Accession Number
2002/2.162

Title
Binary Teapot

Artist(s)
Hugh McKay

Object Creation Date
1998

Medium & Support
maple

Dimensions
12 x 10 1/2 x 11 5/16 in. (30.48 x 26.67 x 28.58 cm)

Credit Line
Gift of Robert M. and Lillian Montalto Bohlen

Label copy
Hugh McKay
Born 1951, Long Beach, California
Lives and works in Gold Beach, Oregon
Binary Teapot
1998
Maple
Gift of Robert M. and Lillian Montalto Bohlen, 2002/2.162
Taking a job in a woodturning shop after college proved to be transformative for Hugh McKay, who opened his own shop in 1979. While originally planning to earn a living making furniture, McKay became “totally absorbed in the possibilities of expression in woodturning.”
Art historian Glenn Adamson uses the term “super-object” to describe McKay’s woodturned vessels. A super-object is a craft-based object that exhibits extraordinary technical refinement in its making. McKay’s highly refined surface, polished and smoothed to a shine, exhibits this kind of obsessive practice. Super-objects also have a hyper-realist tendency to imitate other crafted objects in the world—like the teapot seen here.
(Out of the Ordinary, 2010)
Taking a job in a woodturning shop after college proved to be transformative for Hugh McKay, who opened his own shop in 1979. While originally planning to earn a living fabricating furniture, McKay became “totally absorbed in the possibilities of expression in woodturning.”
When working with wood on a lathe, McKay’s goal is to have the same freedom of shape as a potter has on the potter’s wheel, and his work reflects the achievement of his goal. In Binary Teapot, McKay uses multiple-axis turnings from one piece of wood, and combines the turned vessels with carving and shaping resulting in unique piece. McKay also experiments with marrying the chaotic character of nature with the rigid symmetry inherent in turned wood. Binary Teapot combines the symmetrical shape of the connected vessels with the natural edge of the burl to form the handle.
from the exhibition Nature Transformed: Wood Art from the Bohlen Collection, June 12 – October 3, 2004

Physical Description
two hollow spheres with caps joined at center, with a hollow "spout" and "handle" joined by an overarching piece of wood with bark

Primary Object Classification
Wood and Woodcarving

Primary Object Type
vessel

Collection Area
Modern and Contemporary

Rights
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Keywords
teapots
wood (plant material)