Indholdsfortegnelse for No. 117 i Ceramics: Art and Perception

The Center for Contemporary Art, Lagos (CCA, Lagos), presented an exhibition of nine giant elephants by Ngozi Omeje between September 6 and November 9, 2018. In this massive installation, eight elephant forms were grouped together while the ninth, and what seemed to be the lead elephant, occupied a space at the far corner of the display space and was, apparently, looking after the rest of the herd. Each elephant was installed by cleverly suspending pieces of terracotta from a mass of acrylic ropes and transparent fishing lines. The technology employed in Ngozi’s exploration immediately reminds one of such artists as Jae-Hyo Lee, Sean-GhiBahk and Augusto Esquivel, whose installations may have inspired Omeje at some point in her career. Jae-Hyo Lee and Sean GhiBahk are two Korean installation artists who also…

One day in 2009, among a heavy stack of art show postcards and catalogues, I saw a picture of Taxoo Lee’s work for the first time. Unlike the porcelain objects of most modern Korean ceramic artists that seem to emphasize frugality and minimalist grace, his vessel had an unusually pale crisp white hue and a sharp rim that seemed torn. Beneath the white bowl was a taupe--brown saucer whose darker color and rough texture served to offset it. On his potter’s wheel, two different types of clay had been combined, showing different finishing textures that became even more contrastive after kiln firing. As such, his ceramic works and installation projects were characterized by experimentation with combinations of diverse materials. While no representational landscape is hinted at, looking at the stack…

It is my privilege to speak about Phil Rogers. This larger than life, charismatic and courageous Welshman. I first met Phil when I visited him with my wife Fiona some 25 years ago. I wanted to tell him of my plans for selling pots in my art gallery in Uppingham. Phil listened patiently and told me would help in any way he could. And he did. We opened our pot business with an exhibition of 200 of his wonderful pots. There followed four more exhibitions over the next twenty years culminating in a show last year during lockdown when we sold 440 pots. Phil acted as guide and mentor over the years. By his late 40’s he had already established a worldwide reputation not only as a great maker but…

The Li nationals who live in the Hainan province of China (thanks to its relatively closed environment) have been able to preserve the lifestyle of primitive society, and pottery production techniques dating 6,000 years old from the Neolithic Age. This lends great value to studies on the origin of pottery, the material used and the cultures of early humans. The Li pottery craft is often referred to as the ‘living fossils’ of a primitive ceramic civilisation and in 2006 were included on the state-level Intangible Cutural heritage list of China. The craftsmanship of pottery is passed through the maternal line of the Li people and reflects their belief that woman in their matriarchal clan society establish and control the techniques of making ceramics. The Li preserved their matriarchal social customs…

For Norwegian artist Heidi Bjørgan there are no bad experiences in the kiln. ‘If it’s broken in two, maybe I can re-use part of it,’ she says. ‘I can re-glaze it, put raw clay on it, re-fire it’. Casting objects from her collection of readymades, using components ‘left over’ after casting, incorporating found objects or items selected through collaboration, applying ‘crazy’ glazes and re-firing again and again, her works sometimes look as if they have melted or imploded in the kiln. Challenging our perception of what ceramic art should be, they are spontaneous and uninhibited. Choosing not to keep a meticulous record of glazes and temperatures, each piece brings something new and unexpected, even to Bjørgan herself. Aiming to do something different every time, to extend her aesthetic vocabulary and…

This spectacular moving pageantry is something to write home about. It is absolutely stunning; breathtaking OMG. The gallery space was, to say the least, entrancing, entering into a pseudo-Greek-style edifice of an old revamped Post Office building, hence the name La Poste. First, one has to cross between two ionic columns and, once inside, prepare to be completely overwhelmed. The presentation itself could be considered an installation although in the sense of an extravagant display. It felt as if being transported into a puzzling scenic environment; a phalanx where every component appears larger than life because each was set on a pure white, large horizontal fit-to-measure stage that was set a few feet above the floor. The troop of tri-dimensional figurative works of art were organized in theatrical military formations,…

To have the freedom to make anything you wish as the brief for a residency must be one of those rare dream commissions − but for Anna Barlow, the British ceramic artist, this is exactly what happened in October 2019. Her work, up to this point, has been much influenced by food and how it translates into ceramic sculptures. It is complex work, where sections are hand-formed in (mainly) porcelain, or slip-cast, or press-molded and then high-fired. When she includes other clays they are shrunk down onto the porcelain. Before glazing Barlow often pipes clay onto the pieces to simulate the texture of whipped cream. During her residency in Brighton, Barlow developed an interest in the immediate environment and the people who inhabit it. This included everyday things and experiences…

In 2017 I traveled from Sydney to Canberra in order to become a potter. I say ‘become a potter’ rather than ‘learn pottery’ since this is what I imagined would happen. I would not return to my home city the same person with a newly acquired skill. Instead, I would be a new person, as much transformed from within as anything else. Like all art students, I spent my first semester with one eye on the tasks set for beginners, the other on the masters of the field. Ken Matsuzaki threw chawans off the hump. So would I. Jim Malone used a kick-wheel. So would I. Jean-Nicholas Gerard made his works solely in terra-cotta. I wouldn’t use anything else. The result of these limitations, as my novice eye and unsteady…

