"Mon Valley Mud: The Reinvestment of What Has Been Left Behind"

An Honors Thesis
by

Joseph 0. Carter

California, Pennsylvania
2020

Carter 1
The exhibition, which has been set forth in the Manderino Library Gallery in March of
2020 by Joe Carter, is a tripartite show which has been titled, “Mon Valley Mud: The
Reinvestment of What Has Been Left Behind.” It is serving as his senior studio, and honors
thesis. The work has all been completed in the last year and presents a cohesive body of work
that has been produced in addition to his standard studio work. There is a ceramic, photographic,
and a written informational handout, all of which together allow for an analysis of the meaning,
intent, and purpose of the show.
The ceramic section is the most prominent, as it is off the walls, on gallery stands,
withholding a few exceptions. The forms that are present include vases, jars, pitchers, and
platters. All made from a dark stoneware, the pieces are scattered throughout the gallery and
show similar themes of alteration and surface decoration. Like entasis in a column, all of the
pieces have a top and bottom smaller than the center but to varying degrees and proportions.
Very familiar in shape and silhouette, but in volume they have been altered. A press in here, a
swipe there, all of which are marks of the maker, easily imagined being done, which have the
potential to keep an engaged viewer guessing and looking. The pitchers have large handles, and
full beaklike spouts. Lines have been incised in irregular overlapping spirals up the forms,
dancing in and out of the distortions in form. On handles and spouts the incisions have been
added in a manner which invites the viewer to look at the attachments in a way that lines up the
surface decoration on the main body of the piece. This invitation to manipulate the location of a
piece in space in relation to oneself in order to create these connections in surface decoration
suggests a sense of playfulness and interaction.

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Some of the pieces have had a dark, white, or tonally the same as the clay body slip
applied as decoration which has been applied in various broken ovoids around the indentations.
The semi-circles, like the distortions, have a simple physicality to them. Brush marks are easily
seen near the end of their movement where they run thin, and some show textural marks within
the body of their form. Secondarily, they call attention to the distortions through a simple,
child-like circling, such as an error in an arithmetic problem. The circling calls out the alterations
in various intensities through slip selection. Slip is also, when applied to the vases, applied down
the length of a groove in the handle, calling attention to the distortion that has been provided for
the hand of the viewer. The incised lines have also been called out by the application of slip. In
some places, the slip fills the line, breaking its flow and continuity around the piece. In other
places, the slip skips over, allowing the line to flow, thus breaking the circular motion of the
brush stroke.
Glaze has been applied to the pieces in a couple of different ways. Some pieces have
been completely covered, the full height of the piece. Others have had glaze applied in multiple
gradually widening streaks up the piece, nearly reaching the bottom. Lastly, a large portion of the
pieces have had glaze applied in a wrapping, dripping manner; this envelopment tends to start on
one side with rivulets wrapping around the swelling body of the piece, ending by petering out,
reaching the bottom of the piece, or ending in a glassy bead. Similar to the slip, emphasis on the
distortions may also come from glaze application. Pools form and flow out of the depressions,
while avoiding the high points, pushed out from the interior. Rivers of glaze flow along the
incised lines, and then break the line and flow in other directions.

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The glazes themselves are all, at the least, slightly different, but share a few traits. All of
the glazes are rough to some degree, with a sandy quality. There are some which are glossy, and
some which are matte. Colors represented include glossy olive green, glossy green with streaks
of blue, matte black, sandy and multicolored, light brown, and glossy dark brown. In some cases,
the roughness has begun to melt out, creating dots of glassy white. Some areas of glaze which
pass over the applied white slip show a leading line of salmon-y orange. Though the glazes are
largely organic, natural colors, what may be considered dull, the glazes being the only color in
the gallery cause a visual draw and impact on the viewer is still possible.
As well made and thought out as these pieces are, ceramics is still a field that may not be
considered art. In Plato’s Republic, he refuses to refer to anything that could be considered
“craft” to be an art form1. While we have come far from the days of Plato, it is still important that
a good argument is made for it being artwork. It could furthermore be argued that this should
always be questioned when presented with something such as this. The pieces are in a location
which generally is used as a presentation space for artwork. Pieces have been thoughtfully made,
decorated, and arranged such that they are pleasant to view, or at the very least may be easily
viewed. If the literary purview is pushed into the more recent centuries, specifically to the
writings of Erwin Panofsky then we have another way of arguing that these pieces are artwork.
He sets forth that artwork is artwork because it has aesthetic experience, and demands to be
experienced aesthetically2.

