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Vol. 23, No. 3: Things

Bridging Voice and Identity

Chris Luther's Bridge Bowl and the Seagrove Tradition

by Trista Reis Porter

“Made in Seagrove, North Carolina, by a fourth-generation potter, the Bridge Bowl tells the familiar story of this particular place in the Piedmont and the landscape, people, traditions, and ideas that animate it. It also tells the story of globalization.”


photo of Chris Luther

Just as the most iconic or familiar of things have the capacity to complicate and contradict what we know of southern life, unpredictable things can exemplify both paradoxical and iconic realities. This is the story of Chris Luther’s Bridge Bowl, an unexpected southern thing, both a container and a bridge itself. Made in Seagrove, North Carolina, by a fourth-generation potter, the Bridge Bowl tells the familiar story of this particular place in the Piedmont and the landscape, people, traditions, and ideas that animate it. At the same time, it speaks of globalization, the increasing circulation of ideas and images around the world, and their ever-evolving manifestations in the American South.

This article appears as an abstract above, the complete article can be accessed in Project Muse
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