PYREjune copy1 - the Ceramic Arts Association of WA Inc.

Transcription

PYRE
JUNE 2013
CERAMIC ARTS ASSOCIATION OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA
President’s
Report
CAAWA president
1
Cher Shackleton reviews
recent developments in
the WA world of
ceramics.
Clay Push
at Gulgong
Stewart Scambler reviews
2
the exciting events of this
year’s Clay Push at
Gulgong.
AGM
August 1 2013 7:30pm
1 Leake Street,
3
Peppermint Grove
Guest Speaker
Jánis Nedéla
www.ceramicartswa.asn.au
CAAWA Selective
Judges Choice: Njalikwa Chongwe
Earth Sphere 2
JUNE 2013
President’s Report
Congratulations to the recipients of this year's awards at the recent members
selective. The people's choice award proved a popular addition this year
with over 230 votes cast and many positive comments. It will continue to be
included in future exhibitions.
Thank you to Njalikwa for coordinating the exhibition this year. He has a full
report of the 2013 selective in this issue. I am delighted to announce the
selector for the next exhibition will be
Mrs Janet Holmes á Court.
Congratulations are also in order to Fleur Schell with the launch of The Clay
House. What a wonderful addition to the ceramic scene here in WA.
The committee are already considering several artists for the POTober
2014. Suggestions for demonstrators are welcome. Please send them in.
The CAAWA website continues to attract many 100's of viewers each month
looking at 3-4000 pages. If you haven't updated your images lately please
take a moment to email them in. If you are a new member, consider being in
the gallery. If you have your studio open please let us know the dates and
times so the information can be circulated and included on CAAWA website
and Facebook.
The AGM is not too far away. Jánis Nedėla is the guest speaker this year. A
separate notice will be sent to you prior to the meeting. Nominations forms
are in this issue if you would like to join the committee.
Jackie masters has designed a new membership brochure that will be
launched at the meeting. A discussion to increase membership fees by $10
will be on the agenda and if accepted will be effective as of the 2nd August
this year.
There has been several requests for hard copies of the PYRE, due to the ever
escalating printing costs, the!committee, at the suggestion of some members
have made an extra option available. The membership renewal form is also
in this issue.
Another bumper issue from the Editor's desk, please enjoy.
Cher Shackleton
www.shackletongallery.com
JUNE 2013
CAAWA SELECTIVE EXHIBITION 2013
The opening of CAAWA’s selective exhibition
took place this year on 12 April at Heathcote
Gallery. It was well attended by members,
families and friends who had come to see a
wide range of selected works. CAAWA was
pleased to welcome Professor Ted Snell to open
the exhibition.
Images by Victor France
“We meet today on Whadjuk Noongar land
and I acknowledge the Wadjuk Noongaras the
spiritual and cultural custodians of this land.
Pots change the way we live our lives. I’m sure
you all agree with me. One of the key criteria
that make us human is our ability to design and
fabricate objects that enable us to engage
more efficiently, aesthetically and productively
with our world and for centuries ceramic
objects have improved and enhanced our
lives. When I sit down at my computer each
morning I am joyously met by a wonderful
group of vessels made by Pip Drysdale, I eat my
muesli from a Stewart Scambler bowl, I drink my
coffee from a French Bistro-ware green and
gold cup, and it matters. The joy I get from
holding or touching these objects, from using
them for the purpose for which they were
created, gives each day an added enjoyment
and a heightened sense of what it means to be
human and to be engaged with my world. As
agents of change Potters seek ways to improve,
to integrate and to re-imagine the objects and
spaces that shape how we live. It is a
fundamental and important process that makes
our lives better and more fulfilled. It requires a
deep knowledge of materials and their
properties, but it is essentially an intellectual
activity that requires all our faculties as human
beings.
Njalikwa Chongwe
Janice Heston
JUNE 2013
The Finnish architect and theorist Juhani
Pallasmaa describes how making is a process of
thinking with the hands that leads to innovation.
His idea of the ‘thinking hand’ is one that has
resonance for visual artists and particularly for
those in the crafts where the belief in process as
a dynamic, evolving and responsive activity is
well established. Of course the thinking hand
must be well-trained. Daniel Levitin has
proposed the ten thousand hours rule as the
timeframe required for complex skills to become
deeply ingrained and hence readily available
as tacit knowledge. And all of you here tonight
know about the hours of work required to be
skilled and attuned to your materials and how
these skills are engaged in the processes
involved in making pots.
Atsuko Sandover
Wonder or surprise at what you have imagined
is the next step, what Plato called Poesis,
“whatever passes from not being into being”,
which is of course the root of what we
understand to be originality, the kernel at the
core of the creative process. This sense of
wonder or expectation drives the maker on to
see what can be formed anew, what this
alchemical process of combination and
amalgamation can achieve.
It is at this point that the entire body is engaged
in the creative activity, when the brain and our
senses are electrified by the possibility we have
revealed through the process of physically
engaging with our material environment and
manipulating, re-forming and re-shaping it. This
is the moment of creative insight and
innovation, when the thinking hand changes
the world, as we know it, when the entire
project of making is grounded in the tacit
knowledge that comes from the hands, as a
window of the mind and as its guide. This is the
moment of creation that we see reflected in the
works around us this evening.