1

​Plato,

​Republic,​ ​Book X​, (Letchworth: Bradda Books).

2

​Erwin

Panofsky, ​Meaning in the Visual Arts​ (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press), 10-11.

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We as humans alone are the composers of objects for purely aesthetic joy. It must first be
noted that all of the work in this exhibition is of shape and form with traditional household
function. Pitchers for drinks and platters for serving have culinary function. Jars may be used for
food storage however, that is not necessary. Lastly, vases, which are the most fundamentally
aestheticizing forms as their use is but that of the presentation of flowers or sprigs of other
organic matter which we use to decorate the spaces we inhabit. Though some of the pieces have
functional usage, the pieces certainly appear to have been composed in an aesthetically informed
way. Far from commercially produced slip-cast ceramics, the pieces have had physical work and
compositional thought put into them. They are interesting to look at and thus may institute cause
for a lengthier investigation of each piece. These pieces, which are decidedly art due to the
compositional and aesthetic thought evident within the object, have the possibility to lead the
viewer to an initial decision on meaning of the work due to their most basal compositional
components.
Guy Debord in “Writings from the Situationist International,” writes of the “​dérive​” or
drifting3. His idea is that by letting one’s consciousness drift a psychogeographical observation
may be made. Psychogeographical observation is the observation of the layout or features within
one's own mind. This method of interior discovery may be applied to the way in which one
observes a composition, letting your eyes and mind drift over the piece in whichever way they
may be inherently pulled. Furthermore, Debord states that this sort of drifting compositional
analysis may be encouraged by the diminution of border regions. The compositional elements of

3

​Guy

Debord, “Writings from the Situationist International,” (Blackwell Publishing) 703-704.

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all the ceramic pieces lend themselves to this process of visual drifting. Like a
spot-the-difference exercise, the use of well-known forms and silhouettes gives the viewer the
opportunity to more easily relax the eye and notice what is different.
One of the things that may be noticed first within the pieces in the gallery, is the
distorted, pushed forms. There are voids, and forceful distended swells from the interior and
exterior of the pieces. One may see these alterations from the exterior, or interior which may
elicit a further investigation of the forms far side. In some cases, these alterations make space for
where it is suggested a human include themselves in the form, specifically in voids left for hands
to grip. It is hard for one to stay focused on the first region found, as the overlapping layers of
surface decoration, incised lines, slip, glaze, run together to pull the eye in many different
directions.
These overlapping elements also lead into the diminution of border regions. Where one
decoration may be lacking, another takes over to pull the eye past to the next area of high
composition, giving a rhythmic push and pull across the vessel. While these sections do not
allow for initial fixation, it is important to remember that there are two more sections within the
gallery.
The photographic section is dotted across the walls of the gallery. Photographs are all
black and white printed on a glossy metallic paper. Within the prints, subject matter varies from
picture to picture, but all the photographs were taken in areas in which sediment was collected.
There are images of the Monongahela river with the surrounding foliage, and reflections on the
water. Some images show a dilapidated building, with graffiti abounding on the walls, and
jutting steel emanates from crumbling sections of wall. Other photos show a still operating

