Roberto Lugo and Isaac Scott: historical discourse

roberto lugoisaac scottart exhibitionartist focusceramicscontemporary ceramicscurating

May 4

Over the past couple of months, I have been spending a lot of time writing and rewriting parts of the catalogue, which has meant more time in front of the computer than I am used to, and it also has meant I have listened to a lot of music. Most of the time I am sound-tracked by the excellent BBC 6music, but it also set me thinking about the artists in their studios, in their solitude, what keeps them sane and engaged. I also happen to really like making playlists, so it seemed like a perfect opportunity to ask the artists involved in the exhibition what they listen to and curate a playlist: which you can find here – I recommend listening to it in order as there is a nice synergy to seeing how these different artists’ music tastes make a playlist with a lovely flow.

There were also a couple of artists in the show who I strongly link with music already: Roberto Lugo and Isaac Scott. One of the first pieces by Lugo that I saw is his excellent vase featuring Jimi Hendrix and as I started to go deeper into his work, I started seeing more and more musicians on his pieces: Notorious BIG, Nina Simone, Wu Tang Clan, Erykah Badu, Bob Marley. Basically, an amazing playlist writing itself in my mind. I also discovered Scott through Lugo’s Instagram account and the first piece of his that really struck me was a mug featuring Tupac Shakur – and if you’re familiar with 6music then you can see how I was indulging my playlist making side already. There is a commonality between Lugo’s work and Scott’s at a very fundamental level – they both use striking portraits as the basis of most of their work.

“Often communities like mine seem omitted from historical discourse. To better serve my community and address this issue of representation, I use the form of the Century Vase as an artistic platform to bring attention to the achievements, trials, and everyday life of my people.”1

Lugo’s work is big (some of his vases take a team of 3 or 4 to load into the kiln), bold, powerful and arresting. He calls himself the ghetto potter and his work often looks like street art with a large nod to graffiti art and hip-hop culture and there is an excellent film of him taking his wheel out onto the street. His work with political figures on look like campaign posters that have been tagged, but tagging in graffiti can be seen as ownership and these are figures who command respect and Lugo claims them for his own to present back to an audience as immortalised figures. Kamala Harris, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rosa Parks, Stacey Abrams, Martin Luther King.

“… 100 years from now I want a lot of people of colour to be on pots, so that you see it every day and you become comfortable with it.”2

Lugo’s work is some of the most collectible in world ceramics at the moment, with his teapots selling for thousands of dollars and his mugs selling out in minutes and if offered on eBay selling for hundreds of dollars in rampant bidding wars, and with this level of recognition Lugo often uses his profile to aid his community: supporting charities by donating works for them to sell, promoting young artists, allowing others to see themselves represented through him and as an aspirational figure. He manages to walk the tightrope of making it seem very normal to be righting the wrongs of historical ceramics not celebrating people of colour, whilst also emphasising the uniqueness of it.

“… he also, increasingly, speaks about the burden of representation that he is now obliged to carry. He knows well that his rise has been anomalous; that the art world’s eager embrace means little, if not backed up by more systemic change.”3

“I try to invoke certain feelings in people when they see my work. A lot of it makes people feel uncomfortable.”4

Scott’s work also pushes portraits of people of colour to the forefront of his artwork, beyond Tupac he has also featured Martin Luther King, James Baldwin and Malcolm X on mugs, but he also confronts with more provocative images like the Black Panthers and his own screaming face. I’ve always wondered if Scott felt like he was shouting into the void or maybe even shouting into an echo chamber on the side of that mug?

“I think the objects themselves are just catalysts to change. I think it is the ideas behind them that are going to inspire people and eventually make real changes… I think culture is extremely important because when it goes to what people’s beliefs are and how they act towards one another, I think culture is vastly more important than what a message can be.”5

With no access to his studio and kiln at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Scott started walking his city, Philadelphia, with his camera. In the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests that followed, Scott’s artistic practice took a radical temporary turn as he turned documentary photographer with his incredible images ending up featured in The New Yorker, recording events from close quarters as police used teargas on protestors and volunteers orchestrated the distribution of food and water through the demonstrations. With one eye on the news from the UK knowing Scott was on those frontlines was tense, but then seeing the ripple around the world was gratifying. The events in the US have given the UK a renewed intensity to question our own racist colonial history, down to the dramatic toppling of the statue of slaver Edward Colston in Bristol.

“When you’re talking specifically about what a monument does, you’re passing down a story, you’re passing down identity… they’re passing down an idea… you get to see yourself in that, in a thing that’s bigger than yourself… It goes deeper than seeing a black face on a monument, it’s tied to ideals and cultural norms that are being preserved and are violent against the people in your own community.”6

Scott’s photography has prompted a wonderful collaboration with Justin Rothshank combining some of Scott’s most striking images reproduced in mud red decals with Rothshank’s simple tableware and also became the foundation of this set made for the Design Miami art fair, which combined Scott’s images of the demonstrations and anger on mugs with images of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor on water jugs: the true trickle-down effect of the needless killings by police officers.

“My work is not intended to point a finger, identify the source, or suggest a solution, but simply to archive a moment.”7

Both Scott and Lugo use their work to highlight the inequalities between communities and how these communities are dealt with by the authorities, and they also look at how the differences between communities filter into both the wider art world and their own practices.

“Pottery is unimportant if you are concerned about what – or if – you will eat. It doesn’t matter if you have a bowl if you don’t have food to put in it. I began to search for a more meaningful way to represent my community.”8

“These days, the decorative arts canon serves as Lugo’s quarry; it is the lexicon of his sculptural language. But he can well remember when it seemed to exclude him, and he still feels keenly the way that elitism forms a barrier between the museum and its possible public.”9

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1 & 7-8 – Roberto Lugo; Roberto Lugo: Ghetto Is Resourceful; 2019; Wexler Gallery

2 – Roberto Lugo; NCECA Emerging Artist: Where the Wu Tang Clan Meets Worcester Porcelain; 2015; NCECA YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFzKDg4aF6am8ZR4JCV8UDw

3 & 9 – Glenn Adamson; Roberto Lugo: Ghetto Is Resourceful; 2019; Wexler Gallery

4-5 – Isaac Scott; Having a Message; 2017; The Potters Cast, Episode 318

6 – Isaac Scott; Isaac Scott on black representation in public spaces and photographing protests; 2020; Tales of The Red Clay Rambler Podcast, Episode 327