Stewart Scambler
JUNE 2013
It was a real joy to enter the gallery on Monday
and to have the opportunity to engage with
these objects, and I also got to touch them,
hold them, which you’re not able to do sadly. It
was, needless to say, a tough job to pick
winners but I was able to identify works that met
all the qualities Pallasmaa identifies and it’s my
great pleasure to announce them this evening.
The winners are:
Highly Commended:
Atsuko Sandover
Jackie Masters
Jackie Masters
Janis Heston
Judge's Award:
Njalikwa Chongwe 'Earth Sphere 2'
Kusnik Award:
Stewart Scambler 'Spherical Jar 1'
Please join me in congratulating the winners
and thanking all the potters with works on show
this evening for sharing their the products of
their ‘thinking hands’ with a thunderous round
of applause.”
Heathcote Gallery
Professor Ted Snell AM CitWA
Professor Ted Snell and Cher Shackleton
JUNE 2013
From CAAWA Vice President
Njalikwa Chongwe
The CAAWA Selective show at Heathcote Gallery in Applecross is over for another year. This year
CAAWA was lucky enough to have Professor Ted Snell as guest judge. Professor Snell continues
CAAWA’s tradition of inviting guest judges with a high profile in the arts. Professor Snell gave a fantastic
speech on opening night which I recommend every CAAWA member read it on the CAAWA website.
• The awards winners were
o Kusnik Award Stewart Scambler 'Spherical Jar 1'
o Judge's Award Njalikwa Chongwe 'Earth Sphere 2'
o Highly Commended
o Atsuko Sandover (3 artworks titled 'Rose')
o Jackie Masters (3 bowls)
o Janis Heston (3 Lidded boxes)
We also had the critical input from the general public through the introduction of the people’s choice
award. This proved very popular with the inaugural peoples’ choice award being taken out by Robyn
Lees, Tea Tree.
Over 1000 people viewed this year’s show.
Though overall the show was a success there is definitely room for improvement from a membership
participation point of view. The selective show is representative of the state of ceramics in a given year.
With the show over it’s a good time to look forward next year’s show and reiterate what the show is all
about and its benefits for the association’s membership. As well the benefits point out how the selections
are made.
Benefits
This show is an opportunity to showcase your works to the public and have it judged by a leader in the
arts.
The awards help lift your profile and aside from the prize money involved all award winners have their
works photographed by a professional photographer. This year Victor France, who is highly regarded as
one of W.A’s best photographers, took the photos.
The exhibition also provides the opportunity to sell your work and promote yourself by distributing your
business cards to interested customers.
As potters we tend to work in fairly isolated studio environments this exhibition also provides the
opportunity for interaction with our peers at the opening night.
Judging
As the exhibition is a selective show and we have judges with vast experience in the arts pieces selected
must match the judge’s standards. Though the members of the CAAWA committee are involved in
receiving works for the exhibition we take an arm’s length approach when it comes to what works are
selected.
How is this done?
This year all work was numbered and names removed. Professor Snell with the assistance of the curators
at the gallery then made his selections. He gave the details of the award winners to the curators who
kept them under wraps until the opening night.
I note that over 20 pieces where not selected this year and these works came from a wide range of
potters varying levels of experience.
We have approximately 12 months until the next selective show so that’s plenty of warning to get some
pieces together.
I leave with this quote from Professor Snell speech on opening night
“As agents of change Potters seek ways to improve, to integrate and to re-imagine the objects and
spaces that shape how we live. It is a fundamental and important process that makes our lives better
and more fulfilled. It requires a deep knowledge of materials and their properties, but it is essentially an
intellectual activity that requires all our faculties as human beings.”
!
JUNE 2013
Clay Push at Gulgong
By Stewart Scambler
28 April to 4 May 2013
The Gulgong events started in 1989 and I was there, sharing a two-man tent with Fergus Stewart at
Janet Mansfield’s property. That event essentially a woodfire gathering attracted about 140
delegates. Under Janet’s stewardship the event has grown so at this the 9th event there were 450
delegates. Sadly Janet was not there to see it although we could all feel her presence somehow.
Sandra Black and I were the only Western Australians to venture to Gulgong this time.
What a feast of ceramics for us. Mini exhibitions in shop windows, more formal shows opening
every night, talks, forums , demonstrations ,technical stuff , who could forget the socialising and
the opening and closing dinners.
It was a struggle to decide who to watch and listen to, would I watch Frank Boyden whose work I
had admired or Lee Kang Hyo build huge pots using coils as thick as my arm and a charcoal
brazier suspended on a wire. Maybe Jeff Mincham building and throwing Alongside Norma
Grinsberg casting and assembling modular forms, but that would mean missing Diana Fayt
(USA)and Marianne Hallberg (Sweden).Add into the mix Naidee Changmoh (Thailand)
handbuilding huge terracotta figures, Ane_Katrine Bulow(Denmark)painstakingly producing
computer fashioned screen prints to apply to her work (I could never work so accurately) , Greg
Daly and Kirsten Coelho and no wonder I was exhausted at the end of each day.
The energy and commitment of the masters and all the other presenters made for a very highenergy learning and social experience indeed.
JUNE 2013
The opening of Janet Mansfield’s exhibition and
Owen Rye’s dedication were particularly poignant .
The emotion in the room was palpable.It was obvious
that there was not a person present that had not had
their lives enriched by Janet’s friendship.
