The Eclectic Art of Janet Kozachek: A Retrospective at the Hampton Fine Arts Center

 The concluding works in my Archaeology portion of my current exhibition are eight pieces featuring fragments of artifacts.  The first two, “The Key to Understanding Sibling Rivalry”, and “The Key to Understanding Ancient Poetry”, were discussed in my last blog post.  The next two are “Untying the Knot,” and “The Broken Sword.”

“The Broken Sword” was initially styled after a medieval sword hilt found in the Barnes Collection in Philadelphia.  I used to visit the Barnes when it was still a cozy place in Marion, Pennsylvania, and found it refreshing and fascinating in the way artifacts were intermingled with paintings.  Despite the new venue looking a little cold, Philadelphia at least kept some basic concepts in the elevation of  craft to fine art by mixing the two in mostly the same symbiotic relationships as they were in Marion.  The seventeenth century dagger hilt that inspired my small mosaic was of a small boy carved in ivory.

For my sword hilt, I changed the figure into a woman and added terra sigillata colorants.  My ceramic sword broke twice, once on purpose for the sword end, and then by accident on the hilt end.  I decided to fire it and then pit fire it anyway.  I had named the piece “The Broken Sword,” after all. While assembling this mosaic, adding bits of green beach glass around the figure, it occurred to me that an arc of a brighter color emanating from the woman’s head would add some variation and highlighting.  In creating the pale orange arc, I thought of a final scene in Ingmar Bergman’s film “The Virgin Spring.”  In this final scene, the father of a murdered girl retrieves her body, and when he pulls her from the ground, a stream of water issues from the ground where her head had rested.  Despite my stream being orange, the issuing effect is still present.  Would she have been able to save herself had she been armed?

My next mosaic, “Untying the Knot,” was inspired by my recent readings in ancient Chinese stone seal designs.  Some of the early designs had pointed ends which ostensibly functioned as a tool for untying knots.  The untied knot in my mosaic is signified by the swirling lines in the pottery shards.  I had stored this broken plate for some years, as I had not the heart to discard it.  The plate had been made by Zheng Ke, in Handan, China.  He was the teacher of my teacher, Ka Kwong Hui (Xu Jiaguang in Mandarin).  Hui, who I had studied with as an undergraduate at Rutgers, wrote the letter of introduction for us to take to Handan.  Zheng Ke had been imprisoned for nearly twenty years.  There were many in his generation that were incarcerated twice, first shortly after the Communist revolution, then again during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960's.  I was astounded that Zheng Ke seemed to pick up where he had left off and founded a new school of ceramic art in Han Dan.  It was with a certain satisfaction that I was able to put this broken plate back to use.  Fortunately, I also still have an intact piece.  What I would give to also have a piece of ceramic art by Hui, although considering that I dropped one of Zheng Ke’s pieces, I probably don’t deserve it. 

The face in this mosaic is imaginary.  I was simply challenged to create something that looked like it could have been someone.