I’ve just made some new work for the Parade Artists sale, and I’m quite excited about it. These are thrown porcelain bowls with a black stoneware glaze. They’re the sort of size that settles comfortably into cupped hands, quite nice to hold. I’ve polished the base as well, because I love the velvety feel of polished porcelain. This is the start of my new functional body of work. Come and see them (and hold them) at the sale this weekend!

Here’s one of my bowls with a clear glaze. I’m quite impressed with how lovely the Glacier Porcelain turns out. Initially, I had a little trouble with the bases cracking if the bowls were dried too fast, but I soon remedied that by drying them slowly under plastic. We have big automatic ceiling heaters in the studio that I think were mostly responsible for me losing quite a lot of the pieces I made first time round.

Here’s the statement that goes with these:

These fine porcelain bowls are inspired by the swirling water currents of the Water of Leith, as it winds its way through the city of Edinburgh. The liquid-like spirals in this work are formed with the aid of the meditative spinning action of the potter’s wheel.

I share my life between two beautiful, ancient cities of Scotland, Glasgow and Edinburgh. A walk in the green, natural and cultivated spaces, along rivers and waterways in those cities, provides a relaxing break from the pressures of everyday urban existence. In my work, the natural beauty of water serves as a metaphor for life.

Having a unique hand made ceramic object from which to enjoy a peaceful meal, gives time for contemplation and respite from everyday pressures. It is just a small object that can be cradled in the palm of the hand, yet it is warming and comforting, and makes even the simplest meal a special occasion. In an age of fast food and disposable containers, the hand made ceramic object offers individuality and a connection with the earth, from which it is created.

Next weekend, on Saturday 10th (10am - 5pm) and Sunday 11th (11am - 4pm) May, I’m involved in a group exhibition and sale with some other artists from the WASPS artists’ studios in Glasgow, where I’m a studio holder. Our group is called Parade Artists (WASPS studios are located on the corner of Alexandra Parade) and encompasses a range of media, including painting, photography, printmaking, jewelery, textiles, ceramics and glass. The sale will take place in the large front entrance gallery space of the 77 Hanson Street building, alongside the cafe, which is also open on weekends. I’ve made some lovely swirling porcelain bowls for the occasion. Linda McGill, Stuart Grant, Sue Wong and Elinor Caie from the Glasgow Ceramics Studio are also participating. So come along and have a browse if you happen to be in Glasgow. Hope to see you there!

Linda Davy, hand built porcelain, terra sigillata 

Opening night reception: Wednesday 5th March, 6pm

If you happen to find yourself in sunny Canberra, Australia, this week, please join the artists, Linda Davy (Graduate Diploma) and Margaret Carlin (Master of Visual Art) for the opening night reception of their graduating exhibition!

This exhibition is the third in the series of the graduate season 2008. It will be held at the ANU School of Art Gallery. The Gallery is located on the ground floor of the ANU School of Art, just next to the cafe, on Ellery Crescent, Acton, ACT, 2601.

If you don’t manage to make it for the drinks and festivities, the exhibition will continue until Friday 14th March, and the opening hours are: Tue-Fri 10.30 - 5pm, Saturdays Noon - 5pm or by appointment, closed public holidays. Phone: 02 6125 5841.

Hope to see you there!

Linda Davy, hand built porcelain, terra sigillata 

My supervisor, and the head of the Ceramics Department at the ANU School of Art, Janet DeBoos, has just had some of her work included in a beautiful new publication from Lark Books: “Masters: Porcelain: Major Works by Leading Ceramists”. Here is a link to it on Amazon UK.

The exhibition will be held at the Owl and Lion Gallery, 15 The Grassmarket, Edinburgh, EH1 2HS. Runs from Friday 29th February until Sunday 2nd March (one weekend only). Opening hours 10 till 6pm.

Join the artists for the opening night at 5pm on Friday 29th February.

Click on the link below for the flyer:

Exhibition at Grassmarket, Edinburgh

Despite all the bad news with the recent QILT vote to go through with the closure of the Ceramics Department at the Glasgow School of Art, there is still hope. Student power and the power of the community is invaluable in reversing the policy of the institution and the government who seem intent on wiping out ceramic practice in Scotland.

Are you an art practitioner or student? With funding cuts affecting the closure of an entire discipline in Scotland, who’s to say whether your department won’t be next? Is Ceramics only the first department in a long line of planned cuts? How long will the Glasgow School of Art remain open?

Is art culturally valuable? What will happen to Scottish identity if the next generation of Scottish artists don’t have access to education  or the means for cultural expression through art? How will this affect tourism and our community? We need YOUR help to succeed!

