This dissertation explores the relationship between ceramics and our physical bodies That when art invades a craft such as pottery, we begin to separate ourselves physically from the vessels both in the gallery as well as our own homes I will present the ways in which, as a society, we separate ourselves from vessels made by the human hand, vessels whose sole purpose is to function domestically within our lives are now left untouched when we find their bodies to be visually pleasing This proposes that when we view an object to be art it can no longer be a craft, which is false. I will be looking at ceramic artists Lee Seung-taek, Yagi Kazuo and William Staite-Murray and comparing their work with artist craftsmen Jin Gyu-Heo, Shiro Tsujimura and Clive Bowen to establish the difference between pottery vessels as craft and as art and how these differences change our perceptions of where they belong within our own lives as well as the ways we go about interacting with them. The first chapter explores the differences between the artist and the craftsman when handling their materials and their thoughts on the final functions of their work In the second chapter I examine the ways in which art changes the way we view the craft they imitate through how said vessels are curated within the gallery space The final chapter discusses the ways we interact with the objects in our homes based on the way objects are displayed within galleries But by looking into the tea ceremony, we can see how ceramic vessels can be valued for both their visual and physical aesthetics.
List of Illustrations
1.1…………………………………………………………………………………………7
Lee Seung-taek ‘The Tower’ (1964)
360 x 50 x 50cm, Earthenware
Courtesy of Seoul Art Guide
2.1………………………………………………………………………………………….11
Yagi Kazuo, ‘Mr Samsa’s Walk’ (1954)
24 x 11 x 50cm, Wood-fired Shigaraki stoneware clay
Courtesy of The Japan Times
2.2…………………………………………………………………………………………13
York Art Gallery, ‘Excitations’ Exhibition (2011-12)
Courtesy of York Art Gallery
3.1………………………………………………………………………………………….
Tsujimura Shiro, ‘Ido-style tea bowl’ (2002)
9.84 x 15.56 x 15.56cm, Glazed stoneware with slip
Courtesy of Minneapolis Institution of Art
Clive Bowen, image of Bowens kitchen showing his tilework and pottery (2024)
Courtesy of The Scottish Gallery
Introduction
In this dissertation I will be investigating the relationship we have with pottery and how touch is an essential way of interpreting and appreciating the beauty of their forms That traditional ways of making are the key to upholding the bond between pottery and our own bodies The three chapters will cover the ways in which touch permeates pottery and our physical relationships to it. From the way craftsmen hold clay in their workshops, to how artists display clay vessels in galleries and how we as consumers of clay vessels choose to interact with them in our own homes based on our viewing of the objects in either an art or a craft context By looking to the past to understand where our separation of art from touch began and why it still exists today and the effects it has had on contemporary craftsmen. How traditional craft is disappearing because of our attempts to place beautiful things out of reach, not realising that by taking away function from a vessel we are taking away its beauty. I will be looking at traditional potters Jin Gyu-Heo and Clive Bowen (1943) to present the way in which touch is an essential sense that allows them to bond with their materials in both the process of making a vessel but also in its ability to carry out its function within our homes However, by looking into artists such as Lee Seung-taek (1932), Yagi Kazuo (1918), William Staite-Murray (1881) and Hans Coper (1920) we can see the way in which art creates physical barriers between ourselves and the vessels That when placed in the art gallery pottery becomes a thing disconnected from the body, which in turn destroys the physical relationship we have with the pottery in our homes If a vessel is beautiful, it is not to be used. Yet when looking into the pottery of artist craftsman Shiro Tsujimura (1947) we can see the ways in which pottery vessels can be made to belong to both art and craft That they can be appreciated both visually in the gallery as well as physically within our homes. These concepts will be investigated by looking at philosophies on materiality and touch, supported through writings by philosopher Walter Benjamin (1892) researcher and museologist Fiona Candlin, sociologist Howard Becker (1928), art historian Monika Wagner and cultural historian Constance Classen (1957). I will also be looking at historical texts on traditional pottery in both the east and the west such as Bernard Leach’s (1887) “A Potter's Book” (Leach, 1976) as well as Yanagi Soetsu’s (1889) book “The Unknown Craftsman” (Soetsu, 1989) to establish the relationship between traditional craft and people during the 1900’s when there was more of an understanding and appreciation for said crafts But also, to give insight into the importance that traditional craft has on art and society through craft movements such as the Mingei movement in Japan discussed with “The Unknown Craftsman” (Soetsu, 1989).
