Gemz Avery Feasts at the Table of Concordia

UHM MFA Alumni Jake Boggs’ “Gemz Avery: An Argosy” is a multi-series, autobiographical allegory focusing on the life of the fictional persona Gemz Avery. It follows the the peripatetic figure’s twelve pivotal feats of discovery and endurance. Like Heracles of ancient Greece, Avery’s existential marathons and interpersonal triumphs have been placed on the abstracted surface and rotund forms of amphora, volumetric ceramic vessels. Their surfaces draw from the combined Eastern and Western traditions of ceramic history.

According to Boggs, the creator of the Gemz Avery persona, the collection of vessels “requires the viewer to be in the here and now, to practice intense focus in order to relive the journey of the protagonist.” He writes: “Similar to ceramic artifacts from antiquity, deciphering the significance of these vessels requires careful examinations and smartphone detective work. Much of the semiotic code lies just below the surface while windows through space reveal traces of symbols and signs which allude to the narrative of each.” The collection of twelve vessels acts as a whole, telling an epic story.