NCECA Emerging Artist, Bobby Tso

​The National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) just announced its lineup of the 6 Emerging Artists for 2016. This year, maybe because it is the 50th anniversary of the organization, these artists are not so much ‘emerging’ as being recognized as new leaders in the field.

I’d like to focus on Bobby Tso’s, Assistant Professor of Ceramics, Department of Fine and Performing Arts, at Northwest Missouri State University, and his work for NCECA, Moment of ‘Re’inventing. This project is about the making of objects in an environment where every form has already been made, and the artist’s work is to create a newness from amalgamating these known forms. He recreates and uses assemblage to create mechanical-like forms in slipcast ceramic and wood. There are even wires connecting parts of the machines, almost as a sort of absurd laugh. The materiality of the forms is enough to have the viewer abandon expectations of the functionality of the object, and this allows one to look more directly at the object’s many component shapes, and their arrangement.

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Tso’s presentation is seamless. His handbuilt wooden tables and shelves are fully incorporated into the aesthetic of the work, and seem another component of the form rather than a displaying or supportive structure. His craftsmanship is impeccable, fashioning perfect wooden pins and plugs to stand in for metal dials and braces.
While Tso has been elevated for this body of work, I’d like to focus on one piece from a newer, maybe less complete body of work called Voice-Over. This work is created with the idea of a voice that does not get included in a narrative, often inspired by social commentary. The series combines 2- and 3-D perspectives to associate itself with layers of ‘factual’ information.

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This work speaks of object, place, and context in a much simpler, though in my opinion, much more compelling way than the work of ’Re’inventing. In the image to the left, the blackness of the tree limb, and the empty delineated spaces of landscape, strongly suggest a disconnection, even a violent one. The restraint of color and inclusion of realistic detail in both the 2- and 3-D renderings have a quality of being more factual, more archetypical of the dislocation of trees from land. I see the straight cut at the end of each side of the log, and the browning empty area on the maplike drawing,, and my mind is compelled toward the consequences.
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View Bobby’s full portfolio at http://www.bobbytso.com/.

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