For me the highlights were Frank Boydens
demonstrations and the slip performance by Lee
Kang Hyo where accompanied by loud Korean music
he danced around his 2meter high pot throwing
multicoloured slips and scratching through the surface
produced with a large tool—phew! Amazing.
Lee Kang Hyo
All too soon the last day arrived and we only had the
clay event and the dinner to go. As usual there was a
series of events with state based teams but with only 2
WA delegates we were short of the required minimum
numbers. Sandra was not feeling well enough so
thankfully the organisers allowed me to recruit a few
honorary western Australians—Frank Boyden(our
guided missile ) Ashley (for intelligence) Wolf (we
needed an bit of animal) and I made up the grumpy
old bloke component. Needless to say with such an
array of talent we managed to win the events albeit
with a copious covering of slip.
One of the real outcomes of events like Gulgong is
that friendships across Australia can be made or
renewed and international ties made. Returning
home recharged and ready to explore new ideas
and ways of seeing work makes the time spent really
worthwhile.
There was a collective hope that the event
continue into the future even though Janet is
there to organise the tutors. Events like this that
our community with others around the world are
important to lose.
~ Text and images by Stewart Scambler
Naidee Changmoh
will
not
join
too
JUNE 2013
The Clay House
Introducing The Clay House
... a welcoming environment that stimulates creative expression
through clay.
92 Stirling Hwy North Fremantle Western Australia
The Story so far...
The impetus for The Clay House began in 2005 as"SODA studios in North Fremantle through
the passionate enthusiasm for clay of ceramic artist Fleur Schell. Following the success and
popular demand of SODA studios and the International Ceramic Residency program,
Fleur and her husband Richard Hill felt there was enough community interest to expand
the studios in 2013 to a specialist clay centre where a number of clay related activities
can run. Sadly Perth Galleries, just down the road was closing so Fleur and Rich saw this as
an opportunity to expand their facilities and activities so near to the original SODA Studios
and their home. "The Clay House is a privately run self- funded facility, able to provide a
very broad clay making opportunity that appeals to people of all ages and experience. "
Fleur and Richard believe this is a wonderful"way to! nurture grass roots interest in the clay
arts in WA.
JUNE 2013
So why a Centre for Clay?
Saint!Thomas"Aquinas!(c. 1225 – 1274) defined
‘human’ as “a being with brains and hands. As
such our greatest joy comes when we can employ
both simultaneously in ways which are creative,
useful, and productive.”
What is so unique about The Clay House?
The Clay House is a hub for several integrated clay
related activities:
Mothers Day at the Clay House
The Clay House learning centre
The Centre has a dedicated facility able to
accommodate participants of all ages who are
seeking to learn about clay from instructors who
have been invited from other parts of the world,
and who are experts in their own ceramic genre. "
SODA International Ceramic Residency
Program
The Clay House is also providing space and
accommodation for clay artists from all around the
world to come to Perth to share their skills, ideas
and passion for clay, and to experiment, research
and make their own work at The Clay House. "
The Clay House Centre for Designing and Making
The largest proportion of the centre is a hive of
activity as it is the home of professional studio
artists Fleur Schell, Cj Jilek and Anthony Wise.
Having practising artist on campus provides
authenticity to the craft of clay. It also provides a
bench mark and inspiration to those starting their
journey with clay who either visit The Clay House or
who are enrolled in the learning centre. "
Katrina Chaytor Resident Artist
Canada
Fleur Schell
JUNE 2013
What are the benefits of being part of The Clay House community?!
In this ever more technologically focused world, places to engage in making using our
hands and hearts simultaneously are less accessible and prevalent. Instead younger
generations gravitate towards a virtual reality for creative expression. At The Clay House
both children and adults are given the opportunity to think through their hands. It is a
messy, muddy alternative for participants to express themselves. Open ended and
exploratory in nature, the centre provides a place for all to come and have fun making
things with clay without expectation or pressure. Teachers and Professional Makers can
enrol in Professional Development courses to extend their knowledge of clay. "There are
courses tailored for the general public on weekends and during week days. These courses
involve step by step projects encouraging participants to make things they have always
wanted specifically in clay. It is a venue where the public can book a Birthday party for a
few hours to make a cup, or book a special event for the office, or a team building theme
based workshops, e.g. My Mum and Me Mothers Day. The focus is on allowing people to
discover, experiment and play with a plastic, responsive material that can be
manipulated in many varying, exciting and often quite personal ways.
“We$hope$The$Clay$House$will$provide$authenticity$and$an$environment$
of$cultural$enrichment$that$the$local$community$can$embrace.”$$
Fleur&Schell!!!
It is our aim for The Clay House in all its incarnations will provide an accessible hub for like
minded children and adults "to come together to enjoy making, sharing ideas and
inspiring each other though the objects they make out of clay. "We also hope there will be
rich cultural exchange through the International Visiting Artist program - that The Clay
House becomes a vehicle for dialogue through clay, between visitors to our shores and
Discover Clay •Develop ideas through clay • Become part of a local
clay community • Be inspired by professional clay designer/makers
from all around the world • Experiment and be creative with clay
JUNE 2013
The Last Sane Man: Michael Cardew
The Last Sane Man
Michael Cardew
Modern Pots, Colonialism and the Counterculture
Tanya Harrod
Yale University Press
Reviewed for PYRE by Janet Kovesi-Watt
It is now thirty years since Michael Cardew died, on
February 11, 1983, and a whole generation of young
potters have grown up scarcely having heard of him,
though the name of Leach is still well known. He wrote an
introduction to Leach's A Potter's Book, and his pots are
illustrated in it, opposite pages 36 and 42, described by
Leach as “The most vigorous expression of the English
countryside.”
