Aaron Caldwell

BIO

Aaron Caldwell was born and raised in Fresno, California. He graduated from Southern Illinois University Carbondale with a BA in general studio art in 2019 and is completing his MS in Art Education from Illinois State University in December 2021. He was awarded the 2019 NCECA Multicultural Fellowship, 2019-2020 Northern Clay Center Warren MacKenzie Advancement Award, Watershed’s 2020 Kiln God scholarship and is one of the 2021 Ceramics Monthly Emerging Artists. He has exhibited at Lucy Lacoste Gallery (Concord, MA), The Clay Studio of Philadelphia, NCECA student exhibition in 2020 and 2021, and Baltimore Clayworks. He currently leads the virtual presence for Queeramics, a project that seeks to connect and celebrate contemporary queer ceramic artists of all levels and interests.

STATEMENT

Aaron’s sculptures pull from his Black and queer cultural experiences. The zoomorphic forms are inspired by west and central African sculpture (especially Kongo), pre-Colombian pottery, and other various historical zoomorphic forms. Each animal in the series represents a specific facet of identity. The buffalo represents masculinity, the gazelle represents femininity, the sheep represents queerness, the goat represents pride and the hare represents nappy hair. He also combines some of the animals to reference Black queer identity. The buffalo and sheep together represent trade, the buffalo and gazelle together represent butch queens and the gazelle and sheep together represent fem gays. The glaze treatment reflects the unique relationship Black folk has with moisturizing products and in particular lotion. The sculptures are also adorned with steel nails as a way to connect the work and his existence to his ancestral origins which could potentially be the Kongo region where they use iron as a way to activate the power of their nkisi.

Interview with Aaron Caldwell

Written by Andreana Donahue

Can you tell us a bit about your background and how you became interested in becoming an artist? What were some early influences?

Growing up from preschool to about 8th grade, I wanted to become a game designer. I am a huge gamer, and more specifically a lifetime Pokémon geek. I would create characters, monsters, items, world maps, cities and write stories for games I would create on this computer platform called ‘RPG Maker’ with my cousin who is a year younger than me. Once I got to high school, I dropped all of that and wanted to become a math teacher. It wasn’t until my third year in college that I rediscovered art by taking a ceramics class. It was the first art class I ever had in my life. Clay was unfamiliar to me because the closest thing I had ever touched to clay is playdoh. That first class got me excited about the potential of clay. At the time, I was an elementary education major and thought I wanted to take a couple of classes to supplement my teaching with art-making in the classroom, but I became so engulfed in the world of art that I decided to pursue art as my practice. Fast forward to today, and I am proudly both an artist and educator.

Where are you currently based and what initially attracted you to working in this community? Are there any aspects of this specific place that have surfaced in your work?

I am currently in Bloomington-Normal, IL as I finish pursuing my MS in Art Education at Illinois State University. I came here to pursue my master’s because I was given job opportunities to work in the art education departments for University Galleries, Illinois State’s gallery-museum, and a non-profit art education organization, Illinois Art Station. These jobs have offered me a lot of experience in terms of what museum and community education can look like in the arts. While doing this, I have been able to work with the ceramic professors at the university to continue my ceramic practice. Although, no specific aspects of this place surfaced in my work. The amount of “odd one out” syndrome I experienced being Black and gay in a massively and predominately white art school community had resulted in me creating coded work. I felt like my work reflects how I am approached often. Adored and appreciated but not understood (by everyone). My work has helped bring me comfort often as I got to indulge in myself more than I normally would had I been consistently engaged with Black folk here more often than I had been. This is not to say I did not find community with Black folk while here but compared to my undergrad experience or childhood, it has been far less.

Can you tell us about your studio space? What are some of the most crucial aspects of a studio that make it workable for you?

I do not have a studio space currently as an art ed grad student. My studio becomes wherever I can find space to work. While in ceramic classes, that becomes the community studio, or I work in the art ed lounge that grad students have access to, or at the beginning of the pandemic, that meant the kitchen island or carpet in my apartment. My studio is wherever I am as long as I have space to work and clay to form.

What is a typical day like?

I don’t have typical days. Every day is kind of its own thing. There are some consistencies depending on the time of the year. Like during school, I will have class and work on certain days, but other than that I wing it. I am not much of a planner in any aspect of my life, so even if I plan on making work on a certain day I won't actually know that I will until it comes a time, and sometimes I end up doing something else. I like to see myself as a free spirit. I prioritize my comfort, and sometimes that means I need to spend 10 hours in the studio and sometimes that means I need to avoid the studio for three days like the plague. All I know is no matter what I got my music blasting.

What gets you in a creative groove? What puts a damper on your groove?