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power plant, with cooling towers spewing a white cloud stand in a picturesque rolling landscape.
The photos overall show natural beauty, decay, and the progress of man.
Photography, like ceramics, has been a hotly debated part of the art world since its
introduction. Walter Benjamin, a scholar on modernity, wrote, “The Work of Art in the Age of
Mechanical Reproduction.” In this, he analyzes photography, among other things, which have
become possible due to mechanical reproduction and whether or not he views them as works of
art. One of his concerns with mechanically reproduced works such as photography or film, that
we would now generally view as art, is that they demand no concentration for the viewer but are
rather just distractions4. I would argue that these works are much more than distractions, but
rather informational storytelling devices with which we can begin to piece together the meaning
of this exhibition. This is in stark contrast to what reproduction has done to ceramics. Ceramics
mass reproduction for capitalistic means may be inherently democratizing due to the power of
supply and demand. That is, those pieces which are inherently more fit for the market, those that
have been labeled as capitalistically good due to the profit gained by them as chosen by the
consumer, will be produced at a higher rate when compared to those not chosen by the consumer.
They represent nothing other than the object that they are, and thus are not affected by
reproduction in the same way as the photography present in the exhibition.
The works of photography display, in their subject matter, things which people largely
avoid looking at or thinking about, though they are so close to people’s homes and recreational
spaces. By putting them on display, in all their glossy well-lit glory, the viewer is forced to

4

​Walter

Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” (Blackwell

Publishing) 522-524.

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notice the destruction adjacent to their homes, encouraged to trace the rubble of these past
industries, and view the monolithic towers which still spew clouds into the air. Photographs
today are reminders, representations of what was there the day the photo was taken, and is still
there, in many cases. Exhibited within them is what has been left behind by humanity.
Furthermore, the skeletons within these portraits are the corpses of giants which once drove and
energized decades of mechanical production, so it is fitting, poetic even, that they be
remembered through mechanical reproduction.
Their lack of color and decrepit stillness create a Kantian sublimeness5. The eye is
presented the existence of quantity as opposed to quality which Immanuel Kant regards as being
the difference between beauty and sublime6. It may be seen how many buildings and areas are in
decay, and how much is rusting away in those spaces. The behemoths found within these
pictures call to mind the wonders of the world, wonders of negative impact. An anti-wonder like
nature at all the destruction humanity has caused in this region. Awe is felt at humanity's ability
to create and leave behind such structures. Secondarily, nature’s ability to slowly chip back away
at these structures is considered. Photos of crumbling walls, and glass covered riverbanks remind
the viewer that eventual rot and destruction is what comes next for the still operating structures.
Whether or not it is art due to its level of reproduction, the photography demands to be
aesthetically viewed. It asks to be viewed as such more strongly than the ceramics due to its lack
of functional nature. Like the glazes on the ceramics, the photos shine in the light of the gallery
in which they have been hung. Care has obviously been made in their composition and

5

Immanuel Kant, ​Critique of Judgment​, (Hafner Pub. Co.), 103-106.

6

​Ibid

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production. The colorless nature of them draws the eye with visual weight and form, leading
lines, and areas of focus versus out of focus. All of this starts to form an idea on what this
exhibition is about, but further information is needed, and offered.
So often, works of art may be completely lost on the viewer without some background
information, which may come from biographical information relating to the artist, but more
often, whether found plastered on the walls or in an associated writing, it comes from
information given in the gallery. Writings in the informational handout at the show start to give a
clearer picture of the reasons for, and what meanings to extract from the work. Within the
handout is a map of the Monongahela river watershed and on it are locations which have been
highlighted. The indicated locations are areas of current, or past industrial usage. Within the
writings in the handout is a chart containing chemical analyses of sediment samples taken from
these locations. The chemical analyses focus on metallic oxide content of the samples.
Most importantly though, the handout indicates which pictures are from which locations,
and which glazes use which sediments from which locations. Some notes on the glaze testing and
production are included. Made largely from local materials, the glazes are simple and use only
three ingredients, two of which are from the surrounding area. Local ingredients are river
sediment from post-industrial sites and towns within the Monongahela watershed, as well as
local wood ash collected from a wood stove in the area. Custer Feldspar is the only non-local
ingredient used in the glazes as a local material that would have a similar effect was not able to
be located.. Also noted within the handout is some information about the photography. It is
stated that all the photo work was done on film, developed in an environmentally friendly

