‘Gesture 104’

These 104 pieces are an exploration of the spontaneous response to gesture that working with clay provides. I was looking to work out of scale, my normal work being large and robust; each of these pieces was thrown from 110gms of clay. They were made over a relatively short time span with all alterations, carvings, ‘stapling’and distortions completed while the clay was wet.

Each piece was glazed
according to its character
using up to three glazes
applied with a Japanese
blow siphon which allows
me to create shadow,
define edges and celebrate
individual additions and
distortions.

I intended the complete
piece to read as a
statement, or a conversation
in as much as all of the
pieces leant into or over or
sheltered under the others
with the black pieces
acting as punctuation
causing the eye to travel
back over the previous
pieces to reconsider them.


For some time, I have been
interested in covering large
spaces with pots to creat an
architectural wallpaper. Gesture 104 is my first endeavor in this direction. A solo-exhibition planned for November 2008 at the Jersey Arts Centre will be an opportunity to explore this possibility further.