Exhibit provides learning experience for Kendall

Inspired by the verse of Kabir, Gail Kendall labored.

Her journey toward knowledge led to the creation of 390 individual plates, three platters, three long/slim dishes, a slew of golden medallions and one death-inspired tureen. The work is presented in “The Purpose of Labor,” a Sheldon Museum of Art exhibition that helped the UNL professor of art break from her own molds and chart new directions for future toils.

“I’ve never worked so intensely on any thing,” said Kendall. “When I got back from Morocco on March 29, I dropped my suitcase and went right into the studio. I worked for six weeks, seven days a week, day and night until I hit a wall.

“It really wore me out. But it was wonderful because I was working with all these new ideas.”

Kendall’s primary hurdle was to get people to see beyond the function of her pottery.

“I wanted people to walk into this gallery and not think of food,” said Kendall. “One of the easiest ways to do that was to put the pottery on the walls.”

CERAMIC ARTIST – Gail Kendall, professor of art, stands in front of her wall of 390 half-gold dishes. The art piece is part of her “The Purpose of Labor” exhibit, on display through Dec. 7 in the Sheldon Museum of Art.

The primary feature of the exhibit is a wall adorned with 390 half-gold dishes. The individual elements are nothing new to Kendall as she offers similar plates at pottery sales. However, by lining up the plates vertically and horizontally, the individual elements transform into a tile-like design.

Kendall traditionally uses the small plates as “sketches” for her bigger works. She will continue to use the small size format for planning, but has no desire to return to the half-gold design.

“In terms of my work, there’s not much left to explore there after making more than 400 of them for this exhibit,” Kendall said.

Kendall plans to pursue the design of long, slim platters featured in the exhibit – a branch of her traditional large-scale platters. She also enjoyed breaking away from her signature soup tureen designs, transforming it into an urn.

NEW DESIGN – Gail Kendall transformed a traditional soup tyreen into an urn for “The Purpose of Labor” exhibit. The urn was inspired by her brother’s death earlier this year.

“In July my brother, who was 75 and a real mentor for me, died suddenly,” said Kendall. “That got me thinking about the urn. I knew it would be a challenge, but it definitely would not relate to food.”

Another ceramic sculpture that remained unfinished for the exhibit is an ink desk with a drawer and paper holder. Kendall said she would like to return to the design in the near future.

Along with the new concepts, Kendall also enjoyed working with others to prepare the exhibit. While she normally composes individual pieces on her own, Kendall was assisted by a handful of people – primarily two UCARE students, Richard Gowans and Nathan Murray, on the half-gold plates, and Kendall’s daughter, Helen, on the tureen.

“I also really enjoyed working with the staff at the Sheldon,” said Kendall. “There really was a joy of collaboration on this project from the beginning to the end.”

And, in a direct reflection of Kabir’s words, the exhibition labor has led to a revelation.

Three years ago, Kendall suffered through a “vision crisis.” Surgery partly corrected the problem – at least temporarily.

“Knowing this is a year to year thing with my vision – that it might not last – really made me into a workaholic,” said Kendall. “I believed I had to wring as much out of myself as possible in the studio.

“But, this exhibition has taught me that you can’t kill yourself doing labor. You have to have some balance between recreation and studio life.”

“Purpose of Labor” is on display through Dec. 7 at the Sheldon. For more information, go to www.sheldonartmuseum.org.

— Story and photos by Troy Fedderson, University Communications