Glebe Road Open Sudios 2011

Some pictures taken during our last Open Studios. They capture a bit of the atmosphere and the wares.

Functional

The lips /rim of my work are a melting point between inside and outside, the glazes meet and create something new The images show some of my recent functional work. It will be displayed at Glebe Road Open Studios, during the first weekend of December 2011. Glebe Road Studios, 18 Glebe Road, Hackney, London E8 4BD

Catching up

I have not yet written anything summarizing Local exhibition at Karim Janseen project space. Even though I was very pleased with it. It was a well curated group show at a nice venue. The opening evening everyone seemed to enjoy, including me. I do not like to stand waiting by my work all full of smiles and small talk... But this time I dedicated my time to the noble art of making cocktails and provided visitors with nice beverages. I enjoyed myself and even managed to talk with some people interested on the work exhibited.
The set of pieces which I produced for this show were done from locally resourced materials. The whole project was miles away from nowadays industrial design and design of materials. It felt like producing archetypes to be displayed in an archaeological museum. I liked it, and liked too the color and felling of the resulting pots
The comment I most liked was from a gentleman who was pleased by the unpretentiousness of the final display

Exhibiting at The Dig

This Thursday 4th of November I will exhibit one of my sculptures, at The Dig.
The Dig takes places at The Nest which is the new name of one of my favorite venues, Barden's Boudoir. 36-44 Stoke Newington road N16

THE DIG - LATE NIGHT UNDERGROUND ARTY PARTY
http://the-dig.co.uk/wp/?page_id=166

As part of East London’s famous First Thursdays, The Dig will be running debauched late-night lock-ins on the first Thursday of every month, bringing mind- blowing bundle of creativity from artists, writers, musicians, film-makers, designers, thinkers and dreamers.
 
The night will also be the official launch party of The Dig’s Creative Journal.

Pot Fest Scotland 2010

This is a ceramic fair, a festival for the potters. The event has been running since 1997, and for what I was told it has a sentimental charge for many of the participants who bring their wares every year to this event.
http://www.potfest.co.uk/coxs.htm

This year the fair was relocated to Stirling as the original site in Perth was not available. I can not compare between the sites as this was my first time at it. Nonetheless I enjoyed the location for the fair
The new site was in a huge Mart outside Stirling, of easy to access by road and with plenty of space to park unload and display, camping area and services, delicious food and coffee
I was traveling by train, bus and foot, with all my work inside a suitcase, a tent and a sleeping bag. My arrival was a comic sight as I was told by some of the potters.
The Mart, was surrendered by fields and a twisting river, on the far backgrounds the mountains, the castle and the tower. The high sky like a busy highway for winds and clouds, charming...

Color in Scotland is very saturated

My display was neat and simple. We were provided with as many tables as we manage to carry to our spaces. I could not bring with me any props or plinths to create different levels so I was forced to displayed my work all at the same level on the table. I had white and black fabric to cover the tables and some of the cubicle fence. Some flowers collected from the nearby fields gave the last touch, It looked alright, fresh and rich in color.
There was a constant affluence of visitors during the three days of the fair.
I had positive feedback for my work and good sales.

To Pot Fest I brought my functional work. This work is intended to be used and liked. In it I explore and combine highly functional table ware forms with a colorful surface of layered glazes forming abstract landscapes. The glazes I use have depth and saturated colors. Color is provided by oxides. My functional wares are meant to be aesthetically attractive and functional.
I see my making of functional ware as making flowers.


The good thing about Pot Fest was the socializing with the other potters. There was some communal activities organized for us, we have food and drinks together and many chats. There was even a bonfire waiting for the dawn to come.
The mood was very amiable. Most of the people new each other for many years, meeting in previous Pot Fest or at other fairs.
Pot Fest was for some the beginning for a season of traveling with their wares. During conversation potters discuss the different fairs, work, methods, lots of jokes and some gossip.
I see myself coming back next year, I am looking forward to it, to catch up with all the lovely people I have met in this fair.

Caprichos at BCAF

This weekend I will be exhibiting my new work At the Battersea Contemporary Art Fair. http://www.bcaf.info/exhibitors.htm
The title of the series is Caprichos.

Caprichos is an allegorical set of archetypes materialized as three dimensional figures. They are the product of the creative union of my conscious and unconscious mind.

