About
Matt Pekarek is a ceramic artist based in Los Angeles, CA and Central Indiana. He began working with clay as a freshman in high school in 2018, later beginning to intern at the studio/ceramics supply store Muddog Pottery/Indiana Clay. Matt has always enjoyed using his hands, being creative, and studying history, with his other high school summer job being at the lead/silver mining town of Cerro Gordo Mines (CGM). He now studies ceramics and archaeology at USC in Southern California, having a particular interest in labor, the labor movement, and industrial exploitation. This interest is prompted by his CGM job, and a familial union history.
Artist Statement
The work I create centers around the concept of labor, particularly as its cultural definition continues to shift. From an anthropological perspective, labor has meant different things to different generations, from the production of one’s own goods to survive (homesteading) to the labor movement centered on workers’ rights and industrial greed. My work attempts to use the former to capture the latter, especially as many aspects of the labor movement go untouched in American educational systems.
Using clay, a tedious medium that has eons of history revolving around self-serving production, I use industrial products (a potter’s wheel, modern tools, mined/produced claybodies, mined/produced glaze ingredients, and natural gas/electric kilns) to emulate production through industrialization. Careful craft (of ware, glaze, and how glaze is used) rehumanizes workers, yet implies exploitation, violence, and political unease that makes one question both the decorum of industry and the morality of organizers. Every work (or set) I create has theoretical functionality, yet works for deeper symbolism alongside suspected use.
As worker-capital interaction continues to be hostile, and the propriety of industries remain in flux, I attempt to highlight specific instances that have relevance to the evolving 21st century worker.