The work and rhythm of the potter provides an underlying authenticity for the novel, Hare’s Fur. We are introduced to Russell Bass, a seventy year-old potter living alone in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, Australia, working away at his craft in a traditional manner. Having tragically lost his wife and child and with only a few close friends, the milieu surrounding the cycle of his work is exemplified as he attempts to emulate the exquisite beauty and rarity of the pots and glazes from the Chinese Song Dynasty potters (960-1279). His interest in these was piqued by James Sedgewick, a discerning and avid ceramics collector, who bequeathed him his prized nine hundred year-old Hare’s Fur teabowls in reciprocation for a lifetime of pleasure using Bass’ pots. Bass leads a…

For some artists, creative development follows a path of constant novelty, a perpetual search for new ways to interact with, and interpret the world. For others, creative growth moves along a more measured path, continually renewing and expanding core perceptions or insights. Eliza Au is an artist on this second path. Over the past ten years or so, her work has exhibited a progressive unfolding, with deepening and complex core ideas that center on a search for spiritual serenity in a chaotic and emotionally disturbing world. Her ceramic sculptures incorporate interlocking fields of repeating patterns; they resemble three-dimensional nets or weavings of dense but perforated forms. For Au, pattern and complexity function as stimuli; spiritual aids that lead the mind towards fulfilling resolutions. Born and raised in Vancouver, Canada, Au…

Why would a veteran ceramist want to stop using glazes? For 47 years I had a pottery business; I made functional pottery for the home, taught ceramics and sculpture in a New York High School; directed a ceramics program for a community college in the evenings, and presented workshops in museums and art centers. I also pursued an academic agenda receiving a BA in Art History; an MA in Pottery and Sculpture, and a PhD in Ceramic History, concentration in Prehistoric Ceramics. I exhibited my sculpture and vessels in museums and art centers as well as pursuing the craft fair circuit with my production ware. I published articles on glaze techniques and recipes, specializing in cone 6 glazes in the prevailing ceramic magazines and books. I created videos on ceramic…

In the Anya Fulu Ugo exhibition held at the conference hall of the Nnamdi Azikiwe Library Complex, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in 2015, in honour of two art veterans of the Nsukka Art Department, one work stood out not only for its evocative formal configuration, but also for the unusual title that metaphorically connects the diverse transformative processes involved in its creation to the violent and traumatic landscape of the human condition. Titled Hammering/crushing/slaking/wedging/kneading/slamming/ramming/pinching/cutting/buffeting/punching/perforating/shooting/firing/roasting/stacking/bundling, this ceramic mixed media installation by Ozioma Onuzulike (1972-), presently Professor of Ceramic Art and Art History at the Department of Fine and Applied Arts, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, is the sixth version of the Suyascape Series which form part of his ‘Casualties Project’ started in 2001. Evaluation of works that make up the Suyascapes Series…

After arrival at the Osaka airport, it was only a matter of hours until we reached Shigaraki with Mr. Shiho Kanzaki driving me up into the mountains, chased by a fiercely beautiful pink-orange sunset. It was dark when we pulled into the kiln yard, a similar pink-orange glow highlighting bundles of wood, a small table, a clock, and the hulking shape of the kiln. Karl Beamer was stoking, and had been in Japan for more than a month making enough works to fill Kanzaki sensei’s anagama. The firing was already midway through the 10-day event that would consume 20 metric tons of Japanese Red Pine − roughly the equivalent of 17 (US) cords of seasoned fuel. Kanzaki and I immediately went on shift. And just like that, in less than…

At a time of rowdy marches, outraged protests and growing awareness of systemic racism within the United States, artists are increasingly being recognized as anticipating many of these themes: anger at inequities, not to mention violence perpetrated against citizens of color and violent and nonviolent demonstrators. Paul Metivier is such an artist. For the past decade, the Renton, Washington resident has been creating realistic wall-mounted effigies of individuals who are expressing inner rage, often with eyes closed and, in a series of installations in Seattle at Gallery IMA and in Auburn, Washington at Green River College where Metivier teaches, the Processions (2009-2020) literally advance from the gallery wall, torsos and busts coming toward us. Their silent defiance of authority and existing inequalities is bold, activating the white cube space with…

Daniel Johnston is not your typical potter, and Henry Glassie is not your typical writer. Thus, this is not your typical pottery book It was back in March that, seemingly on the same day, I got three bits of news; George Ohr had pots at the MoMA, Svend Bayer had announced his retirement, and Daniel Johnston had just had a book published about him. George E. Ohr, the self-styled ‘Mad Potter of Biloxi’, was a John Brown-type figure of Southern Pottery, leading a one man revolution of avant-garde ceramic form, despite never being recognized in his lifetime. Functional Pottery rarely gets noticed outside it’s own small compass, and so for the granddaddy Mud Dauber to be shown alongside Van Gogh under the banner of Modern Art was a watershed moment…