Michael Flaherty
BORN St. John’s, NL
LIVES Port Union, NL
SpaceCraft 2017
Two sculptural kilns
Site 17 – Union Electric Building, Port Union
Science, art and ceramics came together in SpaceCraft, presented in the raw space of the Union Electric Building, a former industrial building managed by the Sir William F. Coaker Foundation in Port Union. In national and international ceramics circles, Mike Flaherty is known not only for technical and aesthetic excellence but also for the conceptual rigour and activist engagement he brings to his practice. Past works have included rangifer sapiens, referencing human and animal traces left in abandoned communities, and performative works involving board games or bicycle repair. For the Bonavista Biennale, Flaherty’s environmental concerns and fascination with astronomy melded.
To call attention to issues of energy and resource depletion, SpaceCraft “makes a spectacle of solar power”. Experimenting over several months, the artist devised two versions of a solar-fired kiln, mastering production of curved gold lustre-glazed ceramic disks and their combination with other components to collect sunlight, focusing its solar power to fire small ceramic objects. The dish design is based on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, set to launch in 2018, and the fired sculptures are “planets”, each unique in shape, texture and glazing.
Flaherty notes that the new telescope will help us discover new planets and solar systems even as we continue to destroy our own. Significant within his work are questions about how craft sensibilities might shape possible futures. In his view of craft as a socially responsible practice, he suggests that 21st century craft must be about sustainability for the planet. PG
Top: Michael Flaherty, SpaceCraft, 2017 (pre-installation view). 2 sculptural kilns, clay, gold lustre, glaze, insulated fire brick, aluminum, steel, wood.
Michael Flaherty, SpaceCraft, 2017 (detail). Ceramic “planets” fired in kiln. Photo: Michael Flaherty