This was really all one knew about him when he came to
Australia in 1968. He had been invited to set up a pottery
for aboriginal people in a settlement near Darwin, and
before leaving for the north he gave a demonstration
workshop at the brand-new Hayman Hall at WAIT (now
Curtin University) to a privileged group of local potters. We
were overwhelmed by the ebullience of his personality
and the breadth of his whole approach to pottery. He
worked at a reassuringly leisurely pace (“I am the world's
worst thrower; the only person worse than me is Mr
Bernard Leach”) to the accompaniment of thoughtprovoking comments: “throwing is dangerous; you have
to take risks; that's what makes it alive.” We had never
seen handles pulled from the pot, and characteristically
he attached them without first letting them stiffen: “I like
to take as many risks as possible.” We also had a sneak
preview of the material in his book “Pioneer Pottery”, due
JUNE 2013
to be published the following year.
He had first encountered pottery in North Devon, where
the family holiday house was filled with the work of one of
the last great English folk potters, Edwin Beer Fishley, and
subsequently took lessons from Fishley's grandson. This was
his background when in 1923 he bicycled down to the
Leach pottery, and encountered the very different
Japanese pottery tradition which had been absorbed by
Leach. From the cross-fertilisation of the two traditions a
studio pottery vernacular was born, exemplified notably in
the work of Richard Batterham, which draws on both
traditions, for instance the use of stoneware with oriental
ash glazes, to make jugs inspired by the pottery of the
English middle ages.
In 1926 Cardew left the Leach pottery and struck out on
his own, reviving a traditional pottery just outside
Winchcombe in Gloucestershire, north of Cheltenham.
There he made wood-fired earthenware, decorated with
slip. He worked there through the 1920s and 30s, often
struggling with kiln and clay problems, but making ever
grander pots, with lead glazes glowing from the wood
firing. (The pots illustrated by Leach were from this period.)
In mid-1939 Michael bought the abandoned Wenford
Bridge Inn on the edge of Bodmin Moor in Cornwall, but
this was a bad time for someone with little money, and a
wife and three small sons, to be trying to convert a set of
semi-derelict buildings into a pottery. They badly needed
to earn some money, as pottery was hardly going to
produce an income in wartime. Mariel found a job
teaching art at a school in Buckinghamshire, and Michael
spent an unsatisfactory period trying to get the pottery
going, in between temporary jobs.
Then in 1941 his life was unexpectedly transformed by a
letter from the Colonial office, asking him to recommend
a ceramist to take over from Harry Davis the running of
the pottery at Achimota College in the Gold Coast (now
Ghana). He replied that he “did not know of any potter
capable of taking Mr Davis's place (my words more true
than I knew) but that I myself was willing to come
instead.” In July 1942 he set sail for West Africa, a new life
- and a regular salary.
JUNE 2013
rated with slip. He worked there through the 1920s and
30s, often struggling with kiln and clay problems, but
making ever grander pots, with lead glazes glowing from
the wood firing. (The pots illustrated by Leach were from
this period.)
In mid-1939 Michael bought the abandoned Wenford
Bridge Inn on the edge of Bodmin Moor in Cornwall, but
this was a bad time for someone with little money, and a
wife and three small sons, to be trying to convert a set of
semi-derelict buildings into a pottery. They badly needed
to earn some money, as pottery was hardly going to
produce an income in wartime. Mariel found a job
teaching art at a school in Buckinghamshire, and Michael
spent an unsatisfactory period trying to get the pottery
going, in between temporary jobs.
Then in 1941 his life was unexpectedly transformed by a
letter from the Colonial office, asking him to recommend
a ceramist to take over from Harry Davis the running of
the pottery at Achimota College in the Gold Coast (now
Ghana). He replied that he “did not know of any potter
capable of taking Mr Davis's place (my words more true
than I knew) but that I myself was willing to come
instead.” In July 1942 he set sail for West Africa, a new life
- and a regular salary.
He was exhilarated by what he found, but increasingly
daunted and ultimately defeated by the attempt to fulfil
the over-ambitious plans that were imposed on him, to
greatly expand the activities of the pottery and build a
whole new industry under pioneer conditions in wartime.
He was frustrated by difficulties with clay, the workforce,
his own temperament and catastrophic losses in firing,
and in 1945 after many struggles and considerable
financial losses the pottery and tileworks were closed
down. Michael suffered agonies of disappointment. He
was resolved, however, to find some way of staying in
Africa, and was able to set up a pottery at Vumë, on the
river Volta, a beautiful place with a fine local pottery
tradition of its own. He was determined to prove that a
stoneware pottery could be successfully set up in Africa, if
it was on a smaller scale. As before, however, he
struggled with inadequate clays and the usual disastrous
firings. Nevertheless some fine pots did survive, and were
exhibited in a British Council exhibition in Accra, in
December 1947, while others were later shown in London
to a distinguished audience.
JUNE 2013
By the time Michael came to write his astonishingly
candid autobiography, he was able to admit that the
Vumë pottery had been a failure, but he also concluded
that the years he worked there were a necessary
apprenticeship for his future success in Africa, and part of
what he called his “destiny”.
