Peter Christian Johnson

Studies in Excavating Self

My artwork functions as a personal meditation. The process of making becomes a focused reflection on my understanding of the world. I work primarily with ceramic material capitalizing on clay's connection with the earth and its ability to foster a reflection of time. Historically, pots, vessels, and statues have been used in ceremony, drawing on their capacity to hold both material and spirit. My work springs out of the tradition of the vessel, but departs from the idea of function, toward the metaphor of containment. I am interested primarily in how this metaphor applies to the human body and experience.

My work attempts to reference the connection between the human body and the physical world, the internal and the external. I see the body itself as a vessel, a vessel that contains our understanding of Self. I am interested in the interaction between the internal and the external. My pieces are, in a sense, systems that express this convergence between our interior and exterior selves. The work alludes to an internal function or action, the act of emptying and retaining. I am interested in this point of convergence where two seemingly opposed actions can coexist.