Seeing art gets me in the creative groove. When I say this I don’t only mean art made by “professionals”. Art can be anything really. My non-artist friend just showed me some blue figure sculpture he made in his high school ceramics class and seeing it got me excited about making some art. Sometimes watching anime and seeing a beautifully animated scene will get me in the mood, or sometimes I will see a rock that catches my eye and it will get my brain going on ideas. The only thing that puts a damper on my groove is having a load of tasks/responsibilities unrelated to art. Whenever I get overwhelmed with school or life stuff, my creative groove is dampened. I usually take breaks and give myself to breathe and live the life which usually helps me get back to my creative mode.

What criteria do you follow for selecting materials? Do you prefer to maintain a narrow focus or work across diverse media? How do you navigate the limitations and possibilities that result from this path?

Currently, I work in ceramics. I love clay a lot! It is what got me interested in being an artist. I like focusing on ceramic art because it allows me to continue to explore and understand the material more. I have a desire to branch out into other mediums at some point. I have been experimenting with papermaking and printmaking, fiber/textile art, and have extensive skill in jewelry making. I also want to explore photography, video art, social practice, and installation one day as well. However, ceramics fascinates me so much that I want to maintain this focus on the singular medium for now. The medium is definitely limiting at times because there are things I know I want to do that would be easier in other mediums, but I just challenge myself to consider ways to express the ideas in the ceramic medium if possible. I love challenges, and ceramics offer me a plethora of challenges due to limitations and possibilities.

Can you walk us through your overall process? How would you describe your approach to manipulating materials? What about decision-making and editing?

I always start off with research. I spend a lot of time researching historical information, contemporary ideas, and considering personal and anecdotal experiences. My work is always personal but it is also communal, so when researching I try to find common ground between the internal and external and use that common ground to make work that satisfies both myself and viewers. Once I have settled on an idea, depending on the complexity of the idea, I will quickly sketch out what I want to achieve. Following that, I will grab a hump mold, pinch out a slab, and lay it on top of the hump mold. I use hump molds to help create the rounded bottom that is central to all of my current work. Once the mold has absorbed some of the moisture, I flip the rounded bottom over and begin to coil build on it to finish the form. Once the form is done I quickly squeeze out a gestural shape representing the horns or ears of the animal and attach them to the form. I pinch out another slab and draw, with a needle tool, the shape of a comb or pick, and cut it out with the needle tool then attach it to the body of the zoomorphic form. Lastly in the making process, I grab a variety of non-galvanized steel nails and pierce the head area of the zoomorphic forms then let the piece dry for bisque firing. After bisque firing, I glaze the piece with the gloop glaze I make with frit, epk, and silica ingredients by using my finger. The colors of the glazes are based on the colors of lotion and body/hair moisturizing products that I have used. I choose colors for each piece based on desired color schemes at the time. Once I am done glazing, I put the pieces in a cone 1 glaze firing and the temperature is just hot enough to make the glaze flux and melt and not make the metal nails too brittle and melt.

Can you talk about some of the ongoing interests, imagery, and concepts that have informed your process and body of work overtime? How do you anticipate your work progressing in the future?

My work is inspired by a lot of things. I like to view my art practice as a modge podge of my interests. My art is inspired by my desire to build a world and create a coded language within my art. Each zoomorphic form represents something specific. This was inspired by the idea of folktale characters oftentimes representing a specific personality, skill, or morality. In my art, the buffalo represents masculinity, the gazelle represents femininity, the sheep represents queerness, the hare represents black hair. I also make hybrid animal pieces where each one is about a specific queer performance/expression. In this grouping, the gazelle-buffalo represents butch queens, the gazelle-sheep represents fem gays, and the buffalo-sheep represents to trade. Most recently I have also added two new forms: the goat that represents the acronym G.O.A.T (greatest of all time), and the dung beetle that represents (ghetto) resourcefulness. Each piece is ornamented with a glaze that represents moisturizing products and more specifically lotion. This body of work stems from my desire to add to the conversation of Black beauty witnessed in art. Many Black Americans can tell a story or two about lotion and being ashy or being caught/called ashy. There is a culture surrounding this product and is part of our routine to keep our skin looking right. To non-black people, this connection is not clear but to many Black folk, the connection is clear when they see the titles of my work. This engagement with my work is what I want. Art that tells itself in full to those who understand while making others inquire and seek more information to understand. The curiosity and excitement that people may experience with my work are what I experience when I engage with historical artifacts and art, and what I strive to offer viewers with my own art. I am never sure what the future holds for my art, but I do know in a year the work I make will look different but have clear connections to what I was making during this time. I have a lot of ideas in my head and I want to find time to honor as many of them as possible with importance and care.

