Editor's pick: Art opening

Ceramics by masters of the anagama process

Fri., Aug. 5 through Thu., Aug. 25, at the Delaware Valley Arts Center Gallery, 37 Main Street, Narrowsburg, NY. 845/252-7576.

Sculptor Susanne Wibroe-Fost has been working on a dream for 15 years: building her own anagama kiln. This year she realized that dream, and on Wednesday, August 3 the massive kiln, after having been stoked round the clock for about a week, had cooled down enough from its first firing that the ceramics could be taken out to be placed for exhibition at the Delaware Valley Arts Center Gallery.

Anagama is an ancient technique of ceramic making that migrated from China to Japan hundreds of years ago. Wibroe-Fost came to it during her years at Berkley, where she worked as an assistant to master Peter Voulkos. The firing process is a stupendous undertaking, so much so that it is only feasible to do once a year. Ten or more cords of wood, split into match-sized pieces, have to be stoked into the kiln 24 hours a day, as frequently as once a minute, for a period of days. The distinctive character of the pieces comes from their placement in the kiln, just how they are exposed to flame and ash, and what other materials, such as sea shells or glass, that are placed into the kiln alongside them. According to Wibroe-Fost, so much ash falls on the pieces at the front of the kiln that the deposits build up like barnacles, creating an effect “as though they have been underneath the Aegean sea for thousands of years.”

The results of this year’s inaugural firing, including pieces by a number of artists, will be shown in the upstairs gallery. The downstairs gallery will feature steel and ceramic sculptures and wall hangings by Wilbroe-Fost, all of which incorporate anagama components.

Exhibiting with Wibroe-Fost in the main gallery space will be kiln master Ryusei Arita, whom she met when at Berkley. The 64-year-old Japanese native has lived in Oakland, California for the past 40 years. Master of the anagama ceramic process, his traditional utilitarian Japanese ceramic pieces have been exhibited and used throughout the world. Over the last three years Ryusei has traveled back and forth from California to Damascus, PA, to help Wibroe-Fost complete that dream.

Many local residents and businesses became instrumental in the kiln’s creation, copying kiln master Arita’s drawings and plans step by step. Wibroe-Fost’s husband, Laurent Fost, a mold maker and foundryman from France, constructed the kiln with Arita.

Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.