RIO STELA. AMERICA FIRST!

The Rio Stela commemorates the US position on climate change at the Rio conference in 1992 and the current agenda of the new US administration. Back to the future? This will probably be Ray Meeker’s last in a series of environmental pieces, a project that dates back to 1969 when he was an undergraduate in ceramics at the University of Southern California. “But every time I try to walk away from the issue, it just gets bigger,” he says. He returned to this theme in 2001 showing Kurukshetra with Nature Morte, followed  by Kyoto Protocol and Hegemony in 2004, Ozymandias and Double Helix in 2008, Passage at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Chennai in 2011 and the Eye of the Needle series in 2014.

He says, “It is possible to clean up this act”. In the 1970s California imposed strict emission standards on motor vehicles. Los Angeles still has smoggy days, but fewer and less dangerous. So, a choice can change priorities — or not.

A student of architecture and ceramics from the University of Southern California, RAY MEEKER founded Golden Bridge Pottery in Puducherry with Deborah Smith forty-seven years ago. Ray’s prolific work ranges from “tea bowls to houses” to kiln building and monumental sculpture; Kyoto Protocol, Hegemony, Ozymandias and Passage being but a few examples. In recognition of his almost five-decade influence as a teacher and artist, he received a joint Outstanding Achievement Award with Deborah from NCECA this year. Still an explorer and making new work, he is developing India’s first Anagama kiln. His book Building with Fire will be launched at the Triennale.

www.raymeeker.com