Pottery is formed by a human hand and it works best in the hand. That's why it's so satisfying to hold a well-made bowl or mug. You get sympathy with the maker (again, we all have the same body and nerves). Generally, we aim to put the centre of mass right at the geometrical centre of the piece so that it feels balanced. The surface can be rough or smooth but it should be interesting, either to look at or to the touch.
1. Tell us more about your background and journey.
When I was a teenager I happened to meet someone who was adept with a square-edged brush. He was using one in a very free way, brushing water onto a dusty blackboard, making elegant writing strokes. I asked him about the technique and he explained that it was a lost craft, last used by ancient Roman sign writers 2000 years ago. I determined to learn how it worked and spent many years studying and recreating the required brushstrokes.
This gradually turned into an abstract art form for me. About ten years ago I was casting around for something to do and came across a weekend pottery workshop. The moment I felt the clay turning on the wheel I knew I had found a medium I had to start working with. After a lot of practice and many mistakes, I started to combine the two crafts into the work I make today.
2. Where do you get inspired to create art?
I've always been fascinated by writing and how we all write in essentially the same way. This might seem odd considering how different scripts can look from different parts of the world. But thinking about it, we all use the human hand to write. It's only capable of a few small, efficient movements. It follows that those same movements appear again and again in all scripts, throughout history. I try to remove language from writing, leaving just the physical performance, and see if there's anything left over.
It turns out that it's a very informative way of making marks: it tells us about the movement of the human body; it leaves an accurate trace of the time spent making it; it points out that culture is just a very thin layer we mask ourselves in: just underneath it is our humanness, our physicality, our sensitivity to nature. In a similar way, making a clay shape on a wheel involves forming wet mud into an infeasibly vertical shape.
The curves on the vessel determine whether it stands up or not: they let the force of gravity flow through the shape in a way that stops it from collapsing. That's why we see the same curves again and again in historical pottery. It's a very specific interaction with nature.
3. What projects have you most enjoyed making?
Making pottery is a cycle of making, glazing, and firing, taking about six weeks altogether. I look always forward to the beginning of the cycle when I can make new pieces again. I have really enjoyed the last few commissioned projects where I am understanding more and more how to make quite large vessels (up to 80cm tall).
Big pieces are technically very tricky, usually being made in several sections which need to fit well together. I use porcelain clay which shrinks by about 18% in the kiln. This means everything needs to be formed much larger than the finished item. So when one of these large pieces works well, I'm really happy.
4. What attribute do you feel best characterizes an excellent piece of pottery?
Pottery is formed by a human hand and it works best in the hand. That's why it's so satisfying to hold a well-made bowl or mug. You get sympathy with the maker (again, we all have the same body and nerves). Generally, we aim to put the centre of mass right at the geometrical centre of the piece so that it feels balanced. The surface can be rough or smooth but it should be interesting, either to look at or to the touch.
5. Can you describe your workspace? Where is it and what is in it?
I have a studio in Devon in the UK. It's a very damp area of the country which is perfect for pottery as things don't tend to dry out too quickly, causing cracking. Although I would quite like a little less rain!
A pottery studio has several sections because there are so many processes involved: preparing the new clay and recycling the old clay, 'throwing' the pots on a wheel; shelves for drying newly made pieces; an area for glazing the pots; the kiln for firing the work; shelves for holding the finished pieces; a space for wrapping work to be shipped to my customers.
6. What do you think is the role of the potter in contemporary society?
As a potter, I'm hoping to make work that reminds people that things can be made well, thoughtfully and individually, that mass-production by definition creates non-uniqueness. As an artist who uses pottery as a medium, I'm aiming to show that our uniqueness is based on being human.
Culture is not particularly important compared to the fact that anyone who trips over and hits their knee will yell in pain: the planet we grew up on doesn't care what language we have been trained to speak. We all understand the concept of 'bowl' or of leaving our footprints on the earth. We're all imbued with the mathematical precision and infinite chaos of nature. These things define us far more than the books we read.
7. What do you hope for your future as a potter, and for the future of ceramics?
I shall continue to learn how to do this thing. It takes ages to grasp a craft because you're teaching your body at the same time as your mind. And the body is very slow to learn (ask any musician or dancer or child learning to write). I'll just keep making mistakes but hopefully making more significant work.
As far as the future of ceramics is concerned, I'm really interested in what digital technology can bring to the subject, such as 3D printing. But at the other end of the scale, I hope more people try making stuff with clay. It brings us back down to earth.
8. What piece of advice would you like to give to future aspiring Artists?
I would give the same advice I received: get the best-paid, most interesting part-time job you can find. That way you can always afford studio space and good materials. Take advantage of social media. It's far, far more effective than trying to work with galleries.
I spent a long time being rejected from galleries because my work just didn't fit their idea of what art is. It was only when I started posting on Instagram that I found an audience. Eventually, galleries will seek you out!
Tom Kemp - Pottery Artist
Interviewed By: Farhana Khatoon
.JPG)
){kind=link}
0 Comments