What a hectic year its been….! After a few months of getting the new studio set up and running at Commercial Street, I eventually got my own work back underway. These are all small with the biggest ones at the moment being around 10-12cm in diameter. This is partly for practical reasons (small kilns only at the moment!), and partly because I like this intimate scale where you can hold them in your hand. After lots of test pieces I’ve been making tiny pinched bowls and distorted cylindrical forms. I want the forms to be simple and familiar.
Each of my projects takes a slightly different route, although each will utilise drawing, writing, photos, reading, test pieces (some or all of these), in no particular order, quite often. This project, as yet untitled, has not as yet focused on drawing; instead starting with loosely interpreted source material, test pieces exploring mood, texture and colour, plus clay bodies/slip/glaze. After choosing to focus on our relationship with animals, I’ve been looking at the UK farming industry; with a particular interest in how domesticated animals are portrayed and our complicated relationship with them. Its a difficult subject to research as its vast (and broad) and polarized; and then the question is how best to interpret/translate it? The ceramic world is of course deeply interlinked with food, and also the portrayal of functional objects sentimentalising the view of meat and dairy products, of farming scenes etc.
At the moment the pieces are loosely reflecting a discord, contrasts and opposites, precariousness and fragility. Altering/manipulating forms, cutting through the surfaces and distorting them and layering up different surface combinations. Relatively abstract and ambiguous at the moment, the pieces also incorporate snippets of text taken from one of the books I’ve been reading; ‘Two Hundred Years of British Farm Livestock’, often quotes. I’m particularly interested in the language used to describe the animals in question. Its often seemingly cold and presents them almost as objects rather than sentient beings. While I’m making tests, transitional pieces and finished pieces, I’m writing notes which later on will be used for a more ‘finished’ statement/overview.
In the new year I’ll be continuing to develop the project further, and will probably be incorporating some imagery too. I’ll be taking a much needed break over Christmas which will be great for a little thinking time as well as some relaxing…