As a group they have a few things in common, the processes and material used; clay.
Drawing is my first step to consciously visualize and capture images from my unconscious. But it is not enough, I need to materialize them in 3D in order to finish their individuation and define them.
I follow a kind of ritual during their production.
They all originated from a pinched pot, two pinched bowls which are joined together to form a ball. This ball is like a planet to become or to be inhabited by the figure. The figures grow from this primal ball of mass and define their forms during the process. In some of them the ball gets transformed into something else, a skull, a turtle... In others, it disappears to become the core or heart of the piece.
I do not always strictly follow my drawings though they are the starting point.

The logic behind my choice to name these figures Caprichos is that I felt like indulging myself in their production. The term Caprichos also refers to Goya's series. They have in common with Goya's a the humor, but even if I consider them as food for thought it is not my intention to enlighten or to lecture the viewer. The viewer will make up her/his own stories. Caprichos are triggers, devices to stimulate cognitive (thought) processes.

construction line

I participated in this event last week. I was very excited and looking forward to it. It was a great experience, I did not have enough.


A review and photographs of the event can be seen at:

"http://detailsonrequest.blogspot.com/2010/05/report-on-fridays-performance-of.html"

New work environment

There was a time in time, when the majority of humans had to leave their homes and go to work, sometimes miles away. Those humans were called among other names, commuters, workers, staff. They worked for institutions who were represented by other humans, who were called bosses,masters.... Bosses and workers formed part of an economic system1.

So they did go to their jobs, and followed externally imposed routines. They went to factories/ offices/shopping malls,or those locations where they could sell themselves for money. At the work locations there were tools set in place for them to use. Their work was divided in tasks in which they specialized.
They worked their scheduled time shifts, and when finished returned in mass to their homes. This was called exodus or commuting. The displacement of high numbers of humans generated many problems, jams and delays. So roads, tube systems, buses, rail tracks, and maintenance of everything was implemented.
The workers may have had the transport to the work placement payed by the company for which they were working. Maybe even have had their food payed

Back at home was the other reality, family, friends, neighbors and house to keep , or their absence. That meant a segmentation of their lives. The family, clan, tribe, or herd disintegrating . Lots of people thinking they were not happy.


The bosses problem was their need to keep investing on the maintenance of the system infrastructures, including those huge buildings needed for everything. They had to build them, and pay for the energy resources consumed during all the processes.

As anything in the known world the system was reaching its peak and was exhausted.

Then...

The advancements in communications, internet and the personal computer enabled many workers to work from home. Lots of people found unnecessary to leave their home, neighborhood, in order to work, to earn money.
So for some it was not necessary to commute anymore.

The system was cracking.

But...


At some point workers started to rent their own offices, work placements, studios ,shops/stalls, corners in warehouses , or whatever the premises.
They payed for the furniture, tools of their trade, installed all of it, payed for the energy resources and for any transport needed , etc, etc. They payed for their food.

Why?

Some say they wanted to be their own boss.

Some say they did not have space at home. Or they were not able to proceed with work without having interruptions or distractions. In an office/factory/mall environment workers were directed. They were given appropriate breaks for tea,gossip and loo. Nothing could break the pace of their routines.
At home, by themselves they did not keep straight to their work roles. Some returned to short time attention spam behavior and spread themselves out of the assigned work pattern. Some just collapsed in non-action.

Many needed somewhere to escape to from their household lives. They needed to have separated life realities to switch to and from. So there appears a need to reproduce the lost work environment.

So some people started to rent work premises away from their homes, where to work. This time though workers work ed for themselves.
They worked to pay the rents, insurances, bills, maintenance, marketing, transports, holidays and loans/or mortgages.

Some time during time most of us were enslaved by human masters. Most of us were serving human lords or following human leaders.

Now , soon, there will be no need for human masters,lords or leaders.
Many workers think they have become their own masters. They sustain themselves incessantly working and competing against each other.

The system is their master.
The system has survived.

It was humans who created the system. Is what some humans want. Is what some humans need.
Many humans do not know what to do, and some humans are not up for doing it.