The autobiography, “A Pioneer Potter”, edited by his son
Seth and published in 1988, finishes there, but the story
does not, and we now have the magnificent biography
by Tanya Harrod, written after 11 years of exhaustive
research, to tell us more.
Back at Wenford, in 1949 Michael was unexpectedly
joined by the Australian Ivan McMeekin, who turned up
on his bicycle, very much as Michael himself had arrived
at the Leach Pottery in 1923. Ivan had encountered
Chinese pottery while serving in the merchant navy on the
Chinese coast, and longed to find out how to make it. The
day after he arrived he got straight to work helping to fire
the kiln, and stayed on, giving invaluable help, being
particularly interested in the technical and scientific side
of pottery.
(Later on after his return to Australia, determined to make
firing more efficient, he realised that Michael's kilns had
lacked an opening for secondary air, and a damper,
which would account for the long and difficult stoneware
firings.)
In 1950 Michael was given his longed-for chance to return
to Africa. He successfully applied for the job of “Pottery
officer” in Nigeria, to “train African labour in making
methods and supervise the erection and operation of
simple kilns”. Ivan, who had now been taken into
partnership, was left in charge at Wenford.
Michael first travelled extensively round the Nigerian
countryside, intoxicated by the nobility of the local pots –
hand-built and fired in simple bonfire kilns – before finally
deciding to establish his training centre at Abuja, the
present day capital of Nigeria. Here he was able to
introduce African potters to the wheel, glaze and
stoneware firing. Some of his pupils, notably a beautiful,
gifted woman named Ladi Kwali, made superb pots in
their own traditions, and relished the enlargement of their
skills, while he himself was free to develop his own work,
inspired by African shapes and patterns.
JUNE 2013
There followed many years of personal fulfilment and
splendid pots, before he retired in 1965, and began yet
another life, as what Tanya Harrod calls a “Magus”. She
describes a whole series of visits round the world, giving
lectures and demonstrations, sometimes accompanied
by Ladi Kwali and his beloved assistant Kofi, and inspiring
young potters by his forthright pronouncements and
magnetic personality.
The attempt in 1968 to set up a pottery at the Bagot
settlement near Darwin was not altogether a success –
the settlement itself was a dispiriting environment, and
Michael disliked the clay body that Ivan McMeekin had
made up, and the small square kiln he had built. Two of
his students, however, later moved to Bathurst Island,
where the pottery still flourishes alongside the other Tiwi
craft workshops, so there is an enduring Cardew legacy in
the Northern Territory.
Michael visited Australia again in 1981, as keynote
speaker on “The Resourceful Potter” for the second
National Ceramics Conference in Sydney. Tanya Harrod
reports that he found the conference rather dull, though
he certainly gave no sign of this, and made the
conference a memorable one for everyone else.
Back in England, 1981 was a year of contrasts: he
celebrated his 80th birthday in May, and
visited
Buckingham Palace to receive the CBE in July, but in
December was given the shocking news that his second
son Cornelius had been killed in a brutal hit and run
accident.
His own death, movingly described by Tanya Harrod,
followed just over a year later.
Her splendid biography is a fitting tribute to the many
facets of the life and personality of a truly great, though
flawed man, and to the strength and resilience of his wife
Mariel during their unconventional but enduring marriage.
It is not easy to be a great man, and not easy to be a
member of his family or to work with him; nevertheless
surely all his students would agree with Svend Bayer, who
described him simply as “the best potter in the world”.
Janet Kovesi-Watt
JUNE 2013
Finally, The Bowl Gets It’s Due
the object’s obvious beauty, nothing
signaled its age or rarity to the untutored
eye.
Bowls haven’t changed in any important
way since the Song dynasty. In fact, they
haven’t changed much since the
Neolithic era, between 4,000 and 10,000
years ago, when people first began
making receptacles by hollowing out
wood and stone or molding and baking
clay.
“Untitled Yellow Crackle Bowl” by Glen Lukens (c. 1939)
By JULIE LASKY
The New York Times
Published: March 27, 2013
Last week, a media frenzy erupted when a
small white ceramic bowl carved with a
pattern of lotus blossoms sold for more than
$2.2 million at auction in New York. That
price, which included the buyer’s premium,
was 10 times what the auction house,
Sotheby’s, expected the bowl to fetch, and
more than 700,000 times what the sellers
had paid for it.
The consignors, whom Sotheby’s identified
only as a family from New York State, had
bought the bowl for a few dollars at a yard
sale in 2007. It was displayed in their living
room until they consulted Asian art experts
and discovered that it was a thousandyear-old artifact from the Northern Song
dynasty in China, an exquisite specimen of
pale, thin-walled Ding pottery.
If it’s curious that this Chinese bowl
escaped notice for so long, it’s an equal
wonder that it finally came to light. For all of
Before the bowl, cupped hands and
folded leaves brought water to the lips.
The new containers offered a place to
hold the materials of community and
ritual: food for sharing, incense for
burning, water for irrigation, wine for
sacrament, alms for the poor.
And yet, “we don’t talk about the bowl
because it’s completely this everyday
thing,” said Namita Gupta Wiggers,
director and chief curator of the Museum
of Contemporary Craft in Portland, Ore.
“We take it for granted. We know it too
well.”
That so vital an article is routinely
overlooked led Ms. Wiggers to organize
an exhibition devoted to it. “Object
Focus: The Bowl” opened earlier this
month, displaying nearly 200 bowls, from a
Tibetan singing bowl to a chrome ice
bucket. The show, which is subtitled
“Reflect + Respond,” will run through Aug.
