The content of a vessel is literally the space within it - a vessel defines
emptiness as a presence.
This new work, titled ‘Early morning rain’, was made with numerous slabs of clay, shaped and assembled in a rapid and intuitive way. This approach can be chaotic and dangerous, but feels exciting. The process means that the forms can’t be planned beyond loose ideas of scale, proportion and complexity.
Slabs of porcelain were rolled out by hand with a wooden rolling pin. Actually most of the rolling was bashing the clay flat, and then the rolling smoothed the material towards the end of the process. The slabs were then shaped over various objects and formers. Clay doesn’t really suggest much- it’s cold and mute, so when making, decisions continually have to be made. Not about what the final piece will look like, which will in time become clear, but the details- how wide, how long, how thin or thick the slab- choices which determine shape. The final work is sharply defined, it has a clear drawn ground plan, smooth walls and definite edges, but this resolution emerged gradually.
Through this process the work becomes the sum of innumerable small decisions, choices and actionsbeing built up gradually through addition, so the piece comes into focus slowly. In this way I am able to concentrate on how each element meets and relates to its neighbours and what it contributes to the whole.