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Arlene Shechet in "Secrets"Preview
In this preview from the Art in the Twenty-First Century Season 7 episode, Secrets, artist Arlene Shechet reflects on her interests in clay as a material.
Shown at work in her Woodstock, NY studio in early 2014, the artist describes a freedom in working with clay because of the material’s “lack of beauty in its raw state.” “Because it has no character, I can make anything,” says the artist. “It’s just there to be invented.”
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Arlene Shechet employs an experimental approach to ceramic sculpture—she tests the limits of gravity, color, and texture by pushing against the boundary of classical techniques, sometimes fusing her kiln-fired creations with complex plinths formed of wood, steel, and concrete. Variously sensual, humorous, and elegant, her clay-based vessels evoke the tension between control and chaos, beauty and ugliness, perfection and imperfection. Considering herself an installation artist who happens to make objects, Shechet focuses intently on ensuring that the display, sight lines, and relationships of the objects in her exhibitions change with every view while maintaining formal equilibrium.
“Because it has no character, I can make anything. It’s just there to be invented.”
Arlene Shechet on clay
