V&A Ceramic Department Off-time Tour

The head of the ceramic department in Morley College arranged this tour. I was invited by Eduardo, and I was studying there during the time, even in different class. 

It was an exciting experience to get into V&A Museum after its opening hours, which was like a treasure hunting. After security checked, we were gave a temporary visiting card, and followed our guide into a path normally behind scenes. To get to the ceramic department in the higher floor, we past glass department. I will definitely go there in day time again. I found those glasses were exquisite by just one glimpse. 

Right, back to ceramic, our guide introduced his background and residency in V&A, which reminded me that residency could be a way to stay abroad after graduation. Even I am not confident about myself at all.

Then we visited Simon Carroll's exhibition. 

There is a strong sense of freedom, wildness and energy in Simon's work. They are not traditionally elegant or beautiful, but they are really attracting somehow. You might think there are many random, untidy details on the work, however these details are not chaotic. 

For instance, I think this chocolate and white vase has a nice arrangement of weight and proportion of colour. And those brown brush stocks are just beautifully placed, revealing the confidence of the artist.

The following images show the permanent collection of the museum.

These are some ancient terracotta vases. The pattern on them are just adorable. I realise that I really like things to do with circle, curve, sphere, and etc.

This metallic pomegranate red can be one of my favourite colour. It is a shame that it is not safe to use it in my project.

This black one is huge and powerful. I wonder how it was made.

Vase with flowers and strawberries in pate-sur-pate
France, Sevres, 1852
hard-paste, porcelain, painted with white slip and gilded.

Look at the thin, semi-transparent plant pieces made of porcelain that have been stuck on this greenish vase, they are so exquisite. They remind me snow, ice and things in the mist that are going to disappear at anytime.

Compared to the rest of the work, this one is quite simple. While I love the small, almost invisible detail coming down from the edge, which is a engraved line and circle.

This is Richard Slee's work, which I will tale about them later in another post. I am using similar colours like his, so I think his work would be a nice reference. And we all have a weirdness in our work.

Lucie Rie (1902-95)
Vase 1967,  Stoneware, thrown, using partially mixed pigmented clays, then squared-off and glazed. The colour emerged softly from the body during firing.

This work reminded me why I tried to use body stain at beginning, though I didn't keep doing it and push further. I think it is because that my design was not clear, and body stain tests are time consuming. So If I do not know exactly what kind of effect I want, it is easy to get lost. I truly like this kind of soft and mature colour, like rosy mist. Apart from Lucie Rie's work, I also like Elspeth Owen and Jennifer Lee's. It seems they used a lot of natural dyes which can give these kind of colour. So when I did experiments with commercial dye, the results were not satisfying. Also, it may to do with the way I mixed them, or the results were not fit the design during then, or simply because I didn't do enough tests.

Three legged form
Jacqueline Poncelet, 1947-
Stoneware, hand-built, with inlaid coloured clays and enamels.

This work has a curious form. Together with its colour and pattern, there is a sense of Turkey and exotic beauty. The colour is quite Turkish to me, probably because of the turquoise in the work. The shape of it is like some kind of Turkish hat, and the pattern reminds me Turkish characters. 

Red Twisted Form,  2012
Merete Rasmussen, 1974-
Stoneware, hand-built, with sprayed matt red glaze.

'The even matt surface of Merete Rasmussen's sculptures, each a single intense colour, allows the complexity of their forms to be revealed. 

I always am fascinated by the complex organic form in her work. Another artist Eva Hild also did some splendid works like this. I just cannot stop myself trying to find where do the form start and end.

Form 1113: Twisting Back, Multiplying, 2011
Harumi Nakashima, 1950-
Glazed porcelain, with decoration in blue.

Form-Series 1,2005
Guac Roh-Hoon, 1959-
Mixed clay

Yorkshire, designed 1976
Hornsea Pottery
Stoneware, slip-cast, wax-resist spray

It was an amazing tour, and I wondered why I didn't go to this department, not even once.  By reviewing what I have seen this night, I did get some inspiration.

