CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A pack of coyotes, made of vitreous china and mounted on a wall, are running in different directions, fleeing human contact and disassembling as they go.
The deconstructing coyotes were created by Emmy Lingscheit, a printmaker and a University of Illinois art professor, and they represent a new direction in her work. Lingscheit explored sculpture during a Kohler Arts/Industry residency in summer 2015. The coyote sculptures she created are on display through Nov. 20 at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. One piece will be included in the School of Art and Design Faculty Exhibition at Krannert Art Museum, opening Nov. 17.
The Arts/Industry residency program at Kohler Co. has been going on for more than 40 years. Artists can work in clay, enameled cast iron and brass in the factory’s pottery and foundry areas. Working alongside factory workers, the residents learn the techniques used in the factory.
“These guys were using the exact same process I was to make industrial sinks, bathtubs and toilets for their product line,” Lingscheit said. “It really took me out of my routine. It led me to this new opportunity of making that I’ll keep integrating into my work.”
Lingscheit’s work deals with ecological conflict and how human activity and the built environment alter the natural world. Her animal deconstruction series – a subject matter she has depicted in her lithographic prints for some time – looks at the disconnection of humans from nature and whether what we have altered can ever be returned to its original state. She focuses on animals considered nuisances that nevertheless thrive living alongside humans.
“These animals perceived as nuisance species might be knocking over your trash cans or eating your garbage or stealing your pets. These are animals we revile that we don’t think of as nature,” she said.
One of the things Lingscheit likes about printmaking is its industrial origins, using technologies such as engraving and letterpress printing. Creating the vitreous china sculptures required her to learn new technical skills of building a model and casting and glazing the sculpture.
Part of the process was working long hours to trouble shoot and recalibrate the project. For example, Lingscheit originally envisioned the coyote pack emerging from walls and running through a gallery. But complications with making free-standing sculptures led her to mount the coyotes on the wall in a bas relief instead.
Lingscheit built a prototype of the coyote from clay and figured out how it would be partitioned into 19 pieces. Her drawing background came in handy, as one of the things she teaches students is how to visualize intersecting planes.
“Teaching drawing helped me be a better sculptor in thinking about proportion, structure and contour,” she said.
Lingscheit made a separate plaster mold for each of the 19 pieces from the clay model. She used a vitreous china slip that was poured into the molds and resulted in hollow castings. She smoothed the seams of the pieces and glazed them. She sprayed glaze on the tips of the coyote’s “fur” to get a two-toned effect, and painted on pigment for areas such as the tongue and paw pads.
Lingscheit used turquoise blue for the flat sections where the figure was partitioned. She wanted to use an artificial color “to highlight the unnatural aspect of an animal altered through the human landscape.” Then the coyotes were fired in the factory’s kiln for 28 hours, alongside sinks and bathtubs.
She made nine coyotes, each of which can look different by varying the placement of the 19 parts. Some she cut in half with a band saw in order to mount them on a wall. One coyote is intended to be displayed, disassembled, on a pedestal – a “coyote kit” that could be put together to make a life-sized model of the animal. This coyote will be in the faculty exhibition at Krannert Art Museum.
Lingscheit noted that while those working in Kohler’s factory and the artists used the same processes, they approached their work from different perspectives. The artists were pushing boundaries and stretching the limits of the materials they worked with, while the factory workers were interested in consistency and quality control for the products they were making. But the Kohler employees were eager to help the artists experiment with materials and processes to get the effects they wanted.
“They’re very patient and they’re such experts in what they do,” Lingscheit said.
She’d like to return to Kohler to do some new work. The prints she is making now are the start of a series looking at the circulation of manufactured and natural materials around the world; the interconnections between man-made objects and the biological world; and how ecology and trade are affected. Lingscheit hopes the project will lead to more sculptural work.