Malta’s rich Neolithic archeological treasures are living reminders of our interconnection with those that came before us. In this workshop, ceramic sculptor Erin McGuiness will share her interpretations, images, and research from her month-long residency, where she was immersed in the stone and clay remains of these early settlers (3600 - 2500 B.C.) of the Maltese archipelago. Small islands of honey colored limestone that arose from the waters of the Mediterranean, the country of Malta sits at the cultural intersection of Europe and Africa. This ancient land holds the remains of many of our oldest, human-built, free-standing stone structures. These masterpieces of prehistory continue to exhale the breath of the Neolithic Temple Builder culture. An agrarian community whose coherent and complex culture spanned almost 1,000 years and influenced the settlers who came after them; the Phoenicians, Romans, Greeks, Christians and Arabs. In prehistory, a diverse collective of humans discovered a way to peacefully work with the land and with each other to create artistic, spiritual, and technological advancements far ahead of their time.
Erin will guide you through a process of active imagination and hands on creative practices to listen for the whispers of these ancient forbearers. Using simple hand-building techniques, we will make clay replicas of ceremonial and household items from this foundational society. The objects they created and the stone gathering places they built are living libraries whose mysterious stories can be felt with our eyes, hands, intuitions and imagination. Together we will explore the highly developed language of symbols and spaces carved of the island’s native limestone, where the spirals, corpulent figures, birds, rams, bulls, pigs, snakes, and the three-dimensional spaces above and below ground inspire us to ask ourselves so many questions: Did these early people dance, sing, grieve, give birth, die, seek healing and transformation in these spaces and with these objects? How do these rituals resonate with our struggles today? What did they know that can help us navigate our present day challenges?
California based sculptor Erin McGuiness incorporates contemplative practices with art making, working primarily with clay and found objects. She uses hand building processes such as carving and coil building, to create ceramic forms that are totemic, archetypal and play at the intersection of dualities; light and dark, monastic and lush, wild and cultivated. The pieces explore themes of the vessel-as-archetype, divine feminine & masculine, inter-relatedness of forms, ancestral recovery of earth based devotional practices and the animation of matter. Researching the Old European Neolithic culture, she seeks to find cultural roots that pre-date colonization and the suppression of artistic and spiritual practices in which her ancestors were deeply tied to the land, nature and one another in shared community. Ultimately the forms and three-dimensional spaces she creates provide a locus or quiet place where viewers are invited into their own personal form of communion. Her teaching philosophy explores the body as our most important tool in art making and the creation of objects made-by-hand, as a nonlinear process to cultivate myth-making capabilities. Integrating meditation, energy and embodiment exercises into the direct manipulation of earth – clay.
Curiosity and a sense of play activate our innate visioning abilities, while the receptive earthiness of clay keeps us firmly grounded in the present moment. By recreating an object we come to understand it more deeply, seeing its subtlety and feeling a sense of the spirit of the piece and the consciousness of its maker. Through creative practice and using our imagination, workshop participants may unlock the script of these past peoples. Cultivating more understanding of the very ground that contemporary residents and visitors of Malta are blessed to walk on and with. A process to remember and invite into today’s cultural dialogue, the wisdom and life teachings of the original human inhabitants of Malta.
Date: November 11, 2023
Time: 11:00 am - 4:00 pm PT
Duration of workshop: Approximately 4 hours, with a 1 hour lunch break
Materials: Clay
Cost: $185 (includes materials and firing)
Location: Erin McGuiness’ Studio, 2547 8th Street #33, Berkeley, CA