Brion Hardink

2014 Syracuse China Proposal

"Syracuse China Corporation, located in Syracuse, New York, was a manufacturer of fine china. Founded in 1871 as Onondaga Pottery Company (O.P. Co.) in the town of Geddes, New York, the company initially produced earthenware. In the late 19th century, O.P.Co., began producing fine china, for which it found a strong market particularly in hotels, restaurants, and railroad dining cars. The manufacturing facility in Syracuse closed in 2009, after 138 years in operation and production was removed from North America."

below: Syracuse China, Syracuse NY, 09.2014

Located outside of the former Syracuse China factory walls are literally millions of abandoned bisqued wares and industrial packaging resources. Left exposed to the elements, the area where these materials are quarantined is in direct opposition of 2 heavy earth moving vehicles. Leveling of the ground has commenced and the machines appear to threaten the long-term existence of these remaining treasures which now serve as a stark reminder of a prosperous bygone age. The deep impressions from the heavy treads of the parked nearby earth moving vehicles in the cracked and weathered surrounding land is littered with innumerable broken pottery fragments. Metals, wood, and other industrial materials which have now been deemed useless, are piled together in a heap nearby. While not dismissing their present condition or state, it is my intention to once again marry these materials in a fitting manner that will best celebrate the history of Syracuse China and the city of Syracuse.

Preliminary Technical Notes on discarded/abandoned materials per former Syracuse China engineer:

The bisc was fired to 2300F, with cone 12 just starting to move.

The glost fire would reach 2195F, with cone 6 just starting to move.

The glaze was a high solids / very fluid slip that was atomized and sprayed onto heated bisc. The heat evaporated the water leaving a thin, powdery coating of glaze [potential video].

It is also possible to dip the bisc in glaze by hand.

below: Potential Decal Images and/or Backdrops

below: Potential Wall Piece/Backdrop using reclaimed site materials and featuring a Syracuse China logo

below: Potential Multiple Forms employing readily available discarded site shards

below: Additional Potential Wall Piece/Backdrop (Here shown w/ silhouettes of Syracuse and China)

below: Additional Potential Wall Piece/Backdrop (Here shown w/ Buddhist Flag

cf. http://web.singnet.com.sg/~sidneys/flag.htm

http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/history/b_flag.htm

http://www.buddhistcouncilofqueensland.org/node/143 )

Process

Art-making is a noisy place from which to embark. The destination is largely unknown, and getting there is to entertain all manner of demons.

At some point, if the artist can withstand this uneasy territory and persevere, the voices subside.

When quiet and stillness settle in, the thing being made begins to define itself.

Information

Information, 2013

The difference between receiving information and gaining insight or knowledge is something I've been thinking about of late. People are more apt to Google something on their phones then they are to visit a library. More importantly, how does tactility lend itself to memory, and what are the implications regarding intuitive understanding? Information helps us to navigate our existence in the world. What is lost?

New Web Site and Blog Formats

Having sifted through and categorized over 15,050 images, a new web site has developed and can be found here: http://brionhardink.com/

THIS site will now serve as an official blog forum from which to share work related processes: http://brionhardink.blogspot.com/

An additional 2ND blog will play a less formal role and is intended to act as a record of random thoughts and ideas as they relate to my outlook and approach: http://sacredbeautyintheordinaryandprofane.blogspot.com/

Miho Museum

The temperature and breeze yesterday was perfect in Cleveland. It brought to mind a special moment at the Miho Museum in Shigaraki Japan shared last autumn between Kohyama Sensei, Austalian artist Tania Rolland, and myself. It was only a moment, but it was one in which we all stopped in silence to appreciate the random act before us. It was also one of the highlights of my being in Japan.

Garbage inside the atrium swirled around and danced before us, witnessing to the fact that wonder and beauty can be found in the most unexpected places. It felt a little sacrilegious to capture even a portion of it on video. I couldn't help myself. Like so many things in Japan, it was the circle within the circle. None of the museum's antiquities, not even the stunning architecture of I. M. Pei commanded a majestic quality such as this. In an instant I knew that in fact I was alive.

Link: http://www.miho.or.jp/english/index.htm

Cultural Garden, Cleveland, Ohio

(4'x4' BFA Nest Installation revisited)

Taras Shevchenko (1814-1861), National Poet of Ukraine, looking on.

Killing The Buddha

What does it mean to burn a book? Not just any book. The Book, the Good Book: the Hebrew Scriptures and New Testament, otherwise known to Christians as The Bible. Political or religious protests are typically done in public. But if it is a private affair, of a more sacrificial nature, can this sacred text be put to the flame without guaranteeing the eternal damnation of a human participant?

The pages curl back one to another, returning to the nothingness from which they came. The wind and flames unveil written language for what it really is: words, symbols only. But history and tradition are not obliterated, nor abandoned. In the act of destruction, their significance is heightened, transcended even.

The interplay of this extraordinary text and an ordinary act offers a simple comprehensible beauty, and becomes a metaphor of release from the double bind that is living in an increasingly litigious and spiritually bankrupt society.

Though a fraction of its former self, nothing is gained, nothing lost. The book is bound with steel wire, acknowledging and reaffirming its significance. Sacred yes, but an oftentimes idolatrous object nonetheless. Wax is applied to make this reality more palatable.

With the hope of restoring its humility and approachability, water serves to further degrade the piece.

Rust hastens the approach.

"If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him." ~ Zen Saying

In other words.. when an aspirant of Truth becomes bound by the very zeal which drives their thirst for spiritual freedom, they remain ignorant and attached to religious fetishism.

Stone Binding

(Preliminary Studies)

What does it mean to bind stones? A stone being a solid material object, retains the history and evidence of time. To accentuate a stone's form is to reject an otherwise shortsighted dismissal of its physical being and account for the effects of time. To bind a stone is to elevate its inherent essence and to acknowledge its being as something more than an otherwise dumb and inanimate thing to be discarded. To bind a stone is to appreciate it, spend time with it, communicate with it. It is nothing less than becoming one with the stone through the deliberate concentration of awareness and attention.


(Cuyahoga Valley National Park)

To go out in search of stones to bind in their natural environment adds another deeper layer of realization in this understanding.

To go out into the stones' natural environment is to account for the environment. Full of intent, this may not be initially evident. After exhausting all efforts to find a suitable location, spending an afternoon with stones minimizes imposition and gives way to further observation and attentiveness. This overwhelming sensation of mindfulness is possible through the absence of self. There is only the stones in their environment.

The environment becomes an active participant, interacting with me as much as I do with it.

This interaction allows for my efforts to be made celebratory.

The stones are suspended above their source, destined to soon return to the water.

The light begins to fade and I walk away, denying myself the sight or sound of their final offering.

TABS