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developer called “Caffenol.” By utilizing the information presented in the handout, we are able
to have a more careful analysis of the work presented.
Now with all the pieces of this exhibition together, as Stanley Cavell suggests, we can
properly follow them to a well thought out conclusion on meaning7. After the final addition of
the written materials, it may be suggested to some extent that this work is about the destruction
of the idea of the two half cultures. The idea of the two half cultures is the idea that in the world
there are fundamentally two parts, the humanities and science, with art falling within the
humanities. Schapiro suggests that this is only an issue because of the antagonism between the
two parts8. By including a section of the work that gives exact scientific data relating to the
materials used in the production, the scientific culture is represented. Furthermore, the process
used for obtaining the final glazes used on the ceramic work could largely be viewed as a
scientific one with careful measurements and repeated testing.
Using such careful notes and results may lead the viewer of this exhibition to see it as a
peace-making gesture. It could be seen as though this exhibit is but a step towards the melding of
the two half-cultures. Certainly, the use of two art mediums which have been historically
contested as nothing more than craft by Plato and mechanical reproduction by Benjamin, could
lead the viewer to imagine that the work is all about using gray areas, cultural and artistic, to
create a space for inbetweens and bring together disparate values. While it is important to note

7

​Stanley

Cavell, ​Must We Mean What We Say?: a Book of Essays,​ (Cambridge University

Press), 198.
8

​Meyer Schapiro, ​Worldview in Painting: Art and Society: Selected Papers,​ (G. Braziller)

158-160.

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these gray areas are found throughout the exhibition, there are more important ideas hidden
within the show, which are elucidated, once again, in the informational writings.
In order to identify what is most important about this exhibition, it is relevant to note
what is changing most from piece to piece as indicated within the handout, and by viewing the
exhibition. Form is certainly changing but what changes more importantly is the glaze
composition. Within the glaze composition, where the sediment is coming from changes most
often. This sediment has been collected and processed from sites in which industrial processes
occur, or once occurred. What has been left behind by the people and processes which once
happened there have been collected, processed, analyzed and used for glaze. Using wastes of
industrial mechanical production seems important because there is absolutely no reason to do
that under normal circumstances. Something is certainly trying to be said with this material
usage. It is difficult, time consuming, and wildly inefficient in time input of the artist when
compared the purchase of standard glaze materials. On top of that they are not even perfectly
smooth glossy glazes, and because of this, it seems there must be a reason. Within artwork with
so much time input, and attention to composition, if something seems off, it is most likely
because something is and it is intended to be noticed.
Indexical signs may be described as crumbs of humanity, and in this case the crumbs are
sediment. Rosalind Krauss, writing in, “Notes on the Index, Part 1,” notes, regarding the function
of the index, “it operates to substitute the registration of sheer physical presence for the more
highly articulated language of aesthetic conventions.”9 If we view these sediments as an index of
the industry, then it makes these glazes, and the pieces it has been applied to a further extension

9

​Rosalind Krauss, “Notes on the Index, Part 1,” “Blackwell Publishing” 999.