White Chapel Curator Tour: Magnus af Petersens on Richard Tuttle

I booked the curator tour for Richard Tuttle's exhibition in White Chapel Gallery. I am extremely glad that I did it. I mean, even only from the visual aspect, I feel pleased about looking his work. But with a explain from someone who really know his work, his work become more making-sense. 

Photograph was not allowed in this exhibition, and I can only find limited images online. 

According to the curator, the key words of Richard's work are textile, humble materials, making space but not occupying space.

Lable 13-16, 2004-05
Suite of four etchings with aquatint, spitbite,
sugarlift, softground, and fabric colle
16 x 16 in. / 40.6 x 40.6 cm. each
Edition of 25

Among the four works above, I like the one has black triangular the most. It is a joy to see it in person, since it is hard to see the details in the images, like subtile colour changing, difference between materials.  I think this piece has nice colour scheme, well-arranged

 details, proportionally beautiful.

The three images above are his 'walking on air' series. Tuttle describes his new work as being “in a syncretic tradition, where the equal and opposite can co-exist and the abstract and the real are not in a state of ambiguity.” Walking on Air represents for him an “expression of elation for the potential for a new beginning, the possibility to rebuild and discover a harmony for existing in the world today.”  For me, I love their colour and texture. They look like abstract landscape, in the certain time of the day or seasons. The orange one, for example, it is like a longly mountain standing on a vast everglade. It is a sunset in the autumn that they all appear to be strong orange, and clear blue sky lay behind them.

This work is interesting. The ball was stuck in a metal stick, around 1.2m high. There were four lights in red, blue, yellow, and green, on the celling, occupying 4 corners of a non-existing square above the ball. Then these lights were pointing the ball in different directions that the ball has four colours of shadow in the end.

3rd Rope Piece

It is just a small colour rope, against a pale grey wall, and in the write position, it formed a whole space. Personally I found this is amazing, and I love the colour of the rope.

How it gets around the corner, 1996

As the curator said, for minimalism, what you see is what it is. Richard like the things about reveal and conceal, corners, shadow, and things behind. Just like what happened in this work, the fabrics are cleverly sewed and folded, constructing the space behind. I really wanted to see through them, to be honest. 

Overall, though his work is not the kind that normally I would be interested, with the explanation from the curator, I found these works are interesting. And I really like the colour he used. Perhaps I should go more events like this.  

Event: Rethinking Surgery

This event was held by Rob Kesseler, joined by Roger Kneebone, students from Imperial College and UAL. Roger Kneebone is a Roger Kneebone, as well as the students from Imperial College. During the event, they showed us a simulation operation, instruments, textiles of the Operating Theatre, and  sounds of the OT. We even got chance to suit up and operated the instruments in the simulation. 

The basic idea of this event is allow people from different background to get involved and see whether they can find anything that needs to be developed or regenerated. The interesting thing about this is, the doctors were taught to do such things or use the instruments and they just accepted. They said that if they faced any inconvenience in the operation theatre, they just manage to overcome it, such as the hot problem after suiting up or the messy wires on the ground. They wish we may bring some new thoughts or changes, together we rethinking surgery.

Here are some photos I took.

This is the simulation operation. They are doing a key-hole surgery, using pig's viscera. As can be seen in the screen.

The tools they hold are for particularly for the key-hole surgery.

These are textiles used in the operation.

Somehow this mask has been made into this beautiful blue colour, though the doctors may only think that it is hard to use.

These are string used in stitching, which are made of different materials. Some of them are absorbable, while some are not. 

Polypropylene, non-absorbable. 

Absorbable

Silk, non-absorbable

Nylon, non-absorbable.

I want to crochet some structure in the aquarium for moss. The string has to be strong enough to hold its structure, not absorbable, and easy to manipulate. Normal fish string or nylon string from Uni are really hard to use. They will keep flicking back. I found these surgery strings may help me, so I took a little back, planning to do some tests. 

These are tools used in open operation. 

I did find some of the tools were difficult for my small hands to use. But considering my background, what I can help them is really limited. Overall it is nice to attend this kind of event, getting know something fresh and new inspirations.