Of the Earth and Contem’Plate are on view at Messums West, Wiltshire
March 2 – April 29, 2024
Of The Earth
Including: William Cobbing, Halima Cassell, Nina Salsotto Cassina (Unurgent Argilla), Adam Buick, Charly Blackburn, and Claudia Barreira
Aligning with Messums’ commitment to active environmentalism, the gallery is pleased to present a group exhibition of ceramic artists that interrogate and are inspired by the material of clay as an earthly material and a planetary resource, considering the environmental and ecological impact of their practice.
The raw material of clay is abundant and richly varied across the globe. It has and continues to play a crucial role within the ceremonies and routines of our birth, life and death cycles, whether domestic or ritual customs and its ubiquity across time and geography make it a material easy to take for granted. But the ceramic medium enacts a heavy toll on the earth, both artistically and industrially, from mining clay and glaze elements to energy consuming kiln firings. It must be recognised that every ceramic object, fired into permanence, exists as a debt to the earth.
The artists presented in Of The Earth create works in clay which demonstrate the infinite richness and immense scope of this humble and universally available medium. Some explore the relationship between raw clay and fired ceramic – describing the opposing fragility and firmness of its different states – whilst others revel in the raw materials’ performative interactivity, creating work which is very far removed from the traditional relationship of clay and craft.
William Cobbing’s combined sculpture and video works invite a renewed consideration of the tactility of clay. In these works, clay becomes a character in itself, as active in the making as the hands that manipulate it, asserting its agency over the players rather than vice versa. It is rare for clay to be exhibited in its plastic state, although rendered digitally here, the sensation conjures a bodily closeness and a haptic transference of the dirty work of clay. For Cobbing, clay is a visceral material which connects us to our beginnings. He comments – “It’s about physical engagement in slimy and gloopy material, covering my head with it, creating a sense of suffocation, turning the body into a kind of visceral mound of slapstick energy … It’s about the contradictory psychological effects of the material, how it moves between attraction and repulsion, humour and fear.”
Clay has been deployed by man to create vessels for both functional and ceremonial use since pre-history, and several of the artists in Of the Earth playfully deconstruct and explore this form.
Halima Cassel’s Virtues of Unity showcases 54 (12 exhibited for the first time) rhythmically sculptural vessel-like forms, each hand-carved from the clay of a different country, a vast earthly colour gradation. Her aim is to demonstrate the shared commonality of the human race. In a world increasingly divided, Cassel’s lilting geometry and architectural form demonstrate the richness in variety and the beauty in similarity.
Adam Buick’s work centres on the simple spherical jar as a form on which to map an ongoing study of his natural surroundings, frequently incorporating locally sourced stone and dug clay to convey a unique sense of place. Alongside his river-eroded and rain-weathered vessels are showcased two of Buick’s time-lapse film works. Both capture the slow degradation of vessels replaced in the landscape and eroded through time and the elements, returned, in some state, to the ground from which they came. Buick comments – “My work is about change, about natural cycles and the transience of human endeavour. Part of my ‘Earth to Earth’ project is to illustrate one cycle as a metaphor for all. I placed a raw, unfired jar at the top of Carn Treliwyd in Pembrokeshire. Made from the earth; the wind and rain will return it back to the earth.”
Each of the artists represented in Of The Earth manifests the importance of clay within our lives, from utility to infinity. Many do so with a sense of responsibility, aware of the deep history of making with clay whilst cautious of the future of such an industry and our planet along with it.
Contem’Plate
Including: Martin Smith, Stephen Dixon, Paul Scott, Makoto Kagoshima, Charlotte Hodes, Bouke De Vries, Abigail Schama, Kitty Shepherd and Sandy Brown, as well as historic works.
Presented in the Long Gallery, Messums is delighted to present a contrasting yet complimentary exhibition of historical and contemporary plates with the aim to examine their history in decorative and functional roles and as an alternative canvas for mark-making, installation, and communication of meaning. Featuring work by over 20 artists and with a span of centuries, Contem’Plate is a celebration of the humble plate and everything it can be.
Bouke De Vries presents a new work that honours the beauty in breakage, instilling new meaning into the cracks ceramic is often victim to. De Vries, originally a restorer trained to hide these fractures, instead turned towards them in celebration as an artistic practice. He comments: “The Venus de Milo is venerated despite losing her arms, but when a Meissen muse loses a finger she is rendered virtually worthless.” His new work sees an 18th century Italian majolica dish “repaired” with kintsugi and archaeological Delft tea bowl bottoms from the 17th and 18th century.
Abigail Schama brings her painting background to a new series of portrait plates. Despite working in ceramic for nearly 20 years, these are Schama’s first ever plates, but she draws on painterly influences from Rembrandt and Twombly to create these ghostly figures. The portraits we see are fictional, murky, and degraded portrayals, reminiscent of a hidden, disintegrating Dorian Gray painting. The forms, some more traditional, others roughly hand built, create some sense of a frame when hung on the wall, but maintain a dysfunctional connection to the domestic origins of ceramic.
A new collection from Stephen Dixon touches on contemporary themes of conflict and peace, war and beauty and the beast, through an allegorical perspective on 16th century Italian maiolica painters. Continuing his interest in the forms and narratives of Italian tin-glazed earthenware, in particular ‘Istoriato’ – maiolica plates which depicted scenes from popular classical and biblical stories, Dixon’s digitally printed plates draw parallels with contemporary issues and events from our own troubled times, in particular the ongoing tragedy in the Middle East.
Through time, seminal artists of paintbrush and canvas have turned their attention to clay and for Contem‘Plate, three Messums painters are continuing this great tradition, exploring the potential of clay and the ceramic surface as a site for artistic expression. Tuesday Riddell, Tyga Helme and Francesco Poiana have been resident at Messums Studios, creating a series of painterly plates in their own singular styles.
The Contem’Plate exhibition includes a showcase of works selected from Messums’ ‘Plates for Purpose’ call-out from their creative community, with 40% of proceeds divided equally between the David Nott Foundation and Hope and Homes for Children charities.
Both shows are part of Messums West’s Ceramic Season 2024, which will also feature the Messums Annual Ceramics Symposium on April 6, 2024.
Messums West’s 2024 Ceramic season is curated by Natalie Baerselman le Gros, the Assistant Curator and Exhibitions Coordinator at MESSUMS ORG. She is a PhD student at the University of East Anglia, studying the Abstract Vessel in late 20th Century British ceramic and is a published writer on modern and contemporary ceramics, having written for Ceramics: Art Perception, Ceramic Review, Ceramics Now and Ceramics Monthly as well as numerous publications and gallery catalogues. Baerselman le Gros has previously worked with important ceramic collections including the Sainsbury Centre (Norwich) and Crafts Council (London).
Contact
west@messums.org
Messums West
Place Farm, Court St
Tisbury, SP3 6LW
United Kingdom
Photos courtesy of Messums
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