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After nearly a year of prototyping and research, we are pleased to announce a new project, Tilt of the Earth 23.5º Teacup. A limited edition of 70 hand-thrown porcelain tea cups is now available.
The project draws on embodied experiences of the past year, in particular, East is a Circle and Turning into the Night.
As artists, we are curious about what happens when we attempt to hold the thought of Earth-magnitude processes, and experience them at the scale of local, daily-life practices. We consider this embodiment to be a form of environmental practice. Tilt of the Earth 23.5º Teacup signals and responds to the highly consequential fact that the Earth rotates at an angle as it orbits the sun. The planet’s tilted spin generates continuous change that directly shapes the ongoing evolution of Earth-life. It causes the transitions from day to night as well as seasons, temperatures, ocean currents, and climates. Human bodies/brains/minds literally embody these forces in our multiple biological and cultural clocks.
We look forward to activating the project in upcoming micro-productions, were we will prepare and offer tea to guests — and invite them to drink at the tilt of the earth. And we look forward to being able to offer these cups for personal use, in daily life, to anyone who is interested in creating their own practice for attuning to the tilt of the earth.
We offer this cup as a material tale. Its unique form both invites and accommodates a humble gesture — the drinking of tea — in a way that orients one’s body and gestures toward an awareness of planetary forces. We also offer this cup as means for reorienting daily life within the Anthropocene.
As the first in a series of material tales, the teacups are a departure from smudge studio’s previous projects, in particular printed works and multiples that included text-based books, postcards, field guides and calendars. Like the multiples, the tea cups are designed to be affordable, easily distributed, portable, and taken up in one’s own daily life. As material tales, they are objects that embody, in a poetic way, smudge studio’s core conceptual interests and offer inspiration for living within the Anthropocene.
Each porcelain cup has been handmade in Portland, Maine by our production collaborators for the project, ceramic artisans Janna DeWan and Zachary Fields. Over several weeks, Janna and Zachary developed specially designed tools to create the stability and accuracy of the 23.5º tilt.
The foot of each cup is stamped with the kanji for tea (茶) at a 23.5º angle, and the year of production: 002018. Each cup is packaged with a “tale” for activating it and a handmade certificate of its limited-edition.
We welcome pre-orders now. All cups will be shipped by December 1st, 002018.
Thank you for your support, and we hope your experience of drinking tea at the tilt of the earth becomes a meaningful practice for meeting and living the Anthropocene.
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FOP 
Beautiful!
Comment by bremnerl54 10.22.2018 @ 12:20 pm