Now all the information you need has been added centrally on one blog that is accessible to all. Click here to view the blog. There you will be able to sign our petition to express your support. You will also find a permanent link to the new blog on the right hand side of this page. If you’ve already signed our petition, your letters addressed to the GSA executive, to your local government representative and to your local press, in support of the ceramics department are invaluable.

Thank you for your support.

SIGN THE PETITION TO SAVE THE GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART CERAMICS DEPARTMENT.

Eucalyptus Tree, burnt during the Canberra bush fires, in January 2003, at Kambah Pool by the Murrumbidgee River.

It is wonderful to catch up with my friends, whom I’ve been missing so much. I’m also really pleased to see my teachers and supervisors, it’s truly amazing to be able to speak with them face to face. So many questions that I’ve been grappling and struggling with all semester, finally answered, in some cases in the space of two minutes flat.

Also, many obligations discovered, like, my WIPs, which are part of every graduate student’s yearly ritual. I’ll be presenting mine on Thursday 6th of March at 3pm. These are the very first ones in the graduate season this year. I’ll be presenting both my theory and studio work in progress on Thursday. The working title is:

Interpreting the reality of the virtual
from an art practice perspective.

The WIPs will be held in the CSA lecture theater and are open to all ANU School of Art staff and students. Here is a little blurb pertaining to the direction of my new, planned work:

In ceramics, we speak about the internal space of objects in terms of containment - the empty negative space inside the walls of an object, whether it is functional or sculptural. A space that is ready to receive something - be it something physical such as a liquid, or a concept such as feelings or memories - something metaphorical.

Rachel Whiteread, Untitled (Nine Tables), 1998
Concrete and polystyrene.

It is internal space which mostly makes up the volume that pushes out against the external world, for instance your fingers, as you hold something, like a tea bowl.

There are interesting physical characteristics that ceramic objects can take on - such as two objects of the same volume can appear like one holds more volume than another, or one can seem lighter than another, despite being the same weight.

Margaret Realica, The Reconnect, 2005.
Porcelain, plexiglass, tube, electrical parts

When talking about the virtual, we also talk about space - cyberspace, virtual space. Yet what is it? It isn’t space as we understand it, in a physical sense. You can’t fill it up with tea. Yet you can, as a conceptual space, fill it up with a representation of yourself, your knowledge, feelings or memories, your fantasies - or a representation of tea, if you so desire.

“Just because something is not material does not mean it is unreal” writes Margaret Wertheim in “The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace”

Virtual space doesn’t take up any actual space in our world. You might say it takes up space in the cables that connect our routers to each other, or on a server, or, more specifically, on a hard disk. Yet when you examine the hard disk, there doesn’t appear to be any space on it to take up.

Marek Cecula, Interface Set III, 2001.
Vitreous China, gold and wood. 23 x 20 x 11cm

All the time, hard disks are getting smaller, yet somehow they have more of this space available. The thin hard disk in my computer doesn’t seem nearly voluminous enough to carry the masses of letters and photographs, music and videos that make up my research and entertainment, the documentation of my life, for the last several years. Yet it is.

The machine itself (a bunch of small, rather uninteresting little black things with legs, a bit like insects, packaged in a white box with a screen and keyboard) somehow works as a translator, an interface that converts my life archives into something that I can understand and process with my senses. Into something that I can interact with.

In my new work, I’m interested in the concept of containment of virtual space. More precisely, I’m interested in the edge of this space, like the lip of the bowl. What happens where the virtual space and the real space interface? Can we touch it? Can it touch us? How is virtual reality REAL?

If you would like to download and print out this document, this is a pdf copy: Letter from students for GSA Board of Studies meeting.

The Future of Ceramic Design
Students’ Response
Ceramics (Full-time) Student Representative
Febuary 2008

1). The lack of consultation.

The recommendation states “for the past five years the undergraduate pathway of BA (Hons) Design in Ceramics and Ceramic Design has been under scrutiny.” What form did this scrutiny take?

A review was announced in September (2007), but did not seem to actually materialize. A review meeting had been scheduled with the ceramics staff on Monday 4th (Febuary), but was canceled, and the next day the recommendation was announced to the staff. It came as a shock, both to staff and students.

Compared to the First Year and H&C reviews, which were discussed in Wednesday’s Board of Studies meeting, the lack of contact and consultation with the Ceramics department in the supposed Ceramics review, is in stark contrast.
The review has also not, as far as I am aware, looked at any of the underlying causes for the low application numbers into ceramics.

As I understand it, a few years ago the majority of students entering the course were school-leavers from Western Scotland. This is no longer the case today, with the majority of the students being from wider a-field in the UK, other countries, and students not enrolling straight from school/mature students. The main reason, however, seems to be lack of marketing of both the full-time and part-time courses.

