Michael McGowan D4101 Assignment 1 (Literature Review)

Reflections Upon The Work of Some Influential Ceramicists

That the influence of Bernard Leach on British ceramics has been to open our eyes to the worth of studio-crafted work as distinct from manufactured ware is well-known. Ceramicists practising today are able to enjoy working individualistically with clay. They may move the idea further: functionality need not necessarily be the work’s main purpose. Indeed, many practitioners produce work that has only a nod to functional form or may be completely abstracted. Aesthetic development in the field has meant that a potter may work in clay for its own sake and may consider what they do as art as much as it is craft.

We might wish to take our own work in a direction which explores clay both as an intrinsically beautiful phenomenon in itself and as a medium with which to interpret ideas.The subject of my own work, to give it a title, would be the local coastal landscape and its changes under thephysical forces ofnature and time.The performance of the Spanish Gitano dancers with their spiritual closeness to the land, the luscious work of concrete poets and the dramatic landscapes of the Romantic and Impressionist painters have stoked the fires of my imagination .To augment my studies further I have chosen to look at the work of ceramicists whose work focuses on the properties of the medium as it is worked as well its cultural significance. They see the value of letting the material have its own voice. However, each sculptor is his or her own person and, as such, totally unique. Necessarily, then, the work of the following people is diverse though with the common thread of a fascination with the medium in itself.

It has been suggested that there is a link between the Romantic notion of the Sublime and Abstract Expressionism (Chaddopadhyay C, 2001). Also, in this sense, is the Zen (Beittel KR,1989) concept of focus on a task or,to use modern parlance, of ‘being in the zone’ and of having empathy with one’s medium. One ceramicist who has impressed me in this way is Peter Voulkos. Working contemporaneously with Jackson Pollock (though not in collaboration with him), Voulkos at first produced vigorously thrown pieces with wax resist decorations to enhance his forms. Looking for a way to allow the clay to speak for itself he then moved to making assemblages of pots created as discreet units in traditional craft techniquesand nominally known as plates or other traditional forms and wood firing these. This inspiring, liberating and utterly compelling work is visually heavy and is resonant of the history of the relationship man has had with clay in all its aspects. Elements of Voulkos’ work are reminiscent of volcanic landscapes in their heaviness and burned surface decoration, whilst their forms allude to the birth of the earth and of humanity.His work speaks of the need for food and ‘the primal derivation of stoneware’(Chaddopadhyay,2001). In his piece ‘Sevillanas’ he celebrates the closeness of us all to the earth, as expressed in the Gitano’s Flamenco. Interestingly, the piece was destroyed in an earthquake and has had to be re-cast in bronze to preserve it. Other pieces may not necessarily be so close to a state of ‘completion’: his finished work was sometimes ‘assessed in terms of its capacity to evidence the working process’(Chaddopadhyay,2001).An essential quality of clay all ceramicists appreciate is its capacity to record in detail the force and direction of its history of handling. In later work Voulkos’ accomplishments include working before an audience – a performance aspect to his art in which he treated the clay in an expressively violent way. This was entirely apposite if he was to convey the creative violence and destruction that is part of an art which runs parallel with life.He is recognised as a man who moved ceramics from a craft to an art form. To summarise Roberta Smith’s view of 2002 of Voulkos, he was unique in changing the perception of the medium, while John Balistreri,(2002), says of the movement Voulkos began, ‘Its history continues to unfold in the deeds of those he inspired’ His example is, indeed, inspirational. It serves to reinforce our belief in our own chosen direction. Where this artist has not spoken or cannot speak, the sensitive enthusiasm and learned generosity of Colette Chaddopadhyay’s article on Voulkos’ oeuvre in ‘Sculpture Magazine’ and Roberta Smith’s knowledgeable and appreciative piece in the New York Times, which affirms the world’s debt of gratitude to the great man, offer sincere and respectful celebration of Voulkos’ life’s work.

Peter Volkous

A book I have revisited on more than one occasion is ‘Naked Clay’ by Jane Perryman. The book focuses entirely on ceramicists whose work with clay has a strong emphasis on theintrinsic qualities of the medium. In her critique of potters’ work, Jane Perryman will often include lengthy manifesto-like quotations from the artist and uses this for a discussion of the artist’s merits. One such ceramicist is Violette Fassbaender whose slab-built, boulder-like ‘free- forms’ are a response to her alpine home environment. Her work concerns enclosed volume and the enclosing forms decorated with the markings of alpine strata. She says of her own work. ‘My biggest interest is in the clay itself...I want my work to express that ’ (Perryman J.,2004).Her aim to allow the material to have its own voice is evident in her most recent work. In the same article she makes an unconscious allusion to the Zen potter’s view that the space in and around the pot is, in fact, the form: ‘With large work you can enter the blackness of a piece’.She is clearly driven by her inspiration. The pieces are reduction-fired and while the surface retains a tension it has a subtly contrived appearance of spontaneous surface cracking which gives an additional living quality. She has switched from low-fired burnishing to a high-fired stoneware finish. She adds, ‘Now my work doesn’t change much in the firing-I can’t make it more interesting by firing it.’

