Simon Fell ceramics, ceramic sculpture in west London

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Change the world - rebuild it
in clay.

I work with clay because it is such a responsive material. It is a pleasure to work with a medium that does what you want - well almost. 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 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 pleasure 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? We could continue making vessels because it is so satisfying and there are so many traditions to draw on, but for me this is rendered absurd by the fact that plates, cups and saucers can now be made so well and so efficiently by machines.

Studio pottery offers one solution - handmade goods have a unique and human quality than machines cannot match, the hand made becomes a premium product worth paying extra for. I don't think I am alone in thinking this was a solution for the last century and something new is now needed.

Art for ceramics sake

So I feel that any strong reason for making cups and saucers or anything remotely resembling them (does everything made in clay resemble them?) departed some time ago. Many artists working with clay have now spotted that there's a vacuum of ideas here, which is a good excuse to start experimenting with new ways of approaching the medium.

My own 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. It seems to me now that subjective impulses are as good a basis as any for an action plan when faced with a blank canvas or a fresh lump of clay. This is the challenge of exploration so it's hard to say what I will find. At the time of writing 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 doubled or trebled with the development of the Karparc installation.

Please bear with me my while I try to keep this website broadly up to date with what I am currently making.

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Karparc

[Above] Karparc, an ongoing project made by many hands.
100+ glazed earthenware 'car' forms, h30mm max.
Image copyright S.Fell

Work in progress

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. I recently took Karparc (shown above) out for it's first show at our open studios day. The work currently consists of about 100 small (length 5 to 6 cms) ceramic cars richly textured, coloured with slips and glazed with a wide range of new (to me) glaze recipes. The piece will continue and I hope to show it extensively and that it will grow in the process.

At the same event I also showed an installation where ceramic objects are linked by threads. I displayed them on a desk mixed in with my half tidied tools and equipment, as if they were an artwork in disguise. There were a few clues, three red silk strings joined the six component objects together across the miniature landscape of my work bench. It is interesting how simple it is to step outside the context of 'the white cube' (rooms stripped bare and painted white like a gallery) the main pitfall of this approach is the danger that the abscence of conventional cues (plinth, picture frame, bare white walls etc) leaves the work so well camouflaged that no one notices it is there - subtlety in the extreme.

Above:' I tried to make something ugly but failed repeatedly'
Six glazed earthenware items with integral plinths joined with silk threads, displayed on a cluttered desk.
Image copyright S.Fell

Mould Breaking

Black Dog publishing have featured some of my work in a book: 'Breaking the Mould:New Approaches to Ceramics'. The book features 60 makers & artists whose work 'is taking the medium forward into exciting new territory, blurring the boundaries between craft, design and fine art.'

site and contents copyright © simon fell 2008