The Transient Jar
transient meaning ‘passing from one to another’
jar with it’s multiple meanings from ‘a vessel’ to ‘suddenly jar my senses’ and finally ‘to leave something open’
The “transient jar” is the title for a series of work by Barry Wilson. The media represented in the exhibition include reduction relief printmaking, drawing, and collage. The style and technique of the images change and develop as the “transient jar” mirrors changing lives and events.
A broken ceramic jar being discarded became the muse for this body of images. The life of this jar is considered as it moves from being a beautiful object with practical and utilitarian purposes to an old jar with some value as an antique to a broken worthless object being removed as clutter. The jar’s life is contemplated as it moves from generation to generation and from place to place through the twentieth century.
The first four images are multiple color reduction relief prints drawn and developed in a more traditional treatment of form and space. As the series develops the jar and space become more fragmented. “Transient Jar” #’s 5 -25 are one of a kind, not created as multiple originals. These collage pieces were created using print matrixes to make a variety of elements rather than duplicate images.
