Dani Gagnon
A&E Editor
Last Thursday morning students that already had their dose of caffeine probably noticed an unusual crowd around Ebert. And if they hadn’t had their coffee yet that morning, they should have gone to investigate, because Mattie Cannon ’14 was handing out coffee in her handmade mugs. Students were able to take a mug with them to their class or study session and returned them to bins Cannon set up at Ebert and Lowry at the end of the day. As a part of her Independent Study for Studio Art, Cannon has made 50 coffee mugs and is performing a form of social practice art when she hands out coffee. Cannon hopes to hand out coffee weekly, valuing the interaction and relationships between people and objects as an extension of her art.
Although she claims to be in the beginning stages of learning how to throw mugs, she has already made 50 this semester. Cannon said she uses high-fire white stone clay for both the look — with richer colors atop of the clay — as well as the strength that comes from the high heat. She described the steps involved to throw a mug: from the beginning with wedge balls of clay, throwing the mug on a potter’s wheel, letting it dry before adding a handle and firing it in the kiln and finally mixing the glaze that will create a colorful glass seal over the clay.
Cannon introduces her I.S. topic with a brief history of social practice art. It originally emerged in Paris in the early 1990s under the term “relational aesthetics,” where the relationships and interactions between people were viewed as art. Inspired by this concept, artist Rirkrit Travanija and some of his colleagues rented Gallery 303 in New York in 1992, and invited people to the gallery and offered visitors onsite cooked food. Thus was the birth of social practice art. Creating a space for people to come and interact was a means of creating art born. However, this model also functioned as a way to bring people in to experience art and ultimately brought people who were already active in the art world together.
Cannon wanted her I.S. to function differently. Rather than bringing people into a limited space to experience art, she sends art out with people into their day; art is therefore intermingled with their daily routine. Cannon quoted Travanija: “My art is like the light in the fridge. It doesn’t work unless there are people to open the fridge door.” She says her mugs are not arts until they are being used. She reflected how last week two of the mugs returned came with thank you notes. She said that was really rewarding, tangible evidence that her mugs are fostering relationships.
The local interactions from the mugs are but one aspect of Cannon’s project; the second component comes from the coffee. Cannon purchased Peruvian coffee from Reach Trade, a local Wooster organization that Bailey Connor ’15 works for.
Connor, who collaborated with farming village Pangoa, in Peru over the summer, is now spearheading Reach Trade’s program, where a portion of the proceeds will go towards a fund to buy a water filter for the village. Cannon hopes to soon receive funding to sustain her support of Reach Trade as it enhances the desired ripple effect of the mugs. The relationships that begin on a personal level will become, with the aid of the coffee, global interactions.
Cannon has 50 more mugs in the making. She says she is still learning and that this next batch will show improvement. The return cycle enables multiple experiences to take place around one mug. More information on Cannon’s I.S. and when coffee will be handed out next can be found on Facebook at <https://www.facebook.com/groups/459060130873605/>.