3. A second part, “Engage + Use,” which
involves artists’ performances, a bowllending library, a symposium and a
collaboration with chefs, cookbook
authors and bakers in Portland, will be
JUNE 2013
held from May 16 through September 21.
Speaking by phone from Portland, Ms.
Wiggers said she was moved to think
differently about the bowl after reading
“The Language of Things,” a book by
Deyan Sudjic, who directs the Design
Museum in London. Mr. Sudjic wrote about
the ways designers have transformed
ordinary household objects into coded
luxuries meant to raise the owner’s status
and self-esteem. Such objects, as Ms.
Wiggers interpreted it, include the table,
lamp and chair. Consumers, she said, covet
not just tables, but Noguchi tables; not just
chairs, but Eames chairs; not just lamps, but
Ingo Maurer lamps.
The bowl does not perform the same star
turn in the object world, Ms. Wiggers
believes, and she attributes its background
role to its close connection with craft. Many
magnificent bowls have been made by
ceramic and glass artists working outside of
mass-market commerce, detached from
the publicity machinery that promotes
recognition and value. She would like us to
seek not just bowls, but Marguerite
Wildenhain bowls and Lucie Rie bowls, to
name just two esteemed artisans. At the
same time, she would like us to respect the
anonymous vernacular bowl that descends
from generations of well-wrought tradition.
Another reason the bowl has been
overlooked, Ms. Wiggers posits, is because
it’s an accessory. Which is to say, it’s a
supporting player in the narrative of other
objects and their users. What else is to be
expected from something defined largely
by the void at its center and its ability to
contain a near-infinite variety of things?
“When I talk to people about the bowl, it is
always about something else,” Ms. Wiggers
said. “It’s a metaphorical conversation
about ritual, like in the tea ceremony, or
about the fabrication process. It’s very
hard to just talk about the bowl itself. We
talk around the bowl.”
Paradoxically, it’s the bowl’s lack of
presence that makes it such an excellent
metaphor and accounts for the many
memorable references to it in literature.
Sifting through the Western canon alone,
one quickly arrives at Mr. Micawber and
his punch bowl; Mrs. Dalloway’s outré
friend Sally Seton floating the heads of
dahlias and hollyhocks in bowls of water;
stately, plump Buck Mulligan performing a
parody of the Roman Catholic mass with
a shaving bowl; and, of course, “The
Golden Bowl” of Henry James.
Tables, chairs and lamps can’t begin to
compete.
Ms. Wiggers has capitalized on the
narrative richness of bowls by inviting
scholars, writers and artisans to select an
example from the show and write a brief
essay about it. Some of the essays are
philosophical, like the meditation by Mara
Holt Skov, a curator in San Francisco, on a
glass bowl by Do-Ho Suh modeled with
the impression of the South Korean artist’s
cupped hands pressed into the base. It is,
Ms. Holt Skov wrote, a “reminder that the
hand is present in everything we make,”
even if the evidence is not always
obvious.
Daniel Duford, a potter and printmaker,
wrote more personally about a ceramic
bread bowl of unknown origin that had
been inherited from his wife’s greatgrandmother in Puyallup, Wash.: “It is thick
and stout like a Dutch farm wife. For all its
stoutness, it has a handsome figure,
neither dumpy nor high-toned.”
JUNE 2013
Ms. Wiggers has invited the public to
contribute writings as well, which are
collected
online
at
objectfocusbowl.tumblr.com. And she is
encouraging people to render their ideas
about bowls at a drawing station installed at
the exhibition. Undergraduates from the
illustration program at Pacific Northwest
College of Art, the museum’s partner
institution, were the first contributors,
followed by anyone who has cared to pick
up a pencil.
Written or drawn, these interpretations
encourage us to look at bowls with new
eyes and find the poetry in their banality.
Bowls are the mother of design, and their
unique qualities may be stifled by the
comfort of their familiar forms. Take the
ancient Song dynasty bowl that created
such a stir: Tao Wang, an archaeologist who
heads the Chinese art department at
Sotheby’s, said that the lotus pattern in the
ivory bowl is probably a Buddhist allusion,
symbolizing rebirth and purity. This particular
bowl would have been used not for dining,
Mr. Wang noted, but for making an offering
to a temple. “It’s not a simple daily object,”
he said.
Which is not to denigrate the everyday. “The
simple bowl,” Mr. Wang added, “is the great
invention of the human mind.”
Basin 1 by Surabhi Ghosh (2012)
Footed Bowl by Lucy Rie (c. 1980)
www.nytimes.com
Alphabet Bird Bowl by Ayumi Horie
(2012)
JUNE 2013
In Memoriam
Mirek Smíšek
Smíšek was born in the Bohemia region of
Czechoslovakia in 1925. After spending most of
World War 2 in labour camps due to his efforts in the
anti-Nazi resistance movement, he fled Europe in
1948 after the Czech coup. He emigrated first to
Australia, and then to New Zealand in 1951.
He worked for the Crown Lynn pottery in Auckland
where he created the "Bohemia Ware" line in
manganese slip glaze, before moving to Nelson in
1952. There he worked at the Nelson Brick and Pipe
Company, where he learned the technique of salt
glazing. He left in 1957 and became New Zealand's
first full-time studio potter. He also taught pottery at
the Nelson Technical School (at the time part of
Nelson College) and night classes at Waimea
College. In 1968 he moved to the Kapiti Coast,
where he established three potteries.
