Cradling Consumption

Faye Kennelly

Interview by C. VanWinkle

November 11, 2022

Can you please start by describing the prompt that you responded to? 

The original artwork that I got was a drawing of what looked to be a figure holding something like a lollipop, essentially the world on a stick. They had these gnarling teeth and it looked as though they were about to consume it. And there was a brick wall to the left. I initially did some journaling about it, and I kept thinking about Goya’s painting, “Saturn Devouring His Son,” even though it wasn't as gnarly and gruesome by any means. It just kept coming forward to me when I thought about it. When I got it, I guess my immediate thought was, “Oh of course, this has to do with mass consumption and how humans are devouring the earth and we will eventually consume it in its entirety and we'll all be dead.” [both laugh uncomfortably]

I also thought of that commercial from when I was a kid. There was that owl with the Tootsie Pop who is like, “One, and a two…” and on the third lick he just crunches it. I don't know, that came to my mind as I was looking at the image.

I've never thought about that commercial in terms of ecology before, and it’s suddenly very violent to me! So how did you get started with the piece that you made? 

Well, my primary material that I work with is clay, so I initially thought I’d make a clay thing. But then I realized I couldn’t do that because I only have two weeks and I work at a community studio, so it wouldn't be finished in time to photograph and all that. So instead, I worked with Sculpey, and I worked on a very small scale. What is interesting is that this imagery and journaling about it did inspire a clay sculpture that I've begun making, too. It's not finished, but that’s kind of cool. The Sculpey piece is very small; it fits in the palm of my hand. 

Is it unusual for you to work so small? 

I guess so. My drawings tend to be on the smaller scale. Sculpturewise, though, it’s not very common that I work small. 

In this particular piece, I see a mouth and I see an earth, and the mouth looks a little snaky to me. Whose mouth is this? Is it somebody's? 

No, it's not somebody's. But I feel like every time I draw mouths, they look like this. My partner pointed out that it looks very vaginal, which is funny. A lot of my other clay sculptural work does kind of look “vulva-y.” Maybe it's just a theme for me. But no, it's not anyone's mouth in particular. It's just some snarling kind of mouth that has gross, yellow teeth, but they're sharp, little daggers. And it’s missing some teeth. Yeah, just a scary mouth. 

It's a little confusing how the world is kind of breaking through the center of the mouth. It's a little bit opposite of what is really supposed to be happening. The world is supposed to be going into the mouth, but I actually pushed it through from the back. I don't really know that means. 

It’s being regurgitated?

Maybe!

How does this piece relate to the rest of your work? 

I guess I do have this little obsession with teeth. Actually, the inspiration for a lot of my work is right here. [holds it up show-and-tell style] It’s a shark jaw. One of my friends from a very long time ago went to Trinidad, where they're from, and they found this on the shoreline. They were like, “Hey, I know you love shark teeth. You can have this.” It's so cool! It's been here through so many moves with me. I stepped on it once when I was moving, and it will mess you up. It sliced me. Similarly, the teeth that I put on my sculptures and mugs, when they are glazed, do get very sharp and you can actually cut yourself on them. That’s kind of an interesting facet of my work, that it actually is a bit dangerous. So it needs to be handled with intention and care.

To make the teeth, it's a process called slip trailing. The teeth really look more like shark teeth than human teeth, so they're tiny, almost triangular, pointed little things. On my mugs, I usually put them in one area so you can interact with them, but you won't cut your mouth. I had a friend request one with teeth all the way around and I told them, “You will 100% slice your mouth every time you drink out of it, so I can't do that.” They're mindfully placed so that you won’t hurt yourself. 

That's a good idea. Have you worked with these themes of ecology or consumption before? Is that something that exists in your work? 

No, not really, although a friend of mine would say that my work does talk about it a little bit, just in the use of dirt as a primary material for my work. But no, I haven’t approached those themes or motifs in my work, so I guess this is the first time.

I think of you as a ceramicist, but this piece is a little sculpture. Are you a sculptor? 

Yeah. My undergrad was in sculpture and I used predominantly steel. But that was a very long time ago and I have not welded in over a decade. Still, I think the way that I think about art and three-dimensional work and clay is more of a sculptural framework. I've never called myself a sculptor though. I usually say ceramicist. 

Also, you didn't just send me a photo of your piece. You made a little video of it. Is that also in your wheelhouse? Do you work in video? Are you a filmmaker?

[laughs] I wish! That would be cool. No, I don't know anything about films or filmmaking, but it's funny to reflect on that because the last piece that I submitted to y'all was also a video. And this isn't something I do, you know? It's kind of interesting. And I know this is for a magazine, and the moving image does not translate to an actual printed book. But I don't know. I was messing around with this app my friend told me about called PhotoRoom. It's a gamechanger for photographing your artwork. It's amazing. I was messing around with it and what I decided on was this sort of pink, pulsating in the background. I felt like that knew about the act of slowly swallowing something, you know what I mean? That's what I landed on because I wanted the viewer to understand that this world is getting consumed by this gnarly mouth. 

I think it worked really well. I felt like I was also falling in, which was a fun effect. 

That’s cool. It’s so interesting. I'm a small business owner and, being on social media, you have to make the videos and blah blah blah. I'm 36, which technically makes me an elder Millennial, I guess. But I'm not as savvy with that stuff as some people. I still attempt to make engaging material for the internet. Anyway, I say that because nowadays anybody can be a filmmaker. You can make a whole-ass film on your fucking phone, you know? It's wild. Who was that filmmaker, the guy who did The Florida Project? Sean Baker. I think his very first film was recorded completely on his iPhone. 

Was that Tangerine? 

Yes! I love that movie.

Oh it's great. Yeah, that's true that these days, even if you're just making earrings to sell online, you’re kind of *required* to also make a movie. That used to be going above and beyond and now it's par for the course.

That’s where the bar is now, to make a short video. It's wild. 

I hate that because I'm lazy, but I also like to learn new skills, so… 

I don't know how to do the fancy stuff that people are doing, but whatever. I'm a potter. I just throw on the wheel and it's a nice video. You know, it's relaxing. 

I've been telling people about this project. I always try to tell people because it's such a fun thing to get involved in. It's nice that you all provide this platform for folks to respond to other art, but in a way that isn't, “You have to make this groundbreaking piece that has to be congruent with all your other work and blah blah blah.” This is just playful. In college, my friend and I used to do Exquisite Corpses all the time. It was how we pregamed before we went to bars and stuff. And we saved so many of them. I don't know where they are now.  

If we intended this thing to have the contributors do something with a lot of stipulations, or it has to be representative of whatever, it would be a lot harder to get results. But people are usually down to experiment or play or goof off.

I think that's probably the most special part of this. Y’all allow people to just play. I think artists sometimes forget that we can do that. That's how this relationship with art began. Through playing.

What's your advice for someone else who’s new to Bait/Switch? 

I'm sure I said this when I did this before. Allow yourself to use this space as a place to play and experiment. Really engage authentically with the art-making process as something that can be anything. Yeah. That's what I'd say. 

Call Number: C83VA | C85VA.keCra

Faye Kennelly is a New Orleans-based, yankee-raised Art Therapist and Ceramicist. Her work both invites and simultaneously repels physical intimacy and touch, it’s intuitive, evocative, curious and animated. Faye believes that making art is dangerous and revealing and this is likely why she’s always done it.