Richard Winfield
Charlo
tte As
prey
Transformation
WenHsi Harman
Martin Harman
‘Why do these makers choose to work
with clay?
‘Transformation’ is an attempt to
raise awareness of clay’s ability to
undergo intimate manipulation and
subsequent physical changes using
heat, as an expression of our ideas and
feelings, made solid.
These artists share their personal
thoughts and feelings about this
process.
Ceramics as a discipline is constantly
being challenged. It has battled
long and hard to be ‘elevated’ from
perceptions of it as a craft up into the
’higher’ echelons of the Fine Arts.
The medium we use to express our ideas
may seem irrelevant, particularly in
a digital age, as new technologies are
changing the way we interact with and
transform materials.
Charlotte Asprey, Martin Harman,
Wen-Hsi Harman and Richard
Winfield discuss their motivation for
continuing to work with clay. For these
artists clay is the fluid starting point,
‘transformation’ describes the process;
the outcome is derived from something
intangible from within, frozen in three-
dimensional reality.
This exhibition brings together four
ceramists who work with clay.
Transformation
Ceramics is an unpredictable and
ancient art form that has – over
the course of 25,000 years – found
expression in a myriad forms, surfaces,
firings and creative ways of working
the clay into previously unimagined
states. This is what motivates me to
use the medium and why I choose
to work with it. The never-ending
potential of clay to experiment and
produce realistic or fantasy creations,
by using tools and my hands, gives
me the satisfaction of fashioning
something from nothing. To carve and
sculpt detail into the clay is a significant
and fundamental part of what excites
me about this medium. Clay can either
overcome you or you can overcome
it: it is this continual challenge, and
the promise of accomplishment and
fulfilment when all the elements come
together, that keeps me connected with
my chosen medium.
Charlotte Asprey
Charlotte Asprey
My practice explores the idea of the
fragility of nature, using ceramic and
glass to highlight the delicacy and
vulnerability of our environment, our
climate and our planet. In particular,
I have chosen to use the image of
the tree, both as a figurative and as
an emblematic representation of our
potential for damaging and destroying
the world in which we live. In my work
I employ the tree to portray not just
natural life but also our relationship
and dependency on nature: the tree
has the potential to supply us with
light, heat, building material and
much more, if we use it sensibly rather
than greedily. Over and above this, the
motif of ‘The Tree of Life’ (which also
has religious overtones) serves as a
metaphor for our common descent in
the evolutionary sense. By destroying
the tree, we destroy ourselves. The
tree – recreated in the fragile media
of glass and clay – highlights our
potential for wanton and thoughtless
destruction of not just natural beauty
but also of the things we depend on
for our continuing existence.
(UK +44) 07704 912319
www.pinterest.com/charlasprey
Education2013 – 2014 Masters, Design: Ceramics, University of Bath Spa
2010 – 2013 BA (Hons), Art Practice, University of Glamorgan
Wood and metal, painting, printmaking, ceramics, life drawing
2007 – 2010 A Levels, New College
Art & design, Art History, Business Studies
2002 – 2007 GCSE, Nova Hreod
Art & Design, Physical Education, English, Drama, Maths,
Science
Creative Work Experience
Teaching Assistant, University of Glamorgan
Provided a role model and assisted the Ceramics lecturer in giving sixth
formers an experience using clay to create sculptural forms in ceramics.
September 2012
Teaching Assistant, Nova Hreod
I had the opportunity to work in the Art department gaining experience of,
and an insight into, secondary teaching.
June 2012
Mentor, Live Project module, University of Glamorgan
Whilst in a team, mentoring foundation students in a live Paper Engineering
Project, supporting them throughout the project and resulting in an
exhibition.February 2012
Working with an artist, Community and school Project
I have completed many art projects outside school, including a Youth Centre
summer project working with local artist Toni Robinson and children at
Orchid Vale Primary School, Swindon.
July 2007
Student, Hospital Project, Nova Hreod
Working with a group of students to create art work for the children’s
department in Great Western Hospital, Swindon
April 2004
ExhibitionsHolburne Museum
Holburne Museum, Bath
10th – 24th October 2014
Master’s degree show
University of Bath Spa, Bath
19th September – 24th September 2014
Graduate Exhibition
Wales Millennium Centre, Wales
6th September – 24th December 2013
Colony 13 CardiganCardigan, Wales 10th – 26th August 2013
CFTHIRTYSEVEN.University of Glamorgan 2013
BA Degree show8th – 14th June 1013
2Oriel y Bont, Pontypridd
2012
Why is clay
important
for you
Clay is an embodiment of earth, life
and the experience of living. This
immediate environment interacts and
shapes our lives. I find this material
interesting to work with because of
these associations. It has endless
potential and possibility and can be
made to look like anything.
