Denmark-Brighton Contemporary Ceramics Project

Regency Town House

The opening for the Brighton Festival followed closely on the heels of the Fantastic Tales launch at The Ceramic House, i.e. the next day, Friday 2^nd May. It was such an unbelievably busy week I had to go back over my blog posts to see what I managed to cover that week – not much!

One of the biggest happenings that week was the installation and opening of my piece in the Regency Town House, one of the main exhibition venues during the Brighton Festival.

While I was still in residency in Denmark, I was selected for Open Houses Open Exhibition, which is the curated part of the Artists Open Houses and this year the exhibition is held in the awesome and regal Regency Town House on Brunswick Square. Brunswick Square is arguably the most famous Square on Brighton seafront; an impressive line of Regency Townhouses forming a beautiful horseshoe facing the sea. It is a dilapidated but unspoilt treasure, and the Council are very slowly bringing it back to its former glory.

I am the only artist who proposed to make a piece especially for the space, and I made two installations while doing my residency at Guldagergård; one for Fantastic Tales at The Ceramic House and a second piece for the Regency Town House; one oxidised (fired in an electric kiln) and the other fired in the soda wood kiln (see previous blog posts all about the excitement of the firing). In the end, I decided to put the oxidised piece into the Regency Town House, because it is twice the size of the soda wood fired piece, and its size matches the grandeur of the room it is exhibited in.

I feel honoured to have spent two days installing this piece in the drawing room on the first floor, overlooking the square and the sea. The site I chose together with the curators was an obvious one – over the mantlepiece, an ideal space for me, as we cannot touch the walls, so it provided a perfect perch for me to lean the 2.4m x 1.2m panel on, high up and in perfect view.

It was a difficult job, and I worked with two volunteers attempting to get it all done in one day. The plan was to get it photographed at the end of that day, but after several postponements, in the end I spent another day there, finishing it off, and getting it photographed by Matthew Andrews, who had already shot the soda wood fired version which is on display at The Ceramic House. We managed to get fabulous photographs of it before any of the rest of the artwork was hung, and I must say I am pleased with the result. The colours of the glazes seem as if they have been designed for the room.

The private view was on the 2^nd of May, part of the trail of art previews ending with the official opening of Brighton Festival 2014 at Brighton Museum. My piece was extremely well received and will be on display Saturdays and Sundays until 25^th May. You can also vote for your favourite piece of work in the exhibition in Visit Brighton Visitor’s Choice award.

Fantastic Tales: Danish Contemporary Ceramics opening event 1st May 2014

The Fantastic Tales opening was a huge success. The Ceramic House was packed with guests from all over the UK and Denmark. I am ecstatic and proud that 11 of the 16 Danish artists made the effort to come over from Denmark, some with families in tow. Some had invited UK based friends and there were joyous reunions – one group had not seen each other for 11 years! So there was a Danish buzz all night, strengthened by the delicious plates of smørrebrod concocted by the Danes and the vintage Danish records (that I keep bringing back from flea-markets in Denmark) being played by the DJ (Marinetti’s Musical Museum AKA Joseph Young, AIR council member).

The weather held, which is always such a relief, because the Ceramic Garden is huge part of the experience of visiting The Ceramic House; there are many permanent tiled installations of my own all over the garden – huge wall reliefs, walls, floorpieces, benches – tiles are everywhere! But there are also sculptures in the Fantastic Tales show on display outside and The Tile Shop is in the garden.

The work looks amazing displayed all over the house and garden. The exhibition covers tableware, on the shelves in the Utility Room (specially designed to double up as display space) where I usually keep my everyday tableware; sculpture, displayed, again, on specially designed glass shelves in the kitchen (normally where my permanent collection of ceramics lives), in the living room and upstairs in the loft room, both rooms which also house installations.

Christin Johansson’s performance was happening in the basement, and the queue to see it stretched through the garden all night. Christin is in receipt of the most coveted award from the Danish arts council; a 3 year development grant, and I am so proud that The Ceramic House hosted the first piece of this new body of work; In Her Spirit of the Porcelain Ceremony. It was a triumph. An intimate performance, designed for one person at a time. On the night two observers were also invited in to allow more guests to experience it. Even so, only a few people were lucky enough to go inside, a source of much envy but it added to the buzz.

Compliments were flying about the work, which looks sensational. It is an outstanding display of Danish ceramics in the very unusual and domestic context of The Ceramic House, home, gallery, living work of art. Worth a visit!

Open 11-5, Saturdays and Sundays throughout May. 75 Stanmer Villas Brighton BN1 7HN. www.theceramichouse.co.uk

TODAY IS THE DAY! Fantastic Tales opens tonight. It’s all falling into place. 11 out of 16 Danish artists will be here for the opening (10 are coming over from Denmark especially to be here).

Way to much to do to blog about what’s been going on now so watch this instead to give you a taste of what it’s all about…

Bathroom odyssey

A while ago, around last Christmas in fact, I decided it was high time I turned my attention to the original bathroom in The Ceramic House, which remains the only room untouched by me since moving in 6 years ago.

I decided to use the gorgeous blue and white Portuguese tiles I have brought back from flea markets in Porto and Lisbon over 2 years and 2 fabulous holidays. I made some tiles to go with them using some of the motifs and tiling duly began, but it only got so far as time and tiles ran out. This was in January, preceding my imminent departure for the residency in Denmark.

Before leaving, I designed the main feature – the panel of tiles above the bath – using architectural Portuguese tiles found on building facades across Portugal as my inspiration. I made 8 different press moulds with a low relief and since I got back from Denmark I’ve had volunteers press moulding away in my studio.

We finished making them last week, and since then it’s been back to back firings in my 3 large kilns to get them finished on time.

Yesterday I went in to unload and reload the kiln I thought would be ready to open, and, to my horror, discovered it had not fired to top temperature and had to start it again!

I’ve just unloaded the other kiln, which fired successfully, and quickly reloaded with hot shelves.

Hopefully it should all be ready in time for Tuesday, when the tiler’s coming. He may well be tiling with hot tiles, which wouldn’t be the first time! Typically all happening last minunte and just in time for the opening of Fantastic Tales on Thursday…I hope!

I am working with a filmmaker and we decided, for our first venture, to do a documentary about The Ceramic House.

Another filmmaker friend has been conscientiously documenting, through film, all the previous exhibitions at The Ceramic House over the past 3 years, including fabulous happenings such as the troupe of performers who did a site-responsive series of performances at the opening event in 2012. But all of these many hours of footage have languished in his office, with nothing doing! Until now.

Nicki Lang, owner of Snowflake Films, has dusted the tapes off and used them to make a 2.5 minute film to give a taste of what has been before and what is to come. Needless to say, this, being my most ambitious project so far, will undoubtedly be the most spectacular show at The Ceramic House so far. Watch on…

http://youtu.be/gNjD2RjVA5o

The Ceramic House promo for Fantastic Tales: the first 3 years