Harry Anderson has used the shards from broken pieces of Fiesta, the Homer Laughlin China Companies iconic Dinnerware, in his art work sporadically since the early 1970’s. Anderson first used shards of Fiesta in an artwork in 1972. The work, a site specific piece, whose other elements consisted of a mission oak couch, a florescent bulb (on the floor and covered with the broken Fiesta) and a potted palm was exhibited at Anderson Gallery, Virginia Commonwealth University that same year. Broken pieces of Fiesta were again used in April 1973 in an exhibition titled, CONTEMPORARY SCULPTURE, at the University of Maine, Portland-Gorham, this time the shards covered the floor of a room so that the space became impossible to enter. The first time the shards were use on a wall in a grid pattern was in a work Anderson showed at the Peale House Galleries of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art in 1975. The documentation from that installation was later used to create a photo silkscreen and as a page in the Anderson’s 1976 artist book, FIESTAISM. In March of 1985 several of the artist's prints were included in an exhibition titled, THE HOMER LAUGHLIN CHINA COMPANY, A FIESTA OF AMERICAN DINNERWARE at the Cultural Center, Charleston, WV. The exhibit curator was Frederick Cain. Since then the shards have been incorporated into various light sculptures. Here Anderson has used a new arrangement of shards of Fiesta to create an original print.
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View the 1972 work .