clumsy week

Last week was one of those clumsy ones.
I did many things wrong, had bad news or been neglected and broke some of my work. The casualties were mainly from the functional, 5 items in total. But I also managed to break my last favorite figure. This figure was based on a painting from William Bouguereau which depicts two souls fighting, an illustration from Dante's inferno. I love the painting I made a 3D of version of it.
It took me more than a month, which I enjoyed of course. I set the two figures on top of an inverted skull. I am using the inverted skull quite often lately as a metaphor for humanity; 'the skull is a vessel for the human soul' many people said that.
I was very content with the modeling, form, size , proportions and everything about the figure. But then boum! shit happens....I broke one of its hands when I was packing it for the biscuit firing. I was trying to fit as much work as possible inside the kiln so I was arranging and rearranging the pieces, wrong...Before biscuit firing clay figures are in the most fragile state. After biscuit they are quite hard and is save to manipulate them.
It did not feel good, even though I can repair the figure. I am considering to make it again, after I leave a bit of time to pass by. Somehow Ceramics is a battle with destiny, so many things can go wrong without reparation and sometimes due to bad luck. As ceramist I can not help but to aim for the perfect piece, technically speaking, no cracks, no glaze drops, even and uniform. But that is irrelevant for a sculptor like me who wants to communicate with the work.
I did not want to communicate perfection but the human struggle for survival. How we fight against each other even if we are lookalikes or love each other... We fight.

Great! I tickle with my catastrophes. Somehow I was in good mood, upset, grumpy but happy in the back of my head. So I went out for a few drinks during the weekend, wrong again...

My clumsy week is finished but I managed to caught a virus during the weekend. So now I am at home feeling awful with a red nose and time to spare on having this little crisis with Ceramics
Shall I stop doing ceramics?, as it distracts me from my real goal. At the same time I love the medium, I even love to do functional table ware, and to eat from them...

Art fairs: Ceramic Art London

Last weekend I went to Ceramic Art London.
The event was housed at the RCA . It was my first time at this fair and venue. There were 77 different stands, divided in 3 rooms , talks and lots of people buzzing around. I ended up spending more than 5 hours in there, but managed to miss the work of some exhibitors. I realized of this fact when going over the exhibition catalog, back at home, my fault.

I went by the second day which was a Saturday. My first impression was, oh my! too much, too many people, lets get out of here. Nonetheless after paying my £12 entrance ticket I dipped myself in, not chatting at first, just looking. By my second round I started to engage in conversion with those who I knew or liked the work. My acquaintances seemed to be doing well as they were quite relaxed in their attitude. Even if there was a lot of variety in color and shapes, by the end of my first round I had the impression it was all focused around the vessel, functional or not. Just at the end I found some figurative work and there were maybe 2 or 3 more makers of volumes which were not based on containers.

CLR is a major Ceramic event in London. It is a showcase for Ceramics but for the artists is very important to make good sales. I could guess from the artists attitude and stress (not just the red dots) who was selling and who was not. The price of the stalls is very high , from around £600 the smallest to almost £2000, but I was told you just have to pay a percentage in advance and the rest at the end of the fair. The fair lasts for three days and it is organized by the Craft Potters Association

In future years it is a kind of a must for me to apply to this fair and to get in, which is not so easy. There are many fairs like this one, in the ceramic world and in the art world. It is fun to attend but as an artist is another investment to make in order to get my work out and have some remuneration from it. Sadly I can not live from air, even if I could I have to pay my rent and materials and studio rent and transport, and etc, etc. included in this etc is the price for stands at this kinds of fairs. It is all linked.

This year I will do Battersea Contemporary Art Fair. I am looking forward to it. Both as a way of exhibiting my work and as a way of making cash out of it. It sounds bad but it is what it is. In order to produce more work and sustain my practice I need to be purchased . If I do not go to this sort of fairs I have very few chances for my work to be noticed. My work is very time consuming to produce and fragile in nature. It is not possible for me to be moving it from small exhibition to small exhibition risking to damage it, which already happen and none compensated me.

On pots

Life at the studio has been the most important part of my day to day lately. There is a string of new works coming up and awaiting their turn to be realized. It makes a difference, a great difference for me, to be now mainly working on my magical realism pieces, rather than the functional table ware. I have to admit that time goes by at a very fast pace and I feel more committed to sculpture.
It is not the case that I force myself to make objects for daily use. I need this side of my artistic output to flourish too. It balances me. Besides I like to use them myself. They are special not like the lifeless slip casted clones. They have weight, they are warm, their colors are vibrant, they do not resemble plastic to me but a rock, somehow they make eating or drinking from them more exciting.
Pot making is a good training towards mastering the architecture of forms, in my case it is also where I allow myself to go wild with color and glazes. I let the abstract expressionist in my to come out of the closet. I paint on my pots, I paint with glazes. It is not the same as painting with oils, what you see is not what you get after firing. The firing conditions have also a huge impact on the colors and surface obtained. But all this is part of the special magic of ceramics. It is alchemy, it is making rocks.
My next outpost for selling/exhibiting my functional ware will be the first Saturday of March at the Abney Hall in Stoke Newington Church Street.