From Earth To Evocation
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No. 122
Ceramics: Art and Perception
Ceramics Art + Perception sets the international standard for high quality journals dedicated to ceramic art
- Ceramics: Art and Perception1 min readCeramics: Art and PerceptionEditor Bernadette Mansfield Directors Bernadette Mansfield Neil Mansfield Sub Editor Henrietta Farrelly-Barnett Editorial Adviser Josh Mansfield Layout Designer Luke Davies Administration Manager Jennifer Ireland Administration Assistants Charles Man
- Ceramics: Art and Perception5 min readTo live is to Leave Traces: Anne Mette HjortshøjWalter Benjamin’s insight seems particularly apposite to the life of a potter. In English ‘trace’ can refer to vestigial signs of a past event such as the surface of thrown or turned clay that record the gesture and tools that produced them. But it c
- Ceramics: Art and Perception5 min readThe Porcelain of CapodimonteUntil recently, there have only been two institutions in Italy classified as ‘Istituto Raro’ (Unique Institutions): The Antonio Stradivari International School of Violin Making in Cremona, and The Institutum Statuaria Ars Carrara Pietro Tacca IPSAM i
- Ceramics: Art and Perception6 min readCourting IndigoIn 1977, following the publication of my book, Salt Glazed Ceramics, I discovered, dismayingly, that my passion for that subject had expired, due to running out of questions to explore. Shortly afterward, in an antique shop I came across a wood fired
- Ceramics: Art and Perception7 min readBrick by Brick: A Brief History of Clay Bricks from Kansas, USALet’s face it – bricks are boring. They are rectangular, made of clay, and simply used as literal ‘building’ blocks for utilitarian purposes. I thought this way for decades. I have used firebricks to build gas, sagger, wood, and raku kilns. Aside fro
- Ceramics: Art and Perception4 min readMarea Gazzard: Utopia Art SydneyMarea Gazzard was a special person. She was an artist with a clear and refined sensibility who, over a lifetime of work, established an international reputation for her reductive, essential forms in clay. Her work is widelycollected and exhibited. Ga
- Ceramics: Art and Perception4 min readJane Yang-D’Haene at Bienvenu Steinberg & J, New York CityJane Yang-D’Haene was born in South Korea and came to New York in 1984 to study architecture. Now Brooklynbased, she began to work in clay only in 2016 and is using it for tableware, lighting, furniture and vessels of the sort in this exhibition. Up
- Ceramics: Art and Perception7 min readInterrogating the African Electoral System: A Narrative in Conceptual CeramicsConceptual ceramics have unlimited boundaries, and go beyond household utility into issues of societal concerns. This series uses a conceptual approach to portray and interrogate the electioneering malpractices that have bedeviled the political lands
- Ceramics: Art and Perception5 min readFresh New Talent at the British Ceramics BiennialNurturing, inspiring and showcasing new talent are at the heart of what we do at the British Ceramics Biennial – and have been since we started our work back in 2009. The most prominent way that we do this is through our platform for emerging ceramic
- Ceramics: Art and Perception4 min readListening to Clay: Conversations with Contemporary Japanese Ceramic ArtistsThis is an indispensable book. For anyone interested in contemporary Japanese ceramics it offers an indepth look at the setting and the players through interviews with artists and dealers. Traditions, training, new ideas and opportunities are disclos
- Ceramics: Art and Perception7 min readPlaying with Fire CLAY Museum of Ceramic Art DenmarkIt all started with a visit to the Danish Design Museum in Copenhagen about 30 years ago. British potter Edmund de Waal was faced with an old-fashioned display case with a dense grouping of Axel Salto’s ceramics. There they were, side by side, these
- Ceramics: Art and Perception10 min readEarly Porcelain Making in Victoria, AustraliaThere has long been a passionate interest in collecting Australian pottery. Initially led by dedicated collectors and researchers who published books and curated ground breaking exhibitions on all aspects of the topic, it was roughly divided into ‘ar
- Ceramics: Art and Perception9 min readWang Xianfeng: Innovating Jun WareJun ware occupies an important place in the history of Chinese ceramics, named after the city of Yuzhou in Henan Province, where it was first made. Yuzhou was known as ‘Juntai’ during the Xia Dynasty (thought to be approximately 2070-1600 BC), and lo
