An adolescent searches for the sublime, that which will underpin all motivation.
At Charterhouse School (1971-1975) the art & pottery Studio (a James DARTFORD building of the 1960’s) was the place I spent as much free time as possible. Not only was kneading & working clay with one’s fingers a healthy skin-soothing muscle-building activity (one rarely sits still, except on an electric wheel) hand, eye and brain work constantly together.
Most of my ceramics date from the summer term of 1973, the year I took my O-levels, when pupils had a fair amount of free time on their hands between examinations.
Pottery techniques explored at school
- coiled pots
- home made Otterferry slip glaze
- pressed clay vessels
- pulled strap work
- slab-ware
- thrown pots
- thrown & pulled pottery
The implications for future professional choices
The aesthetic born of utilitarian motivation and constructional purity — still my greatest fascination in museum collections of ancient pottery — resolved me to become an Architect, which seemed likewise motivating. At the approach of my 15th birthday I found myself urged, if not obliged, to choose a career path. I had already discovered that disposing of one’s plastic production (pottery) was a a space-consuming vocation.
Furthermore, devising spaces for people to enjoy and live in seemed a far more useful pursuit than that of producing “stuff”, either as an artist or craftsman, to fill it. However, can a leopard change its spots ? You are what you are, not whatever you wrest for yourself, be that role, status, wealth or anything else exterior to one’s being.
When in 2016 it came to choosing colours for my lacquered tables, I realised that my eyes still hankered after the strong hues of ceramic glazes. Photographing anew (for this site) some pieces of pottery executed in the 1970’s, I realise that making things with clay had even lain the foundations for an aesthetic and a design ethic which almost all my work since has attempted to put into practice.
The retrospective interest of this adolescent work is not therefore to be found in any individual piece — insufficiently developed and summarily finished in most cases — but as providing a medium of frenetic plastic exploration (working against the clock between academic lessons and obligatory sports activities) intrinsically related to the issue of sound construction. Or, as Aldo ROSSI, once put it : the bridge must stand !
In 2020 I applied (noticeably, if unsuccessfully) for an artist’s residency in Rhodes, in view of a sponsored collaboration with local ceramic workshops, to get ‘back to the source’.
The error (of inexperience) in modeling this piece, was to have not voided, below, the base element. Differential expansion at high temperature caused cracking in the kiln.
Related pages / pages apparentées / pagine apparentate :
Céramique / Ceramica
Art, crafts & DIY / Art, artisanat et système D / Arte, artigianato e fai-da-te
OPUS INCERTUM : Take Your Pick / Faites Votre Choix / Scegliete Voi
opus incertum 