Ceramics

Wells

Shane Pack

See it On Campus: Level 2

Visitor Info

You can find my work in the main entrance mezzanine, on the strip of floor that overlooks the Reliance Theatre and the the Pacific Song of the Ancestors totem pole

[2023] [85cm x 32cm x 30cm] [stoneware, coloured and textured slip, glaze]

Wells brings my love of ancient ruins, modern architecture, and science fiction together into a row of three interconnected and enigmatic structures. The forms are strange, on the edge of recognize-ability, but the material is familiar; the clay is allowed to be itself, and the hand of the maker is on full display. When I look at Wells, I imagine that the blue-green planes are in fact the surface of the ground, and the towers below extend into the earth. Or even that the bone-white structures are somehow the shape of the earth beneath our feet.

Upend

[2023] [diameter: 38cm, thickness: 12cm] [stoneware, boron glaze]

Upend is my attempt to re-contextualize fundamental architectural elements such as arches and pillars. The boron glaze resembles sandstone, but is also strangely organic, especially when paired with pillars modeled after fingers.

Cave Vessels and Ruins

[2023] [average diameter: 20cm, average height: 23cm] [stoneware, ash glaze, textured porcelain]

These modular sculptures can be combined in a number of ways. The vessels explore the line between natural rock formations and human made spaces. In a similar way, the ornately pattered and normally pure white porcelain has been mixed with irregular chunks of stone that cause it to crack and warp in the kiln.

Building

[2022] [53cm x 28cm x 28cm] [3D printed and handbuilt stoneware, glaze, unfired clay]

Building explores the parallels between the chronic pain that I endure as the cost of living my life, and the costs of living in a developed, wealthy, colonial society that we are so quick to ignore.

Time Like Dewdrops

[2022-2024][glazed stoneware, flux paste, glass micro-beads]

I came across a 114 year old patent for a ceramic surface technique that I could not find any examples of, either historical or contemporary, and ever since I have been trying to recreate the effect. This little vase is my most successful result so far, and it represents months of research and testing.

Repairing and recasting vessels

[2022] [found and altered vases, slip-cast stoneware]

Reliquary

[2021] [87cm x 50cm x 152cm] [foam, wood, steel, paint]

Inspired by science fiction and movie props, Reliquary uses ambiguous materials to tell an ambiguous narrative centered around a piece of driftwood. Is this the only remaining piece of nature in a future devastated by climate change?

Liminal Angles

[2021] [15cm x 14cm x 7 cm] [3D printed and handbuilt stoneware, underglaze, glaze]

Inspired by the constant demolition and construction in my neighborhood of Mt Pleasant, I used a clay printer to make elements of these sculptures because its ability to almost perfectly reproduce the same imperfections over and over speaks to me of cycles of trauma and violence as well as demolition and rebuilding.

Cups

[2021] [slip-cast stoneware with additions, various glazes]

My goal for this project was to make a slip-cast base form that could then be customized into unique cups.

Shane Pack

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My art explores what it means to be true to materials through abstract, sculptural and semi-functional forms. Growing up in Vancouver, British Columbia, has made me keenly aware of the contrast between modern city and ancient forest, between a post-industrial mindset, and earlier ways of interacting with the world.

To further my exploration, I work with materials that have strong “personalities” of their own, both in terms of physical properties and cultural history. Clay is perhaps the best example of such a material, and so I work primarily with ceramics and embrace the unpredictable results that come from traditional kiln firing methods. Similarly, I value stone for the variations of colour and pattern that can be revealed on its surface. Wood and bare metal, too, offer unexpected and enriching transformations as they become weathered.

In an increasingly industrialized world, with an increasing disconnect between resource and product, the materials an artist chooses for their work, and how they hide or reveal them through their making, is more than ever before a conscious statement. I want to explore the interaction between material and object; what it means to take a substance and transform it into something singular, something that has been given meaning. I want to explore how a material carries its own meaning through the art making process, and into the work itself.

As a disabled artist, my work also explores the disconnect between my society’s often flawed understanding of disability, and my lived experience with it.

Related Projects

Marcel Lessard
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