- Ceramics: Art and Perception6 min readA Journey Painted in Clay: A Book in the MakingAs one’s practice evolves, the dynamic is driven by the excitement of the next piece of work, the next firing, the next exhibition, one seldom stops to reflect on the journey taken. So it was for me until a chance conversation with a publisher at a b
- Ceramics: Art and Perception3 min readEiji Uematsu at Alison Bradley Projects, New York CityEach of Eiji Uematsu’s modest-scale ceramic objects and plaques is a succinct statement. Each seems considered, and then honed so that it is nothing more than it needs to be. The 16 diminutive works in Alison Bradley’s small New York gallery employ a
- Ceramics: Art and Perception2 min readSaggar Firing in an Electric KilnIf you enjoy the adventure of alternative firing, but have only an electric kiln, Saggar Firing in an Electric Kiln (2021) is the guide for you. This book explains how to use an electric kiln to attain the natural earthy colors and spontaneous patter
- Ceramics: Art and Perception7 min readThe Ceramics of Nsentip UdomWhile the evolution of contemporary Nigerian ceramics practice can be traced back to traditional art practices, a differing set of factors influence its trajectory. The current inclusion of ceramic art into Nigerian higher education curricula is an e
- Ceramics: Art and Perception4 min readToshiko Takaezu: Shaping AbstractionMore than a decade after her death, Toshiko Takaezu’s (1922-2011) stature is still climbing – higher even than during her lifetime. One pot sold for $500 at auction in 1999; last year a similar one sold for $550,000. Her third posthumous retrospectiv
- Ceramics: Art and Perception6 min readWorldHow Illustrations on Porcelain Helped Raise Children in Ancient ChinaHistorically, Chinese people have believed that illustrations encouraged morality, discipline, and favorable conduct in children. This ideology gave birth to a generation of images based on child-rearing, with earlier works depicting fictional charac
- Ceramics: Art and Perception8 min readRedefining Beauty: The Art and Ethos of Fractured CeramicsThe ever-evolving landscape of art analysis has been shaped by an intricate tapestry of art movements and trends spanning centuries. Each era of artistic evolution brings with it renewed debate surrounding what constitutes ‘art’. Historically, this d
- Ceramics: Art and Perception6 min readMy Grandfather’s MarblesMy grandfather John Wilbur Carr grew up in Jefferson County, Pennsylvania in the town of Punxsutawney. His ancestors settled in Western Pennsylvania after the Wyoming Valley Massacre of 1778 forced them from the farm they had, near the present-day Na
- Ceramics: Art and Perception13 min readThe Non-dualistic Beauty of Hun Chung LeeIt is widely known that Sōetsu Yanagi tried to establish a uniquely eastern aesthetic, different from western modern aesthetics, through Buddhist thinking. His craft theory, called ‘Mingei Theory’, was established through the concept of ‘nondualistic
- Ceramics: Art and Perception6 min readRomancing the StoneOnta is a potter’s dream destination. Internationally renowned, Onta (also known as Onda), is a mountainside village which lies in the centre of Sarayama, a valley in Kyushu’s Oita Prefecture, Japan. Within its picturesque rural setting, there are ju
- Ceramics: Art and Perception3 min readQ&A: Coasting ConesQ: After I turn off the kiln why are the positions of my pyrometric cones different when I unload the kiln? The pyrometric cones are designed to show heat work (energy input during firing, normally represented in terms of temperature and time) that h
- Ceramics: Art and Perception4 min readChemistryBone China: Revisited and ReformulatedI have been working with Bone China for more than 20 years, and have mainly used it as a vehicle for decoration with soluble salts which I have been working with for most of that time. Living in South Africa, finding consistent materials is often a p
- Ceramics: Art and Perception3 min readQ&A: Mold Growth in ClayQ: What are the green specks in my moist clay? At some point almost every potter will experience mold growth in moist clay. Mold occurs when microscopic spores attach to clay or other transfer mediums either in the mining, storage, processing, mixing
- Ceramics: Art and Perception10 min readChemistryThe Utilization of Rare Earth Elements as Colorants in Transparent Ceramic Glazes as an Innovative ApproachBased on pertinent scientific papers, published reports, and chemical elements, REMs (or REEs) are composed of a set of 17 chemical elements as listed in the Periodic Table. Furthermore, the 17 rare earth materials include 15 lanthanides, plus scandi