I like the feel of clay when I am
shaping it with my hands throughout
the making process, as it is a sensory
experience. I feel personally connected
to the material as I am in direct
contact with it.
It forces me to be conscious of my
actions as clay directly responds to
the way you treat it. I enjoy working
with this material as it requires me
to be patient, learn and to strive to
constantly improve my skill.
Clay makes me realize that humans
are limitless and that ideas can
become a reality.
Martin Harman
The historical monument Stonehenge and the immediate built environment provide a conduit to evoke a reimagining of these two subjects that exists in the artworks I create.
By observing these two influences I became aware of certain experiences. Reality is not solid it is what you make of it. It is constantly reshaped theoretically and visually from the past, present and future. It shapes how I understand the world but it also evokes questions and new ways of seeing it.
I translate this perspective by constructing geometric forms. They are combined together to reveal inside and outside space and are enhanced by the application of line and colour.
The works evoke curiosity. There is freedom for the audience to interpret the work in a way that is unique to them.
(UK +44) 07805 623048
www.martinharman.weebly.comMartin Harman
Copyright Martin Harman
Education2010 – 2012 MA Ceramics, Merit, UWIC Cardiff School of Art and Design,
UK
2007 – 2010 BA (Hons) 2:1, Three Dimensional Design Ceramics, UCA,
Farnham, UK
Creative Work Experience
2014 ▎
- Materiality, 44AD Gallery, Bath, UK
- Tranquil selected for the inclusion in the Fringe Art Bath Open Prize, UK
2013 ▎
- Juxtaposed selected for the 161st Annual Open Exhibition, RWA, Bristol,
UK.- Sunrise & Contain selected for the Competitive Exhibition of the 8th
International Biennial of Ceramics presented by the City of Kapfenberg,
Austria
2012 ▎
- Construction 1 & 2 selected for 53 Degrees North, The New School House
Gallery, York, UK
- Construction 1 & 2 selected for Great Summer Exhibition, Butetown
History & Arts Centre, Cardiff, Wales, UK
2010 ▎
- New Designers, London, UK
- Rising Stars, New Ashgate Gallery, Farnham, UK
Awards2014 ▎
Juxtaposed awarded with the Bristol First Collective as part of a joint
recipient award for the 161st Annual Open Exhibition, RWA, Bristol
Symposia attended
2009 ▎
ISCAEE, Ceramic Biennial, Incheon, South Korea, ceramic artwork
exhibited
2008 ▎
ISCAEE, Ceramic Biennial, Kenya, ceramic artwork exhibited, National
Museum
Publications
2013 ▎
Aesthetica-The Art & Culture Magazine, December/January 2013, Issue 50
artists' directory, p141
Why is clay important
for youEarly memories are so important.
I am still pleased by the smell of
terracotta. Imagination stimulated
by the handling and use of plasticine.
The frustration of seeing materials
and equipment at school but not
being allowed to use them; frustrating
boundaries being set by parents
who wouldn’t have wanted ‘the
mess’. Falling in love with a beautiful
ethereal art teacher who showed us a
pot before and after glazing. A friend’s
mother who never acknowledged me
but made amazing pots at her home.
I didn’t know it then but I developed
the need to be involved with this
material just in order to exist.
Clay affords transformation. Soft to
hard; primitive to refined; lacking
order to thoughtful and considered.
These qualities allow for the possibility
of psychological transformations. A
cheap, abundant and unvalued material
becomes useful for human function,
relatively scarce and valued. Beauty
emerges from plainness and there are
seemingly endless possibilities.
However, it is the elusive nature of
this transformation which drives me
onward. Working with clay has a high
failure rate and yet it is amazingly
accessible. The balance between my
attempts to control and the natural
forces of physics and chemistry in the
presence of so many variables act as my
carrot and stick.
Richard Winfield
Richard WinfieldFor some time I have been interested
in the two-dimensional depiction of
three-dimensional form. This seems
to have been about metaphorically
cutting through things with the
intention of revealing an inner beauty.
For some time, this took the form of
an abstract representation of maps
and geological phenomena on platters
and plates intended for display.
Perhaps this is the influence of an
earlier life as a geography student, but
I do remember staring at maps and
broken rocks as a child.