Violette Fassbaender

In contrast, both in form and process is the work of ceramicist, Claudi Casanovas. By way of an illustration of his exploratory approach is his view, in which he remarks:

‘Fire is an uncertain ally’ (Perryman J, 2004).He must be attuned to the nuances of fire upon his uncompleted work. In common with all practitioners who are involved in the construction and de-construction of form he is acutely aware of the need for the appreciation of the spontaneous and unforeseen development. I admire his approach to the deconstructive element of his work, which is widely quoted, ‘ I have nothing left but the certainty of what I do not want’(Birks T., 1996). His practise encourages the qualities of his materials to be amplified so that the work invests the clay with a potent eloquence. His pieces carry the marks of torsion and impact, the developed and designed fissures and jointing reminiscent of rock formations, but which are forged, refined and choreographed to generate images and forms of impressive power.

Claudi Casanovas

More direct approaches are found in the examples of Satoru Hoshino whose uncomplicated philosophy is characterised in his words, ‘...the work merely borrows the hand of the artist to bring out its inherent form’(Perryman J,2004) and in Yo Akiyama’s ceramic forms which are concerned with the dialogue between clay, time and gravity as influenced by fire. These practitioners clearly have the clay’s properties at the forefront of their work.

We may see that this expanding source of fascination in the exploration of ceramics- the materials’ variety and its adaptability, the differing approaches to working, cultural influences and personal expression-offers an open-ended future. For many practitioners, now,working in the field of ceramic arttheir aim can be said to be to let the clay speak for itself. In following this maxim they seek to engage in the appreciation of the fundamental nature and beauty of clay in its panoply of forms and how it continues to influence and enrich our lives. Importantly for many of us practitioners, it gives us a means of making a unique mark of our perception and self, identifying our sense of awe within the clay and sharing it in our work.

Bibliography D4101 Ass.1 MMcGowan 6/12/13

Books

Bart Barbour J., WandibbuS.(1989),Kenyan Pots and Potters,Oxford University Press, Oxford.

*Beittel KR, (1989)Zen and the Art of Pottery,) Weatherhill, Tokyo. Pp ix-xiii & 3-7.

*Birks T., (1996) Claudi Casanovas, Marston House, London ,P. opposite plate 4.

CruegerA. &W., Saeke I.,(2004)Modern Japanese Ceramics, Sterling Publishing, New York.

Green L.,(2009),Painting with Smoke, Greendrake Press, Liversedge, UK.

Mansfield J.,(2005),Ceramics in the Environment, AC Black, London.

*Perryman J.,(2004)Naked Clay AC Black, London, Pp.55-56,102-103,144-148, 177-179.

Schwartz J.S. (2008), Confrontational Ceramics, AC Black, London.

Speight C.F., Toki J., Third Edition,(1995),Hands In Clay, Mayfield Publishing, Mountain View, MAS.

Thompson A., (2001), Mexican Pottery of the Twentieth Century, Schiffer Publishing, Atglen, PA.

Articles in Periodicals

*Balistreri,(2002),Peter Voulkos,An Affirmation of Art and Life, Ceramics,Art &Perception, Janet Mansfield, Issue 48, June2002,SydneyNSW,Pp3-8.

Buick A.,(2012), Video and Landscape, Ceramic Review, Kemske B., No 266, Sep/Oct2013,London,Pp52-53.

Christian A.,(2013),Granite and Sea, Ceramic Review, Kemske B., No261,May/Jun 2013, London, Pp48-51.

During M.,(20013), Sensual and Indescribable, Ceramic Review, Kemske B., No 254, Mar/Apr 2013,London,Pp36-41.

During M.,(2012),From Raw to Fired, Ceramic Review, Kemske B., No 256,Jul/Aug 2012,London, Pp50-53.

Fielding A., (2011), Challenging Success, Ceramic Review, KemskeB., No 251, Sep/Oct 2011,London, Pp44-47.

Kemske B.,(2013),Spotlight, Ceramic Review, Kemske B., No263, Sep/Oct 2013, London, Pp.54-55.

Tan J., (2012),What If, Kemske B., Ceramic Review No 253 Jan/Feb 2012, London, P.14.