Carter 11
of that index. In that same vein, and using Krauss’ reasoning, it makes the glazes a substitute for
the sheer presence of these industrial sites. By having these pieces in a gallery surrounded by
images of these sites the idea is further bolstered. Direct representations, through photography, of
the sites which the indexical signs used within the glazes are taking the place of physically,
further bring the idea and presence of these sites into the purview of the audience.
Industrial sites such as these could also be viewed as monuments in their current state,
with the photographs bolstering this idea. They are represented in full form, with intricacies
coming out; large and hung on the wall, they are imposing in their monotone contrast. Their
existence can be seen as inherently offensive. Society allowed these businesses and corporations
to build on these lands, pollute, and leave behind their waste. In changing these left behind
scraps to being something good, useful, and beautiful they are once again used. Titus Kaphar
suggests that in order to gain power of the memories and monuments of the pain and suffering
that has come before, we must alter it without pure erasure10. If we extrapolate the idea of the
indexical sign taking place of the physical object, these ceramics are taking the wastes which
have been left behind, and remake it into a form that is not free in the environment to travel,
being taken up into environments in ways we do not know. Usage of the waste of such
impersonal mechanical industries in the production of something made by hand is a strong
message which can lead to an idea of what the exhibition means.
Guy Debord’s writings, once again, give more insight into the meaning of this work.
While his writings on the “​dérive​” give some possible explanation for the surface treatments, his
writings also give some context for what this usage of industrial sediment can mean. In

10

​Titus​ ​Kaphar,

“Can art amend history?​,”​ ​Ted Talk.​

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Debord’s, “Writings from the Situationist International,” he speaks of the usage and power of
detournement, or reinvestment of the cultural past11. In this particular case, the cultural past is the
industries that have supported the communities in the area, while simultaneously underpaying
the worker, irreversibly harming them for profit margins, and raping the land. Though it is not
pretty, it is the historical culture of the industry and, by proximity, the people in this area.
Industrial subjugation ran rampant, and all that is left on this Appalachian plateau is a deeply
troubled people, the skeletons of industrial sites, and the detrital effluence. By reinvesting these
locations and indexes, the artist, as Debord suggests, negates the previous cultural past while, as
Kaphar cautions against, not erasing it12.
The river flows through these communities and unites a culture which has been spurned
by all that created them. These works and exhibit mean to unite these people, and call to
attention what this culture is built on, while looking forward to a future in which the people may
reinvest what has been left behind through the use of who they are, and what they walk on: Mon
Valley Mud.

11

​Debord,

“Writings from the Situationist International,” 704-705.

12

​Kaphar,

“Can art amend history?”

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On The Format and Tone of this Writing
This writing was written as though a third party was reviewing the work in order to make
me, as the author-artist, fully look at the work in the same way that a viewer would. Furthermore,
in doing so I allow myself to more honestly see if my work is achieving what I desire as the
artist. Secondarily, it allows me to apply methods of writing art critique which I have studied and
worked on in my time spent during my undergraduate studies. The overall hope being that
through looking at my work in this way I may make a more convincing argument for what I
believe the work to mean.

Carter 14
Bibliography
Benjamin, Walter. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” In ​Art
in Theory 1900-2000,​ edited by Charles Harrison and Paul Wood, 520-527. Malden,
MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2003.
Cavell, Stanley. ​Must We Mean What We Say?: a Book of Essays.​ Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Debord, Guy. “Writings from the Situationist International.” In ​Art in Theory
1900-2000,​ edited by Charles Harrison and Paul Wood, 701-707. Malden, MA:
Blackwell Publishing, 2003.
Kant, Immanuel. ​Critique of Judgment​. New York: Hafner Pub. Co., 1951.
Kaphar, Titus. “Can art amend history?​,”​ ​Ted Talk.​ Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDaldVHUedI
Krauss, Rosalind. “Notes on the Index, Part 1.” In ​Art in Theory 1900-2000,​ edited by
Charles Harrison and Paul Wood, 994-999. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing,
2003.
Panofsky, Erwin. ​Meaning in the Visual Arts​. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 2008.
Plato. ​Republic, Book X.​ (J. Ferguson, Trans.) Letchworth: Bradda Books, 1978.

Carter 15
Schapiro, Meyer. ​Worldview in Painting: Art and Society: Selected Papers.​ New York:
G. Braziller, 1999.