We turn clay to make a vessel;
But it is on the space where there is nothing
That the utility of the vessel depends.


Lao-Tzu 1

From start to finish the potter takes hold of the impalpable void and brings it forth as the container in the shape of a containing vessel. . . . The vessel's thingness does not lie at all in the material of which it consists, but in the void that holds.

Martin Heidegger 2

Piero Fenci's ceramic works employ the conventions commonly encountered in vessels: intimate scale, tactile experience of surface texture and weight in lifting, and the capacity of receiving, of containing and of giving forth. Their fundamental forms are not unprecedented. But these are uncommon vessels, and that uncommoness results from the transformative reinterpretation by a sensibility of their formal precedents no less than from their execution with consummate skill.

Fenci cites a range of diverse sources for his work: Etruscan ceramics, Japanese folk ceramics, origami, and armor of the Muromachi period, Shaker hatboxes, Pre-Columbian architecture. 3 Resonance with these sources are evident, though Fenci does not simply recapitulate the sources his works but transformatively references them. Thus the form of the Origami Handbags reference the folding of paper in origami in the folding of the slabs, and the ubiquitous quotidian handbag.. The form of the Sakai Hatbox derives from Shaker hatboxes, but is transformed into a quatrefoil structure that derives from the Sakai family coat of arms, which is repeated in the glaze and is prominent in the related drawing Study (7).

Vessels receive, contain, hold; vessels also pour forth, give. Receiving, containing and giving, the vessel is useful. Self-supporting, independent, standing forth as an object, 4 the vessel is a thing. The vessel comes to stand forth in independent self-support in the process of its making.

Perhaps the ur-model of the vessel is the hand, not grasping, but cupped, receiving, holding, giving forth. As Henri Focillon notes:

The hand's action defines the cavity of space and the fullness of the objects that occupy it. Surface, volume, density and weight are not optical phenomena. Man first learned about them between his fingers and in the hollow of his palm. 5

Fenci's three Watering Cans in the exhibition are three-footed vessels, with bananas, carrots, squash and apples forming the legs and spouts. Any plant would surely flourish and bear fruit if watered with these vessels, themselves already fruitful. Like the calligraphic line of the related ink drawing Study (5), the Watering Can works organize their surrounding space with their compact yet expansively gestural form. This organization of space extends to the space of function: a watering can must be tipped to pour. The angle of the spout engages the user's physiology, along with the placement of the handle controlling the user's gesture in the act of use. The garlic pod on the top of Turquoise Watering Can, and the mushroom on the top of Burgundy Watering Can, are perfect grips for placing the palm of one's right hand to tip the vessel forward while holding the twisted handle in one's left hand. But who would use these watering cans to water plants? Their functionality as vessels, and the tactile and kinesthetic experience of these cans, is implicit, to be experienced in the mind and not in the hand. Surely these Watering Cans have their use not for the nurture of plants, but for the nurture of the viewer.

The perceptual engagement of ceramic artworks entails a tension between tactile and visual, proximal and distal, privately subjective and collectively intersubjective experiences. These equiprimordial aspects in tension are correlative with the distinction of functional object and sculpture, of active use and contemplative display. So in Piero Fenci's works in ceramics, in which this tension renders that distinction problematic, and indeed require putting the notion of 'use' into question. One might regard Fenci's vessels as useful objects for receiving, for containing, for giving forth. The Japanese Pillow might receive a head in repose, its lid might be lifted to place a most treasured item beneath one's head as one sleeps. One might so use all of these works. To do so is to treat them as objects of active use, things to hand. One might otherwise regard Fenci's vessels as objects of contemplative perception, objects for aesthetic delectation. As such, Fenci's vessels are objects of a different order of use. Part of that use is the recognition that these vessels are at once useful and beyond use, at once vessels and sculpture, at once objects of craft and of art, which obviate the simplistic distinction of craft and art.

A larger sense of 'use', of the 'useful', is suggested by Fenci:

I take archetypes, filter them through my psyche, and intuitively connect them. My work, therefore, constitutes loosely rendered reinventions of the past; they are my attempt to build a family tree of spiritual ancestors, a heritage of my own passions. 6

Piero Fenci received the Master of Fine Arts from the New York School of Ceramics at Alfred University, and the Bachelor of Arts from Yale University. Fenci is Professor of Art at Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, Texas. Fenci's recent exhibitions include Deliberations in Clay, Pillsbury and Peters Fine Art, Dallas, Texas, 1999; Within the Borders, Meadows Galley, University of Texas at Tyler and the 1998 Annual Conference, National Council on Education in Ceramic Arts, Fort Worth, Texas.

1. Lao-Tzu, Tao The Ching, XI. Passage quoted in C. G. Jung, Synchronicity, trans. R. F. C. Hull. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969), p. 70. Return
2. Martin Heidegger, "The Thing," Poetry, Language, Thought, trans. Albert Hofstadter (New York: Harper & Row, 1971), p.169. Return
3. Piero Fenci, artist's statement for the exhibition Within the Borders, available online at http://www.tyler.net/pinemills/fenci.htm. Return
4. Martin Heidegger, "The Thing," Poetry, Language, Thought, trans. Albert Hofstadter (New York: Harper & Row, 1971, 1975), p. 166, on the distinction of 'object' and 'standing forth'. Return
5. Henri Focillon, The Life of Forms in Art (New York: Zone Books, 1989), p. 162. Return
6. Piero Fenci, Statement for the exhibition Within the Borders, Meadows Gallery, University of Texas at Tyler and the 1998 Annual Conference, National Council on Education in Ceramic Arts, Fort Worth, Texas. Online at http://www.tyler.net/pinemills/fenci.htm. Return