MIKE DODD GOLDMARK
They have, like their maker, a continual sense of enquiry, a depth that epitomises, so eloquently, that ‘universal mystery’ about which he speaks. David Whiting 2011
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MIKE DODD
This online catalogue is available as a printed hard copy, price £10 + p&p. A free documentary dvd is also included. To view more of Mike Dodd’s work and our documentary please visit modernpots.com
MIKE DODD
Essay by David Whiting
GOLDMARK 2011
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Mike Dodd The Perceptive Spirit
Mike Dodd always directs the conversation away from himself – not out of modesty – but because there are more important issues to discuss. Not only pots and pottery, but matters of their context – the environment, science, society, education. In this way you learn something about the man. He is a deep thinker, but not introspective. It is what is out there that counts. There is a sense of open engagement that makes him talk passionately about the processes of pottery, the properties of the clays and glazes he uses (his interest in the sciences goes back to his schooldays and his time reading medicine at Cambridge), and in a manner that clearly relates to his awareness of the whole landscape as a living, changing organism. He is no nostalgic or escapist maker, but a searing realist, one acutely aware of his place in the problematic modern world. He is persuasive about our need to reconnect with our environment, to take responsibility for the damage we are inflicting. His interest in food chains, astrophysics, geology, philosophy, history and other related subjects feeds a naturally interrogative mind. It is this quiet investigation that he brings to the art of pottery too. A new exhibition. A new – and large – group of pots, many from what he regards as his best ever firing. On tables in the kiln room are tall bottles, faceted bowls, lidded jars and boxes, runs of teapots and jugs and some quite new forms, including a group of press-moulded bottles of ‘pilgrim’ type. Some vases are gently beaten into squarish shapes, other more cylindrical ones may be
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fluted or ribbed. Occasional small lugs add character. Some surfaces are glazed more simply, others combine a depth of glaze and slip, perhaps further elaborated with incising or trailing. Dodd’s broken slips have real richness, as do those now signature textured pots, where a dry broken clay combines with the almost liquid iridescence of a covering ash. There are a range of different sized bowls. The smaller more cylindrical shapes he avoids calling teabowls, because he feels he doesn’t know enough about their Japanese culture to do so. He is not one to use terms loosely, though I notice he has succumbed to ‘yunomi’. ‘Guinomi’ is another matter though, and Dodd has instead nicknamed a run of ash glazed little fluted cups ‘Stanleys’, in honour of a recent grandson. I quiz him about the increasing co-option of Japanese ceramic terms into British pottery. He is cautious about it, though concedes that it at least acknowledges the Far Eastern influence on what many potters do. Mike Dodd has a preference for working with a modest handful of materials and stretching them – of deepening his understanding of a corpus of ashes, irons, granites, slips and so on. The results are actually remarkably varied in colour and texture and the way each synthesis enhances form. But Dodd the empirical scientist is all too aware of how elusive many of the best results are, and of course the unfathomable aspects of pottery – and of firing – is part of the draw. He is adamant about one thing – that ceramics, like creativity of all kind, is about form. ‘It is through form that we communicate’, whether it be in music, art, literature, film or whatever other language – and there is certainly a power in his words too when he discusses our common physical origin – of objects that, like us, are made of matter first created in the Big Bang. Dodd is fascinated by
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evolutions, but he brings to his arguments a poetic insight too – and it is this we find in the pots. They are alive because Dodd’s own sense of wonder, tempered by the critical discipline of his long experience as a craftsman, only deepens as the years pass by. He remains touchingly (and reassuringly) committed to domestic everyday pots; to jugs, mugs, casseroles, mixing bowls, pourers and so forth. Like Richard Batterham, he makes no distinction of value between one type of pot and another, and although Dodd has become, like most functional makers, more of an exhibition artist, he recognises the great value of repetition throwing, of how it feeds the vitality of his work as a whole. His tableware has this personal significance, but at a time when, he concedes, functional sales have dramatically declined. It is well designed and generous, as many potter and collector friends, not all easily pleased, have frequently confirmed. Dodd doesn’t just go through the motions of making. It is about picking up a pot with just the right weight, individual feel and texture that makes it different, makes one want to use it everyday. Dodd’s teapots express this quality. They have something of Hamada’s solidity. Yet Dodd’s crisp cutting, faceting and fluid use of ash are very much his own. They possess a balance of design and a tactility that makes them amongst the best you will find. With their thick overhead handles and chunky spouts, they are now a familiar part of Dodd’s output. Other pots, his bottles and vases for example, allow more room for quiet invention, for experimentation in details of shape and decoration, reassessing proportional relationships, and new types of surface making. Then there is his free spirited drawing – generally resist brushwork and incising –