2). The lack of marketing/advertising of the courses

The reason given for the phasing out of the ceramics degree is the low number of applications to the course. This cannot be disputed. We are, however, not satisfied that the School has done what it can to promote the course.
The recommendation states, (my italics): “…despite the continuing best efforts of the academic staff and the School’s marketing team, the application dropped…”

We cannot believe that the promotion of the Ceramics courses are the best efforts of a marketing team with 13 employees, and we can only commend the efforts of our extremely hard-working and committed academic staff.

We asked to meet with the marketing team, to find what had actually been done, but this was refused. They promised to write a report for us, but they have not.

Therefore, the only evidence I can give is the experiences of current students, (who, after all, have gone through the whole searching/application process). There are many examples; I will cite just a few.

~ In the five years since the start of the part-time distance learning course, only one advert has been placed in a ceramic journal/magazine (the Ceramic Review). This is where many of the current students found out about the course; the rest through word of mouth.

~ When one does a Google search for ‘part-time ceramics degree UK’, GSA’s course doesn’t even come up! The same is true for ‘ceramics course/degree UK’. This is the first thing many people do when searching for a course; the fact that the course doesn’t come up means many potential applicants are being missed.

~ A current 3rd-year student, was taken to every other department except Ceramics on an open day. It was only when she asked specifically to see Ceramics, that she was shown around. I am sure this is not a unique incident.

~ Students at the Newcastle College ceramics course were told not to apply to the GSA ceramics degree unless it was their first choice, since it was so difficult to get in. Therefore, for example, out of a class of 24 (the biggest class in a long time) it was only the top two students in the Newcastle College ceramics class who applied to Glasgow, i.e. 2 of only 4 direct entry students, (one of whom won the college prize for most consistent exellence and the other the prize for most improvement in ceramics 2003/04).

This example also counteracts the fear that the low application numbers automatically equate with lower standards, and put GSA’s academic reputation at risk - if only the top students are applying it can hardly harm the reputation.

~ Archie McCall went himself to Aberystwyth last year to promote the course. It seems rather odd to me, that when the school has a marketing team, the Course Leader has to take this upon himself, and out of his own initiative. The part-time course is unique, not only in the UK, but in Europe! It fills a need, as many of the students have testified to in writing, and if people only knew about it, I am convinced that there would be applicants.

~ The part-time course has only been running for 5 years. For a course that takes 8 years to complete, it could be argued that this is not enough time for it to gain a reputation and become established.

~ A member of the 2007 graduating class recounts that several people said, at both the Degree show and New Designers, that they either had heard Ceramics in Glasgow was closing down, or didn’t even know it existed - whilst the management may not deal in rumors, other people listen to them and with no rebuttal from the GSA, these rumors will obviously have an impact on applications.

~In 2006, when the Ceramics Degree Show was still held in the Haldane Building, a request was made, through SSCC and BofS, for better signage to direct people to the show, as it was the only part of the Show that was outside the main campus. The result was a hand written piece of A4 paper tied to the railings of St Aloysius. “Best efforts”?

3).The bigger picture

As everyone is well aware, GSA is the only place in Scotland that offers a degree in Ceramics. This position presents both responsibility and opportunity.

~ Denying students, both Scottish and otherwise, the opportunity to study Ceramics at degree level, is not only an injustice towards the individuals, but to the whole field of Ceramics in Scotland. As Alex Leckie and Alexander Moffat say in the Sunday Herald, (17th Febuary, 2008):

“If ceramics are removed from the school, as they have been in Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee, it will be the death knell of the craft in Scotland, according to Leckie. “No child in Scotland will be able to get a ceramics degree here, so it will have knock-on effects,” he said. “Galleries will have fewer exhibitions of ceramics, there will be no ceramics to add to national collections and, generally speaking, the ordinarily public won’t be educated to take any interest in ceramics. It is incredibly sad.”

One of Scotland’s most renowned artists and former head of painting at GSA, Alexander Moffat, said the threat to the ceramics degree is part of a bigger malaise within all art schools. “Ceramics has always been a Cinderella subject,” he said. “In any university if a subject, even an important subject, doesn’t attract students, it doesn’t make good business sense. This is the problem. We really should be approaching this from a completely different point of view. Should we have a ceramics department in Scotland? Obviously we should. We should be fighting for it instead of shutting it down to save money.”

