I work with clay because it is such a responsive
material. It is a pleasure to work with a
medium that does (almost) what you want. Clay
can be moulded when it is soft, when pressed
it holds the shape you give it, when it dries
to a leather-hard state it can be worked like
soft wood or plaster, carved, cut and re-joined
in sheets.
Working with clay seems to have a therapeutic
value too. Could this be because it is satisfying
to have an idea then to realise it in a physical
form? Or is it just good for us to exercise
our dexterity as it is to exercise our minds
and bodies in general? Then again it could
simply be that working with our hands has
value as a form of play and that part of the
benefit is in the playing rather than in the
result.
What to make of clay
in the 21st century?
What is really interesting to me about this
medium is what to make with it in the modern
world. Clay work sits anywhere between the
fields of art and craft but this is only to
be expected, the material will take whatever
meaning you give it, it is receptive and open,
it has no problem, the difficult bit comes
when you try to sell what you have made, where
do you place your work to let it tell it's
own story?
Drawing on the unconscious
My work has several strands of ideas running
through it, including an iconagraphy drawn
from my history as man and boy mixed liberally
with references to art and contemporary life.
I find that experimenting with forms that
are not entirely designed in advance is a
good way to generate ideas and techniques
that can be consciously incorporated in later
work.
At the time of writing I continue to work
with fired and glazed clay. My work is transforming
itself by becoming larger through splitting
it into many parts that make up groups or
installations. I am developing some work which
is much more subjective and less centred on
imagery and wit. My glazing palette has at
least doubled with the development of the
Karparc installation.
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Projects in progress now tend to be much bigger
in that they have many component parts. The
components are not particularly big but the
overall idea can be.
A recently completed work is an
installation where ceramic objects are linked
by red polyester threads. Although the ceramic
elements of this work are modest in scale the
whole work has a grand scope, like a medium
sized galaxy in miniature. Some of the parts
are attached to walls, floor or furniture, others
hang in mid air held by taught strings and the
pull of gravity. The process of installing the
work was fraught with technical challenges mainly
associated with putting the ceramic objects
in place without breaking them, and getting
the tension of the cords right and the composition
of the whole ensemble.
Karparc (below) currently consists of about
300 small (length 5 to 6 cms) ceramic cars richly
textured, coloured with slips and glazed with
a wide range of glaze and slip colours.