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which is amongst the most accomplished by any British potter. Who cannot be moved by his beautiful abstracted foliate designs which give such unity and motion? Mike Dodd’s work is refreshingly selfless in an age obsessed with self. His energy is directed instead into an art that is profoundly intelligent, but is born of ‘perception rather than conception’ to borrow one of his key phrases. His work, fresh and direct, is unencumbered by the conceptual preoccupations of much ceramic practice today, where idea takes priority over object and more immediate expression. From his earliest days as a potter when he began sourcing and processing his own materials, there has been a strong sense of connection, from Dodd’s appreciation of the smallest constituents of his clays and glazes, to the place of pots in that broader field of perception. They have, like their maker, a continual sense of enquiry, a depth that epitomises, so eloquently, that ‘universal mystery’ about which he speaks. David Whiting October 2011
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Pots are not just functional or non-functional, that’s too simplistic. For me, at any rate, their function is firstly to enrich, to keep alive a sense of beauty, to touch feeling as a counter or balance to reason. Secondly, as probably the most tactile of all the crafts, not to be usable would deny the initmacy necessary for ‘presence’ to emerge in everyday use. Mike Dodd
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It is this aliveness, encapsulated in form that communicates to the onlooker. Form is all we know. And it is through form that we can pass onto another something of that immense, mysterious, immeasurable and complex vitality of which we ourselves are an expression − Life. Mike Dodd
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I want qualities which pierce deep into feeling and evoke a sense of interconnectedness and love, telling the same story in many different ways. Mike Dodd
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Biographical Notes Born 1943 in Sutton, Surrey.
Training 1957-1961
Bryanston School, Dorset. Studied pottery under Donald Potter (a student of Eric Gill).
1962-1965
Cambridge University. Studied Natural Sciences Tripos (Medicine). Honours Degree.
1966-1967
Hammersmith College of Art, London. One year post-graduate course in Ceramics.
Potteries 1968
Started first pottery in Edburton, Sussex. Two chambered wood and oil fired kiln. Ash glazed stoneware and porcelain.
1971
Moved pottery to larger premises at Woods Place Farmhouse, Whatlington, Battle, Sussex.
1975
Moved pottery to Cornwall. Built a wood-fired Korean climbing kiln. Used only local materials for the bricks. Started making glazes from local granites, clays, wood ashes, irons, ochres etc.
1979
Asked by Survival International and Oxfam to build a large climbing Korean kiln, similar to the one built in Cornwall, in the central jungles of Peru for the "Amuesha Indian Project" - a project aimed at keeping the indigenous people in their natural home. Spent 6 months there under the guidance of the American project leader, Connie Talbot.
1986
Moved pottery to Cumbria, concentrating on using local materials, granites, hornfels, andesites, irons, ashes etc. in the making of glazes.
1994
Pottery at Manor Farm, Cheddington, Beaminster, Dorset.
1999
Moved to present pottery at Dove Workshops, Somerset.
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Teaching Full-time 1981-1986 1981
Senior lecturer (Vocational Pottery Course) at Cumbria College of Art, Carlisle, Cumbria.
1982-86
Department Head (Vocational Pottery Course) at Cumbria College of Art, Carlisle, Cumbria.
Part-time Assignments 1972
Farnham College of Art, Surrey.
1972-74
Medway College of Art, Kent.
1974
Harrow College of Art, Middlesex.
1977-78
Royal College of Art, London.
1980
Derby College of Art, Derbyshire.
1986
Dundee College of Art, Dundee, Scotland.
1987
Manchester Polytechnic, Manchester.
1990
Preston Polytechnic, Preston, Lancashire.
1991
Addressed International Potters Camp at Aberystwyth, Wales lecture entitled Selling Water by the River.
1997
Bolton Museum, main speaker at Landshut Functional Pottery Conference.
2000
Germany. Workshop at Landshut College for Ceramics.
2000
India. Workshop at Golden Bridge Pottery in Pondicherry.
2008
Guest demonstrator, Irish Ceramics Festival, Kilkenny.
Selected Exhibitions 1972
Group exhibition, Craft Potters Shop, London.
