CONCEPT Extra Good Showing is a performance piece by Kari Marboe where participants sculpt clay based on 1900s correspondence between the the architect Julia Morgan and the architectural tile company Gladding, McBean & Co. of Lincoln, California. With each direction given during this fifteen minute piece, the participants will engage with a past form of correspondence, connect with a site specific material, and perform an archive. The text was researched at the California State Library’s California History Section and edited by the artist. The clay was gathered from Lincoln, California by Marboe’s students Rosa Novak and Elizabeth Hohmier.

SITE Archive of Creative’s Culture's debut the Archive Argosy, a mobile museum as reimagined 1973 Airstream Argosy, at Wave Pool, Cincinnati, OH.

LINKS Lacey Haslam, Archive of Creative’s Culture | Wave Pool

TEXT EXCERPT
Today we will be performing the archived correspondence, which is in the form of
INTER-OFFICE MEMORANDA, and connect to the same clay body as was used for this project.

I am performing the role of the writer,
the San Francisco office of Gladding, McBean & Co.
I am the middle person between Julia Morgan’s office and you,
the Gladding, McBean & Co. Lincoln, CA office.
You are the fabricators and the factory.
Let's begin.

October 7, 1927
We are returning the Terra Cotta drawing sheet 1/1, THE LILY FEATURED ON THE TILE, which has been approved by the architect without change.
We also expect to have the color and finish decided by the time you receive the detail.

Please sculpt the petal of a lily for a prototype
It should be very simple and formal

Use your thumbs to push out the shape
Curve the petal to the left, slightly

Imagine a tile full of lilies and foliage
Beautiful

Please hold up your lily petals for inspection
Curve the petal to the left, slightly.
Good...