~ This recommendation comes at a time when many feel Ceramics –both within the School and in general – is at the start of a (for want of a better word) revival. In the Department, there is a vibrancy and enthusiasm that was somewhat lacking when I started the course in 2004. This is due to the hard work and commitment of the staff. To quote an excerpt from an email for Emilka Radlinska, who is a transfer student, doing a Masters at Australian National University:

“…the solution is to put more money into ceramics education rather than the opposite, and to encourage makers to write about their work and about what they see happening in ceramics, i.e. the development of the medium and its conceptual use, and to make more active links between departments - something Bill Brown is doing with the claymation and glass slumping classes, as well as the transfer printing. Welcoming students from other departments into ceramics is also a very positive step, as is ceramics students working with mixed media, on community projects (like the roundel commission) or running open art classes. If you look at the quality of the exciting contemporary work coming from Korea, Japan and China, Korea in particular, you can see they are countries where ceramics is a deeply ingrained part of the culture and is supported accordingly.” (16th Febuary, 2008).

~ One reason for the decline in applicants is the discontinuation of exposing young people to ceramics in Schools and Foundation Courses. Ceramics is a subject which most only apply to study after already having tried it previously. There are now places which are investing in ceramics, for example Kenton High (Newcastle) and Newcastle College, where several of our current students come from, and a South Lanarkshire Council arts development project (see separate sheet).

Ken Eastman, among others, testifies that there are more opportunities and possibilities within Ceramics than for years.

“Museums are opening and the work of ceramic artists is finding its way into fine art galleries- prices are for some, hitting unchartered heights. Makers are finding new and diverse ways to exist and flourish- through commissioning, collaborations, installations, research, exchanges, residencies, etc.”

A recent Observer article (Hands that do dishes, Sunday January 20, 2008) writes the following:

“Craft pieces by leading makers are far from cheap (you won’t get much for under £1,000), but as this is an expanding market, prices have still not peaked and so there’s a lot of potential for investment. ‘Nothing is ever guaranteed,’ says Marijke Jones, head of Contemporary Ceramics at Bonhams, ‘but prices seem to be generally increasing - a rare vase by Magdalene Odundo fetched a record £28,405 in 2006 and last year a Hans Coper piece sold for more than £14,000. It all depends on buying the right pieces.’”

Instead of viewing being the only Ceramics course in Scotland as a burden, (which currently seems to be the case), the GSA should seize the opportunity presenting itself.

4). Further Questions

~ Why is the recommendation being made at this time, to come into effect straight away? There will be people who are planning on applying for the course starting next academic year. Last week, the staff in Ceramics had to show 3 people around who were interested in studying here, knowing that it might be impossible. It is not fair to these applicants to suddenly cease recruiting for the course without good notice.

It is also very bad timing for us, the current students; the 4th years are busy working towards the degree show, and the 3rd years have to hand in their Critical Review of Sources on Tuesday 19th. Also, the recommendation was announced to us the day before a School holiday and Reading Week, making it much more difficult for us to get organized.

~ The department, as has been discussed, is not a problem to the school financially – in fact, it ‘makes’ more money than it uses. What is then the damage to the School in giving it a chance to raise the profile of the courses on offer? It is felt that we have not been given the opportunity to try to do something about this, not knowing that it was a problem.

If this program closes, there will be no undergraduate ceramics courses at university level available for study in either of the major cities in Scotland. What will this mean for Scottish ceramic art and Scottish culture as a whole? Can such a small country afford to turn it’s back on contemporary artists? Will future generations of artists be lost to England or abroad elsewhere? Will Scotland lose that avenue for social commentary and creative expression?

Ester Svensson, 4th year honors student, in her space at GSA

This is some of the most interesting, original and innovative work that I’ve seen to date. Ester is a young artist who is interested in multiculturalism, myth and storytelling. To view Ester’s work - click here.

Furthermore, Ester took a year off her university studies last year and traveled to Afghanistan, where she worked for the Turquise Mountain Foundation. The Foundation is involved with helping to restore historic sites and keep traditional craft skills from disappearing, providing employment and income for families recovering from the devastation of war.  Ester worked with Afghani potters in a cultural exchange of knowledge and skill for a full year, visiting ceramics restoration workshops and a ceramics school. To view the incredibly beautiful photographs of ancient and rarely before seen ceramic art from her journeys click here.

Ester Svensson and three other student representatives, as well as Archie McCall, Head of Undergraduate Studies for the School of Design and former head of the Ceramics Department, met with the Head of the Design School, Professor McAra McWilliam on Tuesday 12th February and handed her the letters. Unfortunately the Director of the Glasgow School of Art, Professor Seona Reid could not attend.

Here is an excerpt from Ester’s email about the meeting:

Hello everyone,

ester

To everyone who reads this blog:

PLEASE HELP US SAVE THE CERAMICS DEPARTMENT
AT THE GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART.

Ester Svensson’s email address is: thisisestersaddress at gmail dot com