| Concordia's Faculty of Fine Arts saw an unlikely marriage between ceramics and paper-making last term, as part-time Fibres instructor Ashley Miller and associate professor in Ceramics Thérèse Chabot joined their classes for a collaborative project. "Even though they're two different disciplines in terms of material, they have certain things in common," Miller said. "They're both malleable."
Students worked in pairs, one from each discipline, and produced works such as paper and ceramic bowls, plates and books. One group was interested in the media as tactile experience and invited classmates to dip their hands into clear containers holding different mixtures of paper, clay and water. Another served homemade soup on paper plates with whimsical ceramic spoons.
But the instructors were not as interested in the finished projects as they were in the way they were achieved. "We wanted to expand on the notion of what collaboration was all about," said Miller, as Chabot nodded in agreement. "We were interested in the process. We wanted to see how the students interact and how that interaction changes what might come out (as a finished product) in the end." The two say they were very pleased by the results and plan to repeat the project next year. - Michelle Rainer |