He worked extensively for the The Lord of the Rings
film trilogy, making about 700 earthenware items for
the three films. Frequently he had to make two or
three of each piece in different sizes to allow them
to be used by the hobbits, humans and giants.
In the 1990 Queen's Birthday Honours, Smíšek was
made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for
services to pottery. He received the Gratis Agit
award from the Czech government in 2011 for
promoting the Czech Republic overseas.
Smíšek died in Wellington in 2013.
At the time of his death, a retrospective exhibition
"60 Years 60 Pots" was touring New Zealand. A
number of his pieces are held in the Museum of New
Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.
1967
JUNE 2013
In Memoriam
Michiko Love
10 August 1925 -1 January 2013
Michiko was born in Japan where she remained until
after WW2. During the allied occupation she was
introduced to Bob Love an RSM in the Australian army
. Bob returned to Japan after the occupation and
Michiko soon found herself in Australia as his bride.
Australian attitudes to the Japanese after the war
made life very difficult and Michi’s strength and
courage were tested on a daily basis. During the 50’s
she ventured out to Pottery classes with Francis Kotai
at Fremantle Tech where her skill and sensitivity with
clay blossomed . Michiko became a practicing artist,
teacher and was involved with the formation of the
Perth Potters club.
Early in her career she became famous for making
miniatures, some only a centimetre high. Asked why
make such small pots ?(often thrown with the help of
chopsticks) Michi would reply that she hated to waste
all the small spaces between her bowls and bottles so
filled them with the miniatures. During this period she
managed to raise a son and daughter.
Michi continued to teach and influence potters
throughout her life. She was always ready to extol the
Japanese way in ceramics as a way to true beauty.
Michiko lived a life worth living, built on strength and
truth tempered by love. She will be missed by all that
knew her.
The temple bell stops
But the sound keeps coming
Out of the flowers
(Matsuo Basho, 1644-1694)
~ Thanks to Stewart Scambler for this contribution.
JUNE 2013
Study Groups and
Gatherings
The second half of 2013
brings with it some great
opportunities
to
get
together!
18th July 7pm
DISH IT UP: make & decorate a plate,
top with food to share and bring along
for a show & tell. Also the rescheduled
talk by Stewart Scambler WELCOME
TO INDIA
19th September 7pm
STUDY GROUP
Janet Kovesi Watt's slide show of the
2013 ABERYSTWYTH conference.
21th November 6:30pm
CAAWA Christmas party with a
Chris Cringle & Raku evening
NSW Wood firer Chester Nealie was
in Perth recently and gave an
impromptu demonstration to some
of Cher's students in her O'Connor
studio.
Bring a plate to share!
Chester Nealie
See the calendar below for further
details or contact Janet:
[email protected]
Platter 2008
19.0 h x 42.0 w
cm
JUNE 2013
Ceramic Arts Association of WA Inc
AGM
1st August 2013
7.30 PM IN THE PEPPERMINT GROVE COMMUNITY
ROOM 1 LEAKE ST PEPPERMINT GROVE ( the
community room is next to the Cottesloe library)
Followed at 8.15 pm with Guest Speaker
Jánis Nedėla
Artist, Curator, Writer
AGENDA 2013 CAAWA AGM
WELCOME
APOLOGIES
PREVIOUS MINUTES
PRESENT REPORT
TREAURERS REPORT
COMMITTEE ELECTIONS
OTHER BUSINESS: INCREASE MEMB FEES.
LAUNCH NEW MEMBERSHIP BROCHURE
JUNE 2013
Glaze Recipe Errors
Thanks to Natalie Harrop for this contribution.
I have been in touch with Stephen Murfitt who wrote 'THE GLAZE BOOK" It was a query at
first about some ingredients that should have been in his recipes, he has added some
amendments as follows to his recipes I am writing because there are lots of potters out
there who have purchased this book and would like to know the problem, and this
information can be printed in the CAAWA MAGAZINE or emailed as you think fit He
Page 128
1st recipe should read
Glaze A over B
Add 10% Red iron oxide to recipe B
Page 172
Recipe 1
Add 3% rutile to recipe A
Add 5% Red Iron Oxide to recipe B
Recipe A over B
Page 128
2nd recipe should read
Glaze A over B Add
10% Red iron Oxide to recipe B
Page 128
3rd recipe should read
Add 10% Red iron oxide to recipe B
Add 10% Red Iron Oxide to recipe C
Glaze B over C then A over both
Page 150
2nd recipe should read
Add 3% Rutile to recipe A
Add 1% Cobalt oxide to recipe A
2nd recipe
Add 10% Red Iron oxide to recipe B
Recipe A applied over B
I!think!if!you!have!this!book!it!is!worth!changing!the!
errors.!Cheers!and!hope!everyone!can!