Usbourne A.,(2003), Claudi Casanovas, Cooper E., Ceramic Review No203, Sep/Oct 2003, London, Pp42-45

Vincentelli M., (2013), The Landscape of Wales, KemskeB., Ceramic Review No. 258,Nov/Dec 2013, London,Pp.30-35.

Sources other than books and periodicals

Brenson M.,(2013,) Cityful of Sculpture Under the Sky’ ,New York Times, <http://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/26/arts/cityful-of-sculpture-under-the-sky.html.>,[23/11/13].

Brown S.,( 2013), ‘The Moden Banquet’, Sandy Brown,<sandybrownarts.sandybrownarticles.htm>,[23/11/13].

*Chaddopadhyhay C.,(2001), ‘ Peter Voulkos, Clay, Space and Time’ Sculpture Magazine <http://sculpture.org/documents/scmag01 >,[20/11/13].

Cooper E., (1998), ‘Sources of Inspiration’, Ceramic Art& Perception, <http:www.sandybrownarts.co./articles2.htm>, [20/11/13].

Cooter M.,(2010), ‘Art I Like – Charlotte Hodes’,Margaret Cooter http://www.margaret cooter .co.uk,[ 15/11/13 ].

Philips L.,(1997),Sandy Brown-TheSculptures, Ceramic Art & Perception, <http://www.sandybrownarts.com/article2.htm>, [ 22/11/13 ].

Roberts G.,( 2004), ‘ Filling the Silence-Towards an Understanding of Claudi Casanovas’, GalerieBesson, <http://www.galeriebesson.co/uk.cas2exhib.html>,[ 15 / 11/13 ].

Sloth A., (2005), ‘Claudi Casanovas. Twenty Blocks’ <http://www. puls.ceramics.com/exhibitions/claudicasanovas>, [14/11/13 ].

Smith R., (2002) ‘Peter Voulkos Master of Expressionist Ceramics Dies’, New York Times, <http://cn.wikipedia.org.wiki.peter voulkos>, [ 17/11/13 ].

Whiting D.,(2009), ‘The Still Point and the Dance’ Ceramic Art &Perception <http://www. ceramicart.com.a/cap66.shtml>, [ 11 /11/13 ].

Michael McGowan D4101 Assignment 2 (Contextual Review)

I have already made clear my interest in the changing landscape and how my fascination of it is informed by the work of ceramicists whose work is with clay. It is also clear that these artists have an aim to make forms which allow the medium its own voice, that is, rather than working the clay in a inhibiting and controlling way, they intend to let it speak for itself. However, as enlightening and inspirational as I have found the work of those artists to be I have elected to write about the following five phenomena not for the way that they necessarily relate directly to my work as it is developing in my head, my notebook and in the workshop, but for the understanding of our fascination with the earth and its titanic forces as well as our spiritual closeness to it that is at the very root of our being.

The coastline of Morecambe Bay provides a diverse variety of landscapes. The stone of Lancaster, for example, is part of a Carboniferous sandstone alluvial fan. That is to say it was lain down as estuarine deposits, silt, that had been washed down-river from landscapes that were already eroded two hundred and fifty million years ago. As compressed sand it is stored; in layers upon layers, formed season by season and recorded as faithfully as the rings inside a tree. Primordial seasons and tides that varied from flood to ebb and from spring to neap can be remembered even yet in the exposed stones of the region. Hand-hewn from blasted indigenous rock were these workers’ cottages made. In door lintels and stone stairs the very formation of the rock is evident in lines representing seam upon seam in the warm ochre tones so characteristic of the locality. Today and for generations past and forward it lives as clear as day in the cut faces of the Castle, terraced houses and in worn pavements where the tread of feet has revealed concentric circles in iron and sand-coloured patterns where puddles settle. It can also be seen as nature left it, down the Lune estuary and in outcrops atop the town’s hill,Primrose. I often wonder what the mason of the 19th century might have thought as he considered these grainy blocks in his stone-dry palm. If he had an idea of modern geology he might guess at what life form witnessed these beaches before they were buried under millions of tons of earth and time, perhaps? Or would he, like me, wonder at the immensity of the power that transported this landmass on which we live from the tropics to 53 degrees north and then pushed it up to be revealed by time and ice and ham-fisted dynamite?

Carboniferous Sandstone doorjamb, Lancaster.