My current work as an MA student
studying ceramics at Bath Spa
University has allowed me to explore
an expansion of these ideas of beauty,
structure and revelation in a more
three-dimensional way.
What seems to be important is
allowing a balance between my
desire for control of outcome and
the beneficial influence of natural
variables involved in the ceramic
process which usually come to a head
in the final firing. A combination of
conceived and natural beauty.
(UK +44) 07769 837933
www.richardwinfield.co.uk
Education2013 – present MA Ceramics. Bath Spa University. Ongoing.2001 – 2004 BA (Hons.) Three Dimensional Design (Ceramics). Bath Spa University. First.1983 – 1984 PgD Information Systems. Portsmouth Polytechnic. Distinction
1978 – 1981 BA (Hons.) Geography. Nottingham University. 2:IExhibitions2013 ▎ - Flux at 44AD. 44AD Gallery, Bath- Hospitality. Bath Abbey, Bath2012 ▎ - British Craft Trade Fair, Harrogate2010 ▎
- Leith Gallery, Edinburgh- Pure Space Gallery, Beijing- Ceramic Art London. Royal College of Art, London- British Craft Trade Fair, Harrogate- Gallerytop, Matlock 2008 ▎
- Potfest South West, Frome- Potfest in the Park, Hutton-in-the-Forest, Penrith2007 ▎
- Potfest in the Pens, Penrith- Potfest South West, Frome2006 ▎
- Potfest in the Park, Hutton-in-the-Forest, Penrith2005 ▎
- Potfest Bristol, Easter Compton, Bristol2004 ▎
- Illuminate, Walcot Chapel, Bath- Twelve Design Show, West Barn, Bradford-on-Avon- New Designers, Islington- Degree Show, Bath Spa University, Bath
Why is clay important
for you
Wen-Hsi Harman
For me Clay crosses between East and
West. It is enriched with traditional
craft processes and contemporary art
quality. This hybrid language directly
connects with my own situation. As
a Taiwanese women living in the UK,
I am living ‘in between two cultures’.
I am a tourist as well as an outsider.
Embarrassed tensions always happen,
clay records my anger at the way I
have been treated through my touch.
I am an artist, a physical laborer
using my Taiwanese hands shifting a
dialogue between clay and my identity.
Clay is a platform letting me escape
to the multi- tension conditions
along the political borders. The clay is
flexible and imaginative in my approach
and can be soft or hard, time travels as
process transforms it. It comes from the
earth and once fired it becomes hard.
I always smell out the sense of the clay.
Sometimes I feel I do not have a voice
in this society. Therefore clay represents
my skin colour, cultural identity and
myself.
Wen-Hsi HarmanCurrently WEN-HSI (Vicky) is a
practice –led PhD student in ceramics
at Bath Spa University in the UK. Her
work involves using fingerprints to
reconstruct objects and express the
notion of identity. She is a Taiwanese
woman educated and working in
Britain.
Her main concern is to shift Taiwanese
traditional ritual objects to express as
a Taiwanese woman how to survive in
the gender, Post-colonial, Feminism
world. She is using clay as language to
record her predicament.
Her studio practice provides a
platform of freedom from which she
can escape and review the tensions
of living in the space between two
cultures (Britain and Taiwan).
(UK +44) 07553 039749
wenhsichenceramics.weebly.com
Education
2013 – present PhD Ceramics, Bath Spa University, School of
Art & Design, Bath,UK
2009 – 2010 MA Contemporary Crafts (Ceramics),
University for the Creative Arts, Farnham, UK
2008 – 2006 National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan
MA History of art in China
2003 – 2006 Soochow University in Taiwan
BA Chinese Literature
Exhibitions
2014 ▎
- Laura’s Place, 44AD Art Space, Bath, UK
- Creative Sparks Gala,Newton Park, Bath, UK
- PhD Progression Assessment show, Sion Hill Gallery,
Bath Spa University, Bath, UK
2012 ▎
- Great Summer Exhibition, Butetown History & Arts Centre,
Cardiff, Wales, UK
- World Event Young Artists 1000, Nottingham, UK
2010 ▎
- MA Degree Show, James Hockey & Foyer Gallery, Farnham, UK
2009 ▎
- Emerge, Farnham, Surrey, UK
Funding
PhD Funding 2013-2015 Awarded an MOE (The Ministry of
Education in Taiwan) scholarship
York St.The Roman Baths
44AD Art Gallery and Artists Studios
Visit Bath
Abbey St.
Church St.
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