Things To Do

In the shape of a cone on the road, orange means 'warning' or caution, but as a fruit or sunset, it stimulates sweet, luscious thoughts. It is Home Depot's way of signifying affordability, and the traditional robe color of Buddhist Monks. The United States are once again in a Code Orange Alert against terrorism, and nowhere on my body can I locate this hue. A lover's favorite fleece was orange; basketballs are orange.

Aprons are usually worn to protect the body or the clothes from various sorts of dirt. Whether for purposes of preservation or hygiene, they often place the wearer in a role, and usually it has to do with labor or service. In the home or the bar, aprons for females sometimes tend towards the decorative-- skimpy or frilly; in the workshop, they are usually straightforward and pocketed for function; in the lab, they are neutralizing from head to foot: often water, germ, or chemical proof.

Hammers and scissors are tools that could be weapons: both utilize a somewhat violent motion to achieve their function, usually, ultimately the construction of something new. Gendered in form and by association, they are elegant everyday objects to which little consideration is usually given.

Forks and corkscrews are closer to neuter utensils which have similar destructive potentials, but rather than work, reference the ambiguity of consumption. The habitual inclination to use combs, razors, toothbrushes and hand mirrors often hovers between hygiene and vanity. Though dealing with detail, the large role these small objects play in a healthy person's life is surprising. In a neurotic or compulsive person's life, it can be alarming.

Whether in the garage,kitchen, office, bathroom, workplace, or bedroom, the pressure to 'multitask' prevails. Desire and duty can be easily confused, thus lists of 'Things To Do' seem to stretch endlessly. Though some can gracefully balance the variety of 'hats' they have to wear, often individuals just render themselves useless, like a ridiculous clay 'Hammercomb'.

This odd hybridization of implements with each other and the body alludes to my belief that self-construction and destruction are codependent and ambiguous. Within the traditional ceramic dialogue of use and production, my interest lies less in how objects function than in how people do, and more specifically, what they do to themselves.

Tenuous threads exist between play and labor, love and anger, sex and violence, humor and desperation. Survival is fragile, and requires care, just like the extremely breakable 'Wishbone' held up by a couple of snaps. Each hand-knit stitch on this ten foot long garment speaks of time, preciousness, craft, and obsession, and its bright confronting posture seeks to embrace viewers, to instigate an intimate engagement with each object it carries. I have attempted to echo the awkward elegance of human growth in a metamorphosis of the familiar, and ultimately, find irony in the notion that having too many 'things to do' is a hopeful, optimistic problem.

Stephanie Lanter, 2003

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