SetoMonogatari 8 (2019) Porcelain, glaze, pink lustre, ceramic decals
Approx. 40 x 24 x 24 cm, Photo: Jo Howell, 2019
SetoMonogatari 7 (2019) Porcelain, glaze, pink lustre, ceramic decals
Approx. 40 x 24 x 22 cm, Photo: Jo Howell, 2019
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Setomonogatari
5 – Iga to Nagasaki (2016)
Porcelain, glaze, pink
lustre, ceramic decals, glass, mixed media,
Approx. 45 x 24 x 22 cm, Photo: Jo Howell, 2016
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Setomonogatari
6 – The Ruined Cottage (2016)
Porcelain, glaze, pink
lustre, ceramic decals, glass, mixed media,
Approx. 43 x 24 x 22 cm, Photo: Jo Howell, 2016
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Seto
Monogatari 1 (2015), reverse
Porcelain, ceramic decals,
pink lustre, approx. 28 x 23 x 18 cm.
Photo: Seto City Cultural
Promotion Foundation, 2016
Work made during my participation in the Seto International Ceramic & Glass Art Exchange Program in Seto, Japan, between November-December 2015.
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Seto
Monogatari 4 – Fortune (2015)
Red clay, ceramic decals,
stains, mixed media, approx. 20 x 34 x 70 cm
Photo: Seto City Cultural
Promotion Foundation, 2016
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Flotsam and
Jetsam (Portmanteau) (2014)
120 x 60 x 50 cm, Photo: Colin Davison, 2014
This piece formed part of Wordsworth and Bashō: Walking Poets, an
exhibition of original manuscripts and contemporary art organised by the
University of Sunderland at the Wordsworth Museum, Grasmere. My installation
was inspired by a verse from Wordsworth’s The Ruined Cottage and a haiku from
The Narrow Road to the Deep North composed by Basho when he visited the
abandoned castle at Hiraizumi, Iwate Prefecture, Japan, in 1689. The piece aims
to compare and contrast the poets’ approaches to memory and the ephemerality of
the human condition. It is also inspired by the ad hoc memorials which
developed in devastated settlements in the wake of the Tohoku earthquake and
tsunami of 2011. In The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Basho visited
Ishinomaki, a fishing settlement which was badly affected by this disaster,
before walking to Hiraizumi, the site of the ruined castle. This site is
approximately 40 miles inland of Kesennuma and Rikuzentakata, both coastal
towns devastated by the tsunami.
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Flotsam and
Jetsam (Portmanteau) (2014),
detail
Porcelain, terracotta,
ceramic decals, glass mixed media, 120 x 60 x 50 cm
Photo: Colin Davison, 2014
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Flotsam and
Jetsam (Portmanteau) (2014),
detail
Porcelain, terracotta,
ceramic decals, glass mixed media, 120 x 60 x 50 cm
Photo: Colin Davison, 2014
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A
selection of vessels from the George Brown Series (2013)
Photo: Jo Howell, 2014
This
series was inspired the George Brown Collection, an assemblage of over 3000
ethnographic items collected by the Barnard Castle-born missionary while he was
in the South Pacific. George Brown worked in Sunderland in the early part of
his life and the collection was owned by Newcastle University before being sold
to the National Museum of Ethnology, Japan, in 1986. In 2013, I was awarded an
AHRC international placement to research the collection in Japan. The form of
these vessels references the collection’s Solomon Island lime containers.
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Clock -
George Brown Series (2015)
Porcelain, glaze, pink
lustre, ceramic decals, mixed media, Approx. 17.5 x 14 x 10.5 cm
Photo: Jo Howell, 2016
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Osaka
- George Brown Series (2013)
Approx. 17.5 x 14 x 10.5 cm, Photo: Jo Howell, 2014
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Kobe
- George Brown Series (2013)
Approx. 25.5 x 14 x 10 cm, Photo: Jo Howell, 2014
I
documented my 3 month residency in Japan with Instagram, a photo-sharing application.
This digital information was materialised in the form of decoration on these porcelain
vessels. The close-ups show how the decals sink into stamped recesses on the surface.
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Awaza 2 -
George Brown Series (2013)
Porcelain, glaze, pink
lustre, ceramic decals, mixed media,
approx. 25.5 x 12 x 10 cm, Photo: Jo Howell, 2014
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Headhunter -
George Brown Series (2013)
approx. 22.5 x 12 x 7 cm, Photo: Jo Howell, 2014
Some of the lime
containers in the collection were made after contact with Europeans and
depicted scenes of encounter between colonisers and the originating
communities. My vessels address this hybridization by blending contemporary and
historical imagery.
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Crinson
Jug Mark 2 (2013)
mixed media, 19 x 17 x 14 cm, Photo: Jo Howell, 2014
This
jug was made as part of my doctoral research in collaboration with Mr Howard Forster, a descendant of the
Crinson family of potters who worked in the Sunderland potteries in the 18th
and 19th centuries. The jug traces his relationship to the family, focusing on
John Henry Crinson, a soldier of the Durham Light Infantry who was killed in
action at the Battle of the Somme in 1916.
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Swift
and Bold Jug (2013)
Porcelain,
glaze, pink lustre, ceramic decals, mixed media
19
x 17 x 14 cm, Photo:
Jo Howell, 2014
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Grow
Jesus, Stage 5 (2013)
22.5 x 14 x 8 cm, Photo: Jo Howell, 2014
As
part of my PhD, I worked with Wearside-born soldiers from Third Battalion, The
Rifles, to make a series of work which commemorated their tour in Afghanistan.
One soldier told me how he had passed time by periodically growing and
shrinking an expanding plastic Jesus toy sent to him by a member of the public.
This work, consisting of several porcelain casts mounted in stoneware shrines,
recreates this process by capturing the figure’s growth in ceramic. Referencing
the presence of much religious imagery in the original Sunderland pottery, this
also attempts to create an alternative monument, addressing the soldier’s
embodied experiences of combat in Afghanistan. Stage 5 is the largest cast.
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Rifleman
Hiles’ IED Brush (2013)
21 x 7 x 2 cm, Photo: Jo Howell, 2014
This
is a ceramic interpretation of the real paintbrush used by Rifleman Hiles to
excavate ‘roadside bombs’ on his tour of Afghanistan with Third Battalion, The
Rifles. Each time he found a device, he marked his brush with a tally.
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The
Heart of Jack Crawford (2013)
37 x 14 x 14 cm, Photo: Jo Howell, 2014
This
piece recreates in ceramic and glass a specimen described as ‘The Heart of Jack
Crawford’ which was donated to the Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens in
1882. Sunderland-born sailor Jack Crawford distinguished himself by repeatedly
risking his life to nail Admiral Duncan’s colours to the mast during the Battle
of Camperdown (1797). Initially fêted nationally for his bravery, Crawford died
tragically of cholera in 1831. His heart is no longer part of the collection
and its authenticity has been questioned. Nevertheless, the story provided
inspiration to make a series of works celebrating this neglected local hero.
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