1973
Group exhibition, Amalgam, London.
1978
Solo exhibition, Camelford Museum, Cornwall.
1979
Wood Fired Pottery by Mike Dodd, Craftworks, Guildford.
1987
The Leach Tradition - A Creative Force, Craft Potters Shop, London.
1988
Nine Potters, Paul Rice Gallery, London. Mike Dodd, Amalgam, London (solo).
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1989
Out of the Earth, Craft Potters Shop, London.
1990
Mike Dodd, Amalgam, London (solo).
1991
Mike Dodd and Ken Allen, Woodsplace Farmhouse, Battle.
1992
Mike Dodd and John Jelfs, Chestnut Gallery, Bourton-on-the-water.
1993
Group exhibition, Espace La Main, Brussels. Solo exhibition, Beaux Arts, Bath. Form & Function, Contemporary Applied Arts, London.
1994
Mike Dodd - Ash-glazed Pots, Vincent Gallery, Exeter. Mike Dodd - New Work, Woodsplace Farmhouse, Battle. Mike Dodd - New Pots, Amalgam, London (solo).
1995 1996
New Ceramics - Mike Dodd and Phil Rogers, Oxford Gallery, Oxford. Bettles Gallery, Ringwood. On-Line Gallery, Southampton.
1997
Mike Dodd - Recent Pots, Amalgam, London. Bough and Line Gallery, Bath.
1998
Bettles Gallery, Ringwood. On-Line Gallery, Southampton.
1999
Ombersley Gallery, Ombersley. Alpha House Gallery, Sherborne, Dorset.
2001
Bettles Gallery, Ringwood.
2002
Paddon & Paddon, East Sussex. Alpha House Gallery, Sherborne, Dorset.
2003
Harlequin Gallery, London. Oakwood Gallery, Nottinghamshire.
2004 2005
Dove Workshops, Somerset. Bettles Gallery, Ringwood. Alpha House Gallery, Sherborne, Dorset.
2006
Paddon & Paddon, East Sussex.
2007
Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham, Rutland.
2007
Harlequin Gallery, London.
2008
Alpha House Gallery, Sherborne, Dorset.
2008
Oakwood Gallery, Nottinghamshire.
2009
Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham, Rutland
2011
Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham, Rutland
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Collections Victoria and Albert Museum, London British Crafts Council Collection, London Bath Study Centre, Bath Cleveland Craft Collection Ulster Museum, Belfast
Articles Articles by Mike Dodd: In Deference of Tradition, Pottery Quarterly, 1974 (invited to a discussion with Bernard Leach in St. Ives, on the strength of this article) Vol. 11, No. 41. Confused Ramblings, Artist's Newsletter, 1982. Letter from Peru, Oxapampa Project, Ceramic Review, 1983. Makers or Breakers, Artist's Newsletter, March 1984. Running a Vocational Course, Real Pottery (formerly Pottery Quarterly) 1986. Healthy Roots, Artist's Newsletter, June 1987. An American Experience, Artist's Newsletter, January 1993. Function and Dysfunction, Ceramics: Art and Perception, 1998. Trembling on the Edge, article on Patrick Sargent, Ceramic Review, May/June 1999. Other Articles: Tim Proud article on Mike Dodd - Unambiguous Potter, Ceramic Review, Sept/Oct 1987. Mike Dodd by Tanya Harrod in Ceramics Monthly, January 1991. Eileen Lewenstein, Review of China Clay: The Eastern Tradition in British Studio Pottery, Crafts, Sept/Oct 1991. An Interview with Mike Dodd, Studio Pottery, April/May 1994. My Time at Cambridge, CAM, 1997.
