Other Composites: an Exploration of Earthenware Tiles

A group exhibition with Artists Summer Orr & Cesar Piedra

Other Composites addresses the process of two distinctly different ceramicists, Cesar Piedra and Summer Orr. The individual clay practice of these two artists begins to merge into something with similar properties, like a composite material -- as they both take on tile production. Both artists challenge the construction of historical narratives within tile creation and embellishment in this virtual exhibition.

With this body of work, Cesar Piedra explores connections between the iconography of the Mexica (Aztec) religion and the role of the contemporary Mexican-American day laborer. Piedra's ceramic tiles highlight the iconography and ceremonial practices of the Mexica culture along with the construction materials used by the modern Mexican day laborer. The sacrificial practices of the Mesoamerican culture were of reciprocity, as the Mesoamerican Gods sacrificed themselves to create humans, thus the Mexica would ceremoniously offer the lives of humans, maintaining the world's existence. Piedra's use of construction materials is informed by his time spent in construction sites during his youth, recalling the sights, smells, and sounds of the structures and the people who built them. 

Piedra approached this work with the notion of blood, sweat, and tears along with the sacrifice of the bodies made by contemporary day laborers to provide a life for their families paying homage to the ancestral culture of Mexico and its descendants.