Feature Articles

November Issue 2002

W.D.O. Gallery Moves to Hearst Plaza Next to the Mint Museum Of Craft + Design in Charlotte, NC

W.D.O. is re-opening at the Hearst Plaza on North Tryon Street in Center City Charlotte, NC. Design for the new space by architect, Kevin Kennedy, A.I.A., of Shook is quite marvelous and unique. Greg Snyder, Assistant Professor in the School of Architecture, UNC at Charlotte, created the exhibition "shop" space.

Established in 1995, W.D.O. will continue in its new venue to offer a welcoming and informative atmosphere in which to view the highest quality fine crafts. Selling work by nationally and internationally established makers and innovative new talent, W.D.O. will continue to set the standard for excellence in contemporary jewelry, ceramics, studio glass, metal, wood and textiles.

The gallery is celebrating this event with two exhibitions: Byron Temple/A Tribute to Fifty Years/Clay and Hoss Haley/ Steel and Concrete Sculpture, both on view through Nov. 30, 2002.

After a series of debilitating strokes Byron Temple, internationally significant potter, passed away on Apr. 14, 2002, at the age of sixty-eight. This show is a tribute to and celebration of Temple's life and work.

Exploration of Scandinavian design combined with the already strong influence of his years of working with Bernard Leach, in England, has enabled Temple to produce work, which is straightforward, almost classical its restraint, and inviting.

"I wish for purity and precision in objects that extol the virtue of harmony and proportion," said the artist.

Temple's work is not symbolic, sculptural or self-conscious and is outside the mainstream of contemporary American ceramic arts. His work develops out of the intellectual movement started by Leach, Yanagi and Cardew, who saw hand-made pottery as having an artistic value and who established it as a living language - an "invented tradition."

Temple was apprenticed with the legendary potter and philosopher, Bernard Leach in England from 1958 to 1961.

Temple's pieces are designed to allow an intimate encounter, designed to appeal to the sense of touch as well as sight. His forms are stripped of everything extraneous to function. Glazes are applied sparingly never arbitrarily. Temple's efforts to match form to function have taken him beyond the Japanese pottery, which had been Leach's inspiration. Within disciplined limits, the pieces are deceptively simple. The work emanates a quiet strength that transcends individual purposes.

The spirit of the work invites the viewer to slow down his pace and pay attention to the details: for example, a thumb print recording a gesture or the way the light hits the surface.

Also showing at W.D.O. is, Hoss Haley/ Steel and Concrete Sculpture. The following is what Haley had to say of his work: "Much of the inspiration for my work comes from industrial forms. The artifacts of the early industrial age contain a complete economy of materials dictated by function. I am interested in creating objects of beauty and simplicity by using only the tools, materials, and ideas, which are essential to the work.

A simple smoke stack, as ominous at its purpose may be, has a beauty, which I cannot deny. The taper of a stack or the way some get narrow and wider again, is totally based on the mathematics involved in its function. And yet I find its geometry sensual and attractive. The beauty of an old, decaying sooty smoke stack is like the hands of old men who worked these factories; scarred and gnarled - showing signs of unsavory tasks - but also strong and gentle.

From my experience, nothing better typifies our human condition than the rusty hulk of our industrial past. Despite our constant attempts to create things, which are permanent, the moment a structure is built it starts to deteriorate; nature begins to reclaim it. But there is a beauty in this process. It is my hope that the beauty of this struggle will come through in my work. It is that struggle that informs my esthetic.

The language I use is that of industry: steel and concrete. Simply, this is the language I know best; it's my history."

The works created by Haley are post-modern/post-industrial statements, the emotional impact of which combines nostalgia with the masculine power of a machine aesthetic. The artifacts of the past become icons for a contemporary consumer society based on information retrieval rather than working factories. Working hard in an American factory has become a romantic concept when juxtaposed to a computer centered virtual reality. Working in steel and concrete is hard physical labor. Art becomes identified with good honest work. Haley takes the man-made environment and the construction materials of that environment to create a poetic vocabulary based on the machine culture of the industrial revolution. His images are saved from brute force by the grace inherent in their refined design and surface treatment. Haley's images leave the foundry as elegant and sophisticated works of art that transcend their inspiration and thus become inspirational.

For further information check our NC Commercial Gallery listings, call the gallery at 704/333-9123, e-mail at info@gallerywdo.com) and on the web at (www.gallerywdo.com).

Mailing Address: Carolina Arts, P.O. Drawer 427, Bonneau, SC 29431
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Copyright© 2002 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts Online, Copyright© 2002 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.