#HTE

Overwhelmed? Scream Into This Sculpture

Art is often credited as an emotional outlet for the maker and a channel for better understanding emotions in the viewer. But sometimes the feelings involved are too big or complicated or irrational to be fully released. For those times when uncertainty, fear, rage, or helplessness are too much to be relieved by a painting or piece of music, Babak Golkar has you covered. Golkar’s sculptural series Scream Pots invite the viewer to release difficult emotions in a literal, yet benign and creative way. By screaming. 

The sculptures are hand thrown terra cotta, made in two parts, shaped to receive and neutralize the sounds made by a screaming viewer. One end cradles the face while a tiny hole at the end releases air. The bells and curves of the pieces augment and dampen and change the sound, from primal and negative to something new.

As Golkar explains in the artist’s statement: 

In this installation I was interested in screaming as a release but also a gesture or a form of contestation. We tend to let go in private, not in public, and that letting go has to do with exposing our vulnerability, which here is reflected, not only by the action of participants through engaging with the works and screaming into the vessels, but also through the use of terra cotta as a fragile medium.

The series was opened to the public in the installation Time To Let Go, which debuted at the Vancouver Art Gallery Offsite in 2014. The purgative pieces have also shown in areas as far flung as Tehran, Iran, where the need for socially appropriate release takes on a slightly different cast. 

Now maybe it’s time for an American exhibition… or commercial line? Rather than voting from a place of hate, fear or confusion, every home should have its own scream pot to keep us thinking clearly.

http://www.core77.com/posts/58306/Overwhelmed-Scream-Into-This-Sculpture