I’m departing in a few hours for the final leg of my Danish-British ceramics project.
Since the Fantastic Tales show at The Ceramic House and the exhibition at the Regency Townhouse ended in May, I’ve spent the summer working on private and public commissions and preparing for this next and final stage in the Danish project.
I am putting a new installation together for the Danish ceramic and glass biennial, European Ceramic Context 2014, on the island of Bornholm, home of Danish pottery.
I am taking the work that I produced in residence this spring at Guldagergård International Ceramic Research Centre back to Denmark to show it in a new formation at Rønne library.
In May, in Brighton, I exhibited two versions of a wall based installation using the same moulds called Botanical Structures II (oxidised firing in an electric kiln using glazes I developed in residence at Guldagergård the previous summer, when indeed I designed the concept and produced the moulds for the piece) and III (a soda wood fired version, an experience that was a chance encounter with astonishing and captivating results). All the component parts of these two wall pieces have been boxed up and I will combine them in a new large wall piece called Botanical Structures IV. I still do not know how the piece will look. I am waiting to see what the space looks and feels like and will respond to the site once I can see the scale of the wall and I have all the pieces – hundreds of them – laid out in front of me.
I have also been casting more of these structures in preparation for another soda wood firing while I am in Denmark. I have used 50 litres of porcelain slip and have boxes of bisque fired ware ready to glaze. The glazes I used in the last soda firing are at Guldagergård, so I decided to make the most of being in Denmark to stock up on more soda wood fired pieces, as I can’t just fire a wood kiln like I can an electric kiln back in my studio.
The car is packed and ready to go with about 20 boxes of glazed and unglazed botanical structures and many boxes of Danish artists’ work left over from the Fantastic Tales show, finally to be returned to them.
So I now have a 50 hour journey ahead of me, involving many hundreds of miles and three ferries. Departing at 5am.