As a result of the pandemic, many artists have experienced limited access to their studios or loss of exhibitions, income, or other opportunities. Has your way of working (or not working) shifted significantly during this time? Are there unexpected insights or particular challenges you’ve experienced?

The pandemic has decreased the amount of time I choose to be in the studio. It showed me how important rest and relaxation are. I am not in the studio nearly as much as I used to before the pandemic, and that is by choice not force. I have the same amount of access to the studio as I did prior, but I choose to not be in there till 3 am like I used to. I think taking breaks and limiting myself to certain “studio sprints” has helped my productivity in a weird way. I have made more work this year already than I ever have in an entire year. I think my familiarity with my work has a lot to do with that but also my decision to limit how long and often I am in the studio, so I am not dwelling and sitting and thinking in the studio as much as I used to. I go in with a mission and get out. This is a direct result of the pandemic that I am actually grateful for.

In a time that seems to be marked by uncertainty, collective anxiety, and increasing social unrest, why do you think the perspectives and contributions of artists remain meaningful? Do you feel a natural relationship exists between your work (or the role artists play more broadly) and confronting established systems—of power, cultural institutions, or otherwise?

I have thought about this and I think in some capacity my work confronts established systems and institutions because I am making work about being Black, about being queer, and about being Black AND queer. However, I think my work does not push beyond that confrontation of what it represents. I have seen work that does more and my work does not do as much as others, which is fine by me. My art is made with the intention of helping me understand myself and the world around me, and I am inviting others to join me in my own discovery. That is what my art is doing for me. I, of course, am not in control of how people approach my art, so to some people, my art is confronting these systems in many ways, and to others, it’s not pushing the envelope at all. However, I think as long as I am making art with the voice of a Black queer person then having my art in any space really is opening ideas and confronting some sort of system whether that be for the Blackness, queerness, or both in my art.

Can you share some of your recent influences? Are there specific works—from visual art, literature, film, or music—that are important to you?

Pokémon is a forever influence of mine because of creatures and worldbuilding. In Pokémon, everything means something in terms of pokemon design, and I want to always make with that much intention in my own art. Other influences include Nkisi nkondi, Alma Thomas, Aaron Douglas, Gee’s Bend Quilts, Sonya Clark, Theaster Gates, Damien Davis, and Samella Lewis. All of these things are central in some capacity to what I make and how I make it. I am also Hive through and through. Beyoncé raised me. I have watched and witnessed her dedication to delivering personal and creative artwork with a team of incredible folk. I think being so deep into her craft prior to becoming an artist has also found its way into how I approach my art. For me, everything is meaningful and intentional and I am constantly looking for creative ways to express my ideas.

Who are some contemporary artists you’re excited about? What are the best exhibitions you’ve seen in recent memory?

Outside of the three contemporary artists, I named in my influences, ten contemporary artists I gag over are Ashlyn Pope, Anina Major, Brittney Leeanne Williams, Cyrus Kabiru, Diedrick Brackens, George Rodriguez, Kevin Snipes, Maya Vivas, M. Florine Démosthène Na Chainkua Reindorf. My favorite exhibition so far would be Damien Davis’s Color Cargo at The Center for Art in Wood in Philadelphia. The variety in scale and composition and approach to the materials, as well as, the amount of coded language and symbolism and use of color made the exhibition an exciting show for me to witness by pure luck of walking down a street of Philadelphia senselessly.

Do you have any tips or advice that someone has shared with you that you have found particularly helpful?

My undergraduate professor Pattie Chalmers told me to not be afraid to let my freak fly and get weird as her parting words to me during my last critique. Having that repeated in my head has helped me continue to experiment with ideas and be okay with it not turning out to be a successful piece. I have made a lot more work and have seen some failures while pulling them out of the kiln but learn so much from those pieces because I am not afraid to push myself and my ideas to see how my art can continue to evolve. Before she told me that, I was very hesitant and careful with every piece. Some of the art will suck and some of it will be awesome, but a lot will be learned from all of it.

What are you working on in the studio right now? What’s coming up next for you?

I am not currently working on anything as I am taking an extended break from making art. I will be at Watershed Center for the Ceramics Art in Maine for a three-week residency from July 26th to August 13th and while there I will be knee-deep in ideas and creativity. I am hoping that after my three weeks there I will be in transition into the next steps of my art. I am not sure what that will be, but the only plan I have is to let my freak fly and get weird!

Anything else you would like to share?

I would like to add that I lead a platform called Queeramics which can be found on Instagram @queeramics or the website www.queeramics.com, and is a database of queer ceramic artists. It started off as a symposium at Louisiana State University led by Ian Parks, and I hope to find ways to continue their symposium mission and offer much more through the platform for queer ceramic artists. Please follow and support the platform.

To find out more about Aaron Caldwell check out his Instagram and website.