Jennifer Otis
Minneapolis, Minn.

The pieces in this show are a part of what I call, for lack of a better name, my “cluster series.” This cluster series has been a process of constant inquiry. Almost every day, I ask myself questions about this series, both while creating work and while living my life outside the studio.

Do the forms repeat themselves to be remembered? Do the forms repeat themselves just as people might when they re-tell a beloved folktale to the next generation, lest
it be forgotten? Do these clusters represent a celebratory gathering of some sort? Or do these clusters symbolize a primitive animal instinct – the “herd mentality” or “safety in numbers”?

Are they a formal experiment – a Bach Cantata – a musical variation on a theme? Do these formal repetitions and slight variations represent natural selection or laboratory cloning? On one hand, I would like them to reference an undisturbed and intact ecosystem that has produced millions of wild orchids over the millennia. On the other hand, if these forms are almost all alike, does this indicate something unnatural, like the destruction of biodiversity?

Through repetition, are they committing themselves to memory? Are they like a mantra? Some of them look like vessels – what should they contain? Why is it so important that they are all connected to one another? Does this connection symbolize unity and strength? Or could this symbolize protection – like small loons riding on the back of the parent?
Do the pieces that I create move other people beyond simplistic interpretations and dualistic thinking? Do they force people to pay more attention to the work or to life in general?

In the end, are these pieces simply about the materiality of clay and glaze interacting with fire? Are they beautiful? Quiet? Powerful? Transformative?

Somehow, the work itself has become both the question and the answer.

If I could ask Gertrude Stein about her perspective on this cluster series, she might have concluded, “A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose.”

B.A., St. Olaf College, 1991
M.F.A., University of Iowa, 2000

Currently Adjunct Faculty, The College of St. Catherine

Selected Exhibitions: “Celadons”, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, 2002; “Wetlands”, Studiolo, Iowa City, 2002; “Artists at Northern Clay”, Minneapolis, 2003; “St John’s Pottery Exhibition Tour”, three-year traveling exhibit, St. John’s University, Collegeville, Minn. 2001-2003; “Beyond 9-11” Online exhibit, 2002-2004; “3rd Annual Elmhurst Art Museum Competition”, Elmhurst Art Museum, Third Place Award, 2000

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