We must imagine Sisyphus happy
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The ceramic vessel has been both a necessity and expression of values in many cultures. It has allowed us to store, cook, and savor food and experience. It has served as a memorial in death and presented our values in life. We have given the vessel human qualities, referencing a lip, shoulder, belly, and foot. Our histories, experiences, and values are intertwined with these objects. The handmade object also serves as a record of the engagement between the maker and society. It is a linchpin of social values and of the maker. I utilize The Myth of Sisyphus, a book by Albert Camus, a mid-20th-century absurdist writer and philosopher to divide the thesis into three sections. This references the conclusions he draws from living an absurd existence: his revolt, his freedom, and his passion. In this work, I explore these conclusions with my relationship to making and its place in an absurd world. In The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus examines the Greek Myth of the tyrant king who was condemned to spend his eternal afterlife pushing a boulder up a hill only for it to fall back down again once he reached the top. This book explores finding joy in an absurd existence. He uses the idea of a monotonous, repetitive task that we are forced to endure only to find meaning in our fate. There is joy in these tasks of making. My similarly shaped vessels are evidence of a recurring process, but each is unique and therefore becomes its own revolt. The bright colors help to express the joy of this experience juxtaposed with the precarity of its display, to encompass the absurdity of its existence.
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M.F.A