understand!!this.!!Natalie!Harrop
JUNE 2013
Winter School @ Central
Central runs four terms of short courses a year, offering you the chance to experience a slice of Central’s
highly renowned creative offering. From photography, furniture, fashion and jewellery design, to music, film
and TV. All the courses are run by industry professionals, usually in the evening or on the weekends. Our visual
arts department also offer children’s classes school holiday programs. For more:
http://www.central.wa.edu.au/Courses/CreativeArts/
JUNE 2013
South of the River Potters’ Club
MEMBERS’ EXHIBITION
COMMITTEE 2012/2013
Executive Committee
• Cher Shackleton
President
Website Coordinator
[email protected]
• Njalikwa Chongwe
Vice President
[email protected]
• Dianne Sigel
Treasurer
[email protected]
GLORIOUS MUD
• Janet Kovesi Watt
Secretary
Study Group Coordinator
[email protected]
General Committee
• Jackie Masters
Membership Secretary
[email protected]
OCTOBER 12th - 20th
Atwell House Gallery
Cnr Canning Highway & North
Lake Road, Alfred Cove
• Natalie Acton
PYRE Editor
Facebook Coordinator
[email protected]
• Stewart Scambler
Workshops
[email protected]
om
• Janis Heston
Social Coordinator
[email protected]
10.00am - 4.00pm daily
Opening Sunday October 13th at
2.30pm
• Sandra Black
[email protected]
• Helen Dundo
[email protected]
• Rosemary Schoen
[email protected]
JUNE 2013
The 2013 Central Institute of Technology
Graduating Fine Art and Jewellery Students are pleased to present
The Annual Fundraising Auction
All proceeds go to fund the 2013 Graduating Show
At Central Gallery, Aberdeen St, Perth
On Thursday 1st August – Hammer down
6pm
The following Artists and Students will be contributing work in ceramics and other
mediums:
Drew Armstrong
Jillian Betterton
Sandra Black
Elaine Bradley
Holly Courtney
Pippin Drysdale
Sue Flavell
Graham Hay
Bela Kotai
Alana Lindsay
Karen Millar
Fleur Schell
Andrea Vincovic
Gill Wilson
Plus works from many more artists and students – a great opportunity to purchase work
from your favourite artists at an affordable price!
JUNE 2013
Submissions
For PYRE submissions email: [email protected]
WEB ADDRESS
www.ceramicartswa.asn.au
POSTAL ADDRESS
C/- 9 Hartington Way
Carine 6020 WA
Calendar
DATE
TIME
EVENT
PLACE
4th July
6.30pm
COMMITTEE MEETING
18th July
7pm
1st August
7 .30pm
doors open 7pm
5th September
6.30
STUDY GROUP
DISH IT UP: make & decorate
a plate, top with food to share
and bring along for a show &
tell. Also the rescheduled talk
by Stewart Scambler
WELCOME TO INDIA
AGM
8.15 pm Speaker, Jánis Nedėla
Artist, curator.
COMMITTEE MEETING
COMMUNITY ROOM
PEPERMINT GROVE
COMMUNITY ROOM
PEPPERMINT GROVE
19th September
7pm
3rd October
6.30pm
STUDY GROUP
Janet Kovesi Watt's slide show
of the 2013
Aberystwyth conference
COMMITTEE MEETING
7th November
12-4
COMMITTEE MEETING
21th November
6.30
Dec TBA
6.30
CAAWA Christmas party with
a
Chris Cringle &
Raku evening
Bring a plate to share
COMMITTEE MEETING
COMMUNITY ROOM
PEPPERMINT GROVE
COMMUNITY ROOM
PEPPERMINT GROVE
COMMUNITY ROOM
PEPPERMINT GROVE
COMMUNITY ROOM
PEPPERMINT GROVE
COMMUNITY ROOM
PEPPERMINT GROVE
Mosman Park
COMMUNITY ROOM
PEPPERMINT GROVE
JUNE 2013
NOMINATION FOR CAAWA COMMITTEE 2013/14
NOMINATIONS CLOSE 1ST AUGUST 2013
NOMINATED
I__________________________________________ A financial member of CAAWA hereby
NOMINATE_____________________________________________________________________________
FOR THE POSITION OF
_______________________________________________________________________________________
SIGNED_____________________________________________________DATE______________________
ACCEPTED
I_____________________________________ A financial member of CAAWA, accept the
nomination.
SIGNED____________________________________________________________DATE______________
JUNE 2013
MEMB ERSHIP RENEW AL
1 st July 2013 – 30 th June 2014
NAME………………………………………………………………………………………………
ADDRESS…………………………………………………………………………...…………….
………….…………...…………………………………………………P/C……………………
PHONE……………………………………………………………………………………...........
EMAIL………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
MEMBERSHIP (please circle) NEW
RENEWAL
FULL
GROUP
FULL TIME STUDENT
ASSOCIATE
NEWSLETTER:
post
TWO YEARS
$ 50.$ 75.-
$ 100.$ 150.-
$ 30.$ 30.-
$ 60.$ 60.-
email
CHEQUES payable to CERAMIC ARTS ASSOCIATION WA (INC)
CREDIT CARD:
Visa…………………………………………………..EXP……………
MasterCard………………………………………….EXP……………
Name on Card…………………………………………………………
Monies to: Dianne Sigel, 9 Hartington Way, Carine WA 6020. email: [email protected]
Payments may be made by cheque, money order, credit card or direct debit to Westpac Karrinyup
BSB: 036027. A/c: 257310. Account name: Ceramic Arts Assocn. of WA Inc. When paying by direct debit,
please reference your name on the direct debit and please advise Dianne Sigel via email that you have made
the direct debit. Cheques made out to Ceramic Arts Assn of WA (Inc).

PYREjune copy1 - the Ceramic Arts Association of WA Inc.

Transcription

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