Claire Curneen
Claire
Curneen's figurative ceramics command a quite yet charged presence.
The figurative pieces often refer to images of Christian Iconography,
quoting narratives which hold much relevance today.
The figures encompass elements of human experiences: love, loss,
suffering and compassion. Although the work often provokes an awkward
silence, they always embody hope. The translucent, delicate and
the ethereal nature of porcelain lends itself to the understanding
of her work. The textural finish is central to their making with
dripping dribbles of glaze and gold accentuating the rich quality
of the porcelain.
Examples:
Jane Hamlyn
Though
still recognizable as pots, Jane Hamlyn’s new Leaning Cylinders
have a formal clarity and a minimalist, more abstract intention.
The largest are extraordinarily commanding objects, embodying the
most basic shape of containment, voluminous structures which give
the space they inhabit a remarkable sculptural energy and rhythm,
while the smaller porcelain pieces have a softer more intimate expression.
Here also is a new kind of controlled throwing – the forms
may appear simple but, wheel-thrown then altered, cut and joined,
their skillful inclinations and tensions are complicated and taxing
to make. Jane Hamlyn, a doyenne of saltglazing, has developed some
superb new colours– mottled grey, inky blue, yellow-green,
lustrous gold, vivid matt orange, rust-red, yellow ochre and the
palest pinks – surface engobes and glazes which act as a perfect
foil to the austere contours. Singly, in pairs, or in a grouped
arrangement as a distributed art object, their subtle variations
of form and varied spatial interactions are convincing as pieces
of sculpture and satisfying in a purely aesthetic sense.
They have such certainty and clarity as pots, yet they also share
some of the qualities of Richard Serra’s sculptures. With
their sensitive contrasts and unities of colour and form, their
surfaces variously matt and lustrous, they convey a powerful sense
of how the most abstract conceptions can really excite the eye and
satisfy the intellect.
Examples:
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