Dialogues in Museum Display Through Creative Ceramics.” Journal of Museum Ethnography 26: 71-88.
____. 2016. “The Crinson Jug from Clay to the Grave (and Beyond): Exploring the Ceramic Object as a Gathering Point.” In Contemporary Clay and Museum Culture, edited by C. Brown, J. Stair and C. Twomey, 121–131. London and New York: Routledge.
Moshenska, G. 2016. “Reverse Engineering and the Archaeology of the Modern World.” Forum Kritische Archäologie 5: 16–28. https://doi.org/10.6105/journal.fka.2016.5.2
Olivier, L. 2001. “The Archaeology of the Contemporary Past.” In Archaeologies of the Contemporary Past, edited by V. Buchli and G. Lucas, 175–188. London and New York: Routledge.
Olsen, B. 2010. In Defense of Things: Archaeology and the Ontology of Objects, Lanham, MD: Altamira Press.
____. 2013. “Memory.” In The Oxford Handbook of The Archaeology of the Contemporary World, edited by P. Graves-Brown, R. Harrison and A. Piccini, 204–218. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199602001.013.026
Pennell, S. 2010. “‘For a Crack or Flaw Despis’d’: Thinking about Ceramic Durability and the ‘Everyday’ in Late Seventeenth- and Early Eighteenth-Century England.” In Everyday Objects, edited by T. Hamling and C. Richardson, 27–40. Farnham, UK: Ashgate.
Piccini, A. and C. Holtorf. 2009, “Introduction: Fragments from a Conversation about Contemporary Archaeologies.” In Contemporary Archaeologies: Excavating Now, edited by C. Holtorf and A. Piccini, 9–29. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Pollard, J. 2004. “The Art of Decay and the Transformation of Substance.” In Substance, Memory, Display: Archaeology and Art, edited by C. Renfrew, C. Gosden and E. DeMarrais, 47–62. Cambridge: McDonald Institute Monographs.
Shales, E. 2013. “Tools Fit for the External Hard Drive.” In Topographies of the Obsolete: Critical Texts, edited by A. M. Mydland and Brownsword, 20–25. No location: Topographies of the Obsolete Publications.
Ulin, J. 2009, “Into the Space of the Past: A Family Archaeology.” In Contemporary Archaeologies: Excavating Now, edited by C. Holtorf and A. Piccini, 145–159. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Were, G. 2013. “Imaging Digital Lives.” Journal of Material Culture, 18 (3): 213–222. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359183513489927
Wordsworth, W. 2004 [1799]. “The Ruined Cottage.” In W. Wordsworth, Selected Poems, edited by S. Gill, 3–17. London: Penguin.
Published
2018-02-19
Issue
Section
Creative Archaeologies Forum
How to Cite
McHugh, C. (2018). ’Setomonogatari’: Ceramic Practice as an Archaeology of the Contemporary Past. Journal of Contemporary Archaeology, 4(2), 183-194. https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.32417
