SYLVIA RAMACHANDRAN SKEEN portrait
  • Adjunct Associate Professor, Art/Art History
801-581-8677

Research Statement

I’m interested in the peculiar position the handmade object occupies in our time.  As we construct images and even human relationships from components little more substantial than electronic impulses, the experiences of proximity and touch are becoming less common.  The warmth at the core of this impulse to connect, in contrast with the challenge and chill of distance, is a theme I am exploring in my work.  Much has been said about how machines, and now technology, are dehumanizing us; I would argue that rather than robbing us of our humanity, they are revealing it more starkly—both our nobility and our foibles.  The working title of my current body of work is "Remote Possibilities" and is a reflection on the phenomenon of online social networks.  In 2008 I received a Utah Arts Council Emerging Artist Grant to fund technical research for this project, including investigation of new ceramic surfaces (such as terra sigillata) and mixed media elements.  I am now beginning to apply the fruits of this research.  My sculptural imagery includes contraptions designed to allow viewers to perform at a distance tasks that would normally be intimate and tactile in nature, such as serving a drink to a guest or calming a frightened child.  The work will continue my long-time exploration of tools and manufactured objects as organic outgrowths of our psyche and spirit. My two most recent bodies of porcelain sculpture follow this thread. In the first group are hybrids of car bodies and mollusk shells.  These pieces are about risk-taking, vulnerability, and the coverings we devise for ourselves; they also pose the broader question of how art keeps us alive.  The second group is a meditation on the story of Jonah and the Whale and the fearsome but protective vehicles that often carry us, metaphorically, on reluctant journeys of growth.

Creative Research

  • Dream Machines, a solo exhibition of all new works at Brigham Young University in conjunction with my assignment as a visiting artist there last winter. Exhibition was installed Feb. 2, 2023 and will be on display until Feb. 21, 2023. Exhibition, in progress 02/02/2023.
  • Space Maker (group exhibition) at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. August 21, 2021- December 5, 2021. Exhibited 2 new ceramic and mixed media works from my new Remote Possibilities series. Exhibition, completed 12/05/2021.
  • 7th Annual BDAC Plein Air Competition, Bountiful Davis Art Center, Bountiful, Utah, June 5 - July 16 (exhibited 3 paintings on clay relief) Exhibition, completed 07/16/2021.
  • Here's to You (Invitational Exhibition), Alvin Gittins Gallery, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT. Created new work for exhibition honoring retiring Department Chair David Pendell. Exhibition, completed 02/2011.
  • Moving Spaces (invitational group sculpture exhibition), Bountiful/Davis Art Center, Bountiful, Utah. Exhibition, completed 05/2010.
  • Statewide Competition (juried exhibition), Bountiful/Davis Art Center, Bountiful, Utah. Exhibition, completed 02/2010.
  • Utah 2009: Fine Craft and Photography (juried group exhibition sponsored by the Utah Arts Council). Received Honorable Mention award. Exhibition, completed 11/25/2009.
  • Julius B. Bearnson Alumni Ceramic Exhibition (group invitational), Alvin Gittins Gallery, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah. Exhibition, completed 11/06/2009.
  • Completed research for the individual Utah Arts Council Emerging Artist Grant ($500) I received in 2008. The award was made to fund my setup of a new studio space, including the purchase of glaze materials and some basic metal working equipment, as well as to research terra sigillata, an ancient earthenware surface that has allowed me to shift from working in white, high-fire porcelain to using more complex color and varied materials in my work. Other, completed 08/31/2009.
  • Title: Passage to Nineveh. A new body of work in solo exhibition at the Salt Lake City Main Library, including 18 new porcelain sculptures. Exhibition Dates: February-April 2009 Artist Statement: Sooner or later, we each find ourselves on a mission we’d prefer to abort. Sometimes we go on out of love or duty. Sometimes, like Jonah, we simply can’t escape—there is no place to jump but into the mouth of the big fish. This work is about the vessels that carry us: intimate and individual, protective even as they are fearful. Hand-building in porcelain, my goal is to expose the softness and weakness of the clay as well as its hardness and strength. I explore texture and ornament, elements that appear to be merely decorative but have counterparts in nature (such as on mollusk shells) that enable living creatures to survive. These pieces are themselves the survivors of an intensive, multiple firing process designed to build up layers of subtle color and luster. Exhibition, completed 04/06/2009.

Presentations

  • Visiting Artist (2-day event which involved presenting an evening slide lecture about my creative research and participating in a day of studio visits with undergraduate and graduate art students), Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. Presentation, Presented, 01/2011.

Publications