Investigation on Functıonality and Conceptability in Ceramic Forms: Melanie Brown

Abstract

Ceramic is one of the oldest branches of art. The archaeological finds show that the first ceramic pieces were produced to meet basic needs. It is presented with a form based on the function of ceramic pots, which will perform the functions such as storage and cooking. Today, ceramic is a material that is frequently encountered in functional pottery, sanitary ware and tile production and also used as an artistic material. The use of ceramics as a material that has been formed through its function for millennia and which has come to the present day in the field of conceptual art coincides with a very recent time in its historical process. Melanie Brown, an artist who has produced concepts through functional and traditional ceramic forms as well as the use of ceramics as a material in the field of conceptual art, is the main subject of this study. Although the teapots she shaped on her lathe in his studio in Monmouthshire since 1978 seems like ordinary teapots at first glance, she examined the concept of family with her forms, persons within the group that preserved their individuality and suggested
that fire changed the material. In short, Brown’s teapots have become more than statues, which are fine, elegant, well-designed, and can be brewed with delicious tea. The function tends to follow rather than use the viewer form as if it were located at a lower position than the concept.
In this context, this paper, which is a compilation study in the light of face-to-face interviews with the artist and
articles written about herself, seeks to answer the question of whether the ceramic material is frequently found in
itself.