The traditions of Gitanos (Gypsy people)of the Iberian Peninsula come from a mixture of beliefs such that an itinerant people may be exposed to over the centuries.They areknown for that magical element of their culture, the Flamenco. We are informed that it is an account of their struggle and is in part celebration, part deferential recognition of their closeness to the earth. Their incantations, percussive-clapping rhythms and strutting, stamping, spirited style of dance is accompanied by musicianship akin to pyrotechnics. At an authentic Flamenco Fiesta the performance has the power to draw in the observer and leave him awestruck. The performers will tell you that what you have witnessed is the ‘Duende’(which, in literal translation is ‘pixie’), the source of their special spirit. It is believed to come from the earth, their closeness to it and their being in touch with it. The dance has become a unique expression of identity and is performed all the more with an air of defiance for that. It is an impassioned spirituality borne of a sense of awe and wonder of the land that only an itinerant culture could generate. It is an inimitable art form.

In the painting ‘The Wreck of the Hope’, by C.D. Friedrich, the artist has painted a frozen seascape. The sea beneath the ice is fluid and the forces of tide and wave transmitting through it have caused the crust of ice sheets resting on it to split apart then to subsequently to clash together. One ice sheet has ridden up over the other in much the same way that tectonic plates might when a system of earthquakes may be caused in a landmass. At sea, in the Arctic, the “plates” of ice are only metres thick and prove brittle under pressure. As they clash they splinter into jagged peaks at dramatic opposing angles. The artist has painted them as if they were fingers of opposing hands at the point of interlocking- not as in prayer but as in the moment of capture of a small item of prey. A moth caught in such a clumsy way would be crushed beyond recognition by the hands that grab. Such is the fate of William Parry’s wooden sailing brig, ‘The Hope’, of his expedition of 1819. Lying on its port side to the right of the composition, its brokenstructure is assimilated into the angular peaks of the sea-ice as it is crushed. It is a work from a Romantic artist and expresses well, if rather bleakly, the frightening power of nature.

The Wreck of the Hope – C Friedrich

John Martin (1789-1854) was renowned for his zealous, religious visionary paintings- so much so that he was given the soubriquet‘Mad Martin’. The level of expression he achieved in his Romantic painting was so intense that his work was known to cause feelings of awe and even dread amongst the Victorian viewers of his work. In ‘The Great Day of His Wrath’, clouds and mountains tumble with equal gravity into the dark centre of the painting.Yet, from the vortex of the work emanates a source of heat- a burst of fiery reds. It creates a tension in the composition and moves the eye around the painting. I find the painting’s tense arrangement and the way the sense of weight and power is used to create an atmosphere for the onlooker to be gripping .Were it made from clay I would have to say it looks as if it would be after Casanovas.

The Great Day of His Wrath – J Martin

I recently took part in a North West Creative Arts project in the Storey Institute in Lancaster in which the aim of the directors was to make a production where the participants were installations. I volunteered to join from my life-drawing group. We numbered about thirty-five individuals and were pretty much in the dark as to the final out- come until it drew very close.We spent many hours getting to know one-another through a series of exercises such as talking about photos we’d brought in, discussing objects from home and sharing intimate details. We were a cosmopolitan and diverse group of bohemians! The last exercise was one in which we were encouraged to arrange ourselves on the floor, close to one another, sometimes touching and overlapping, and to trail dry soil between ourselves.In the final production we entered a large room and took up a spontaneous pose, trailing soil in and over the exhibit and fitting in as we saw best without preconception of where or how we might lie. The closed interior intensified feelings.We all took different things from the experience but my feeling was that it gave a person a strong sense of power to be in the installation -an individual breathing in his own rhythm whilst being part of a growing and then static, fitted jig-saw of souls arranged but not choreographed.

There are times when it is best to follow the example of other artists. Their expertise, their attitude and their accomplishments are as beacons for aspiring practitioners. What makes an individual himself, I believe, he must identify and decide for himself. For me, the love of nature and the fascination in its power is ever present and influential in my existence. The items above have given a window into my being.

Michael McGowan Bibliography D4101 Assignment 2

*Buildings of Lancaster, Geological processes,Lancaster,2013.

British Ceramics Biennial, Various Exhibitors@Spode Factory, Stoke on Trent, Nov 2013.

Coastline of Morecambe Bay, Marine-Geomorphological Processes,Fleetwood-Lancs,2013

Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair, Contributing Stall-Holders, Manchester, 2013.

Landscape of South Lakes, Geological Processes, Westmorland, 2013.

* ‘The Day of His Wrath’, Martin J.,Tate, London 2013.

* ‘The Wreck of the Hope’, Friedrich C.D., Kunsthalle, Hamburg 2013.

*Storey Institute Arts, North West Arts Group, Meeting House Lane-Lancaster, 2011.

*Viewing of Perfomance, Los Gitanos Balleares, Lluc-Mallorca-Spain, April 2012 .

Visit to Potter’s Home, William Plumptre, Haverthwaite-N.Lancs,March2012