linda casbon
Brooklyn, NEW YORK, USA
Linda Casbon with her piece Blue Line/Column, in her studio, Brooklyn, New York, 2020
Linda Casbon, Screen, Offering, and untitled (wall piece), all 2012. Clay with steel rods. Largest piece is 84" x 32" x 28"
Linda Casbon, left to right: Giotto Pillow (wall piece on steel shelf), 28" x 32"x 8"; Displace, 26" x 22" x 14”; untitled (wall piece) 27" x 26" x 5"; Green Line, 80" x 32"x 14", all 2020. Installation in Claytopian New York held at Plaxall Gallery, New York. This work was installed pre-pandemic and remained frozen in place through the Lockdown.
In mid-March, Spring Break was extended for a week and then another…and then everything changed.
The first month moved quickly, spending many hours figuring out how to translate my hands-on classes into an on-line format. In terms of teaching, I was hoping to make the best of the situation and create meaningful and relevant projects. Students were spread across multiple time zones and many had limited access to materials. Some were very traumatized. I found a wealth of videos and websites and had students curate their own exhibits and make teapots from whatever they had on-hand. Teaching gave structure to my days and kept me from being preoccupied with the virus.
Throughout the time of the lockdown and as things have eased up, I have felt incredibly fortunate to have access to my studio, located in a storefront space below my apartment. My work is generally large-scale hand built sculpture, and the format varies between wall-work and freestanding elements. Some of the work consists of single objects. I view these pieces as words or emblems. More often the work is a group of objects, or a composition; pieces play off of each other and form a kind of narrative with its own internal logic.
The boundary between two and three dimensions is an important aspect of the work. Three-dimensional objects are concrete and real, whereas the world of the painted image is illusory. The shadow of a tree moves and changes, it is ephemeral, but the tree that casts the shadow is physically present and real. In my work, I seek to create a sense of unnameable familiarity: the meeting-up of the here-and-now (real) with the infinite and intangible.
I don't yet have an understanding of how the pandemic will affect what I make. Thus far it has afforded me time to catch up with my life, and time to reflect and think about what is important. The world has changed and the effects of this will be felt far into the future. It’s easy to forget that we are a part of history until something momentous happens.
Linda Casbon, Columns, 2012. Earthenware clay with steel rods. Each piece approximately 76" x 22" x 10".
During the Lockdown, Linda Casbon wrestled with teaching a hands-on medium VIA the internet, and noticed a funny parallel between this EXPERIENCE and her own interests in the intersection of the real with the intangible.
Linda Casbon, Flow, 2020. In-progress. 23" x 30"x 27"
Linda Casbon, Tiled Piece, 2020. 22"x 22"x 22". This piece was begun in 2019 and completed during the pandemic.
Linda Casbon, Mountain, 2020. 14" x 29" x 23"
Linda Casbon, Sanctuary, 2020. As with most of my work this is hand built using earthenware clay and painted with ceramic stains and glazes, and a bit of casein paint. 21"x18"x18"