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Illustrated Pots
All sizes in cm
1. Large Dimpled Vase. Two ash glazes
55.0 x 29.0
26. Rounded Vase. Granite ash glaze
20.0 x 18.5
27. Faceted Vase. Peat clay & ash glaze
16.0 x 12.0
39. Tall Fluted Vase. High silica ash glaze
60.0 x 27.0
45. Bin. Ribbed. Ash glaze over dark slip
30.0 x 21.0
47. Large Bowl. Ash and basalt black glazes
10.0 x 37.5
59. Vase. Granite & Penlee stone glaze
23.5 x 15.0
62. Tall Vase. Dimpled. Ash glaze over local clay slip
55.0 x 29.0
63. Tall Vase. Ribbed & impressed. Porphyry ash glaze
57.0 x 29.5
65. Jug. Ash & local clay slip
38.5 x 19.0
67. Large Faceted Teapot. Porphyry ash glaze
26.0 x 20.0
75. Oval Bottle Vase. Faceted. Basalt black glaze
17.0 x 18.0
78. Oval Vase. Two ash glazes over broken slip
17.5 x 19.5
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80. Waisted Vase. Ash glaze over broken slip
16.5 x 12.0
85. Ribbed Bottle Vase. Incised, two ash glazes
16.5 x 12.0
87. Jug. Basalt black & high silica ash glazes
28.0 x 14.5
88. Textured Vase. Incised. Two ash glazes
24.5 x 21.5
91. Pedestal Bottle. Ash glaze with oak leaf pattern
25.5 x 18.5
107. Round Vase. Incised. Granite & ash glaze & over glaze
16.0 x 16.0
108. One Handled Flattened Vase.
18.0 x 14.0
110. Jug. Basalt black glaze
21 x 12.5
126. Bowl. Ash glaze over broken slip
9.0 x 12.0
138. Yunomi. Ash glaze over broken slip
10.0 x 8.0
140. Yunomi. Ash glaze over broken slip
8.5 x 7.0
184. Banded Bottle Vase. Ash glaze over dark slip
53.0 x 27.0
188. Ribbed Vase. Porphyry ash glaze
46.0 x 23.0
189. Dimpled Vase. Granite & basalt glazes
44.0 x 23.0
190. Box. Wax pattern, Penlee stone glaze
8.0 x 12.0
193. One Handled Flattened vase. Wax pattern, Penlee glaze
32.0 x 20.0
196. Faceted Bottle Vase. Wax pattern, Penlee stone glaze
24.5 x 15.5
199. Large Squared Bowl. Wax pattern, Penlee stone glaze
9.0 x 35.5
202. Faceted Bottle Vase. Basalt black glaze
23.5 x 17.0
203. Waisted Vase. Broken slip, cobalt glaze to shoulders
23.0 x 16.0
205. One Handled Flattened Bottle. Broken slip, peat clay glaze 21.5 x 15.5 207. One Handled Flattened Bottle. River iron on granite glaze 21.0 x 16.0 208. Pedestal Bottle. Incised grass pattern, two ash glazes
25.5 x 18.5
211. Teapot. Wax pattern, Penlee stone glaze
12.0 x 12.0
219. Squared Plate. Ash glaze over broken slip
4.5 x 22.0
Mike Dodd’s series of pedestal bottles are made exclusively for Goldmark
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www.modernpots.com Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham, Rutland, LE15 9SQ 01572 821424 Text: © David Whiting 2011 Photographs: © Jay Goldmark / Vicki Uttley Design: Porter / Goldmark Our thanks to the bat ISBN 978-1-870507-87-5 2011
GOLDMARK CERAMICS MONOGRAPHS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Phil Rogers New Pots 2005 Clive Bowen New Pots 2006 Lisa Hammond New Pots 2006 Mike Dodd Recent Pots 2007 Ken Matsuzaki (2007) Thirty Years of a Living Tradition Svend Bayer (2007) New Pots Jim Malone (2008) The Pursuit of Beauty Phil Rogers (2008) A Potter of our Time Lisa Hammond (2009) Unconscious Revelation
10 Ken Matsuzaki New Pots 2009 11 Mike Dodd New Pots 2009 12 Clive Bowen New Pots 2009 13 Svend Bayer New Pots 2010 14 Nic Collins New Pots 2011 15 Ken Matsuzaki New Pots 2011 16 Jim Malone New Pots 2011 17 Mike Dodd (2011) The Perceptive Spirit
GOLDMARK CERAMICS FILMS 1 2 3 4 5 6
Phil Rogers - A Passion For Pots Ken Matsuzaki - Elemental Svend Bayer Nic Collins Jim Malone Mike Dodd
inside front cover
this page
Pot number 205
Pot number 84
For further details or to order: visit www.modernpots.com or phone 01572 821424
His work, fresh and direct, is unencumbered by the conceptual preoccupations of much ceramic practice today, where idea takes priority over object and more immediate expression. David Whiting 2011
Goldmark Uppingham Rutland LE15 9SQ England Goldmark Uppingham Rutland LE15 9SQ England www.modernpots.com www.modernpots.com 68