Chapter 1: To Touch is to Know
1:1 – Onggi and the Process of Making
Walter Benjamin (1892) describes good pottery as vessels which carry stories on their surfaces, stories of their making, and of their makers That the clay pot belongs neither to the world of art nor factory, it is a thing of human experience. Experiences passed on through the touching of their materials The handling of their forms, as clay is taken from the earth and turned into ceramics for our homes. This is our way of passing on physical connections and deep understandings of not just the life of the pot but also that of the potter (Adamson, 2018, p. 387). So too is the potter's touching of his materials, a gateway to his understanding of their own living qualities, and his understanding of his place amongst them becomes clearer still When the potter throws with clay on their wheel, their body becomes a part of the clay itself Unlike the joiner, blacksmith, stonemason or jeweller, there are no tools that separate their flesh from their material The movement of their body is in a constant rhythm with the movement of the clay, power is both enforced and relinquished between the two Bernard Leach (1887) was a British studio potter whose work was of a simplistic natural style, his vessels were heavily influenced by the natural world as well as by the traditional styles of Japanese and Korean potters, where he spent years of his life training Leach defines within his book “A Potters Book” (Leach, 1976) that well-made pottery as that which represents the vitality of people, the finished pot is a product of lived experience It is also a product of a craftsman's knowledge on how people will physically interact with their pots. How their hands will hold the vessels is as powerful of a bond as it was when the clay was spinning within the craftsman's hands at their wheel. Artists however work on a more conscious thought path While the craftsman's hands rely heavily on intuition when placed upon the clay, artists are more thought out. Leach refers to this as ‘excessive self-consciousness’, the potter implies that the traditional craftsman work is so successful and more so is beautiful because of the potter's ability to transfer all control to their hands instead of their mind when making a pot The artist relies more on the visual, hence their bodies become separated from the materials in front of them as it is the visuals that carry the meanings of their work not the feeling of them in the hands or against the body Whereas the craftsman holds his material the way the consumers of his crafts will, without thought, when we pick up our pottery we treat it like we treat our own limbs; they are a part of us and like them the pottery moves in flux with ourselves (Leach, 1976, p 13) There is a theory proposed by Walter Benjamin that the hand is a ‘political organ’ with which we use in ‘grasping the truth’ and ‘seizing the future’, his suggestion is that we use touch to discern
what is real Seeing an object cannot bring us as close to believing in it as much as we can by touching it. As like that physical object we, too, are physical beings, made true by our physical forms In a sense we try to see ourselves in what we touch, feel our own forms, and then when we are touching ourselves can we form a relationship with the object, as we would form relationships with each other (Adamson, 2018, p 387) Unlike other domestic pieces, the form of traditional pottery is always made of round and curved surfaces, as if in constant motion This is no coincidence as Bernard Leach states that we will naturally try to impose the figures we are most accustomed to, onto the things we touch in life, these figures are those of our own bodies. He also refers to the English wording of pottery form as interchangeable from how we define our own bodies On pots and on the human figure there exists the neck, the foot, belly, shoulder and lip. Our physical attributes have been replicated in clay Take the domestic water jug into consideration, as our hands wrap around its sides, the feeling of the smooth glaze that coats its body is akin to that of the human waist, our hands bend in their most natural motions (Leach, 1976, p 19) That is what traditional pottery achieves, physical vessels in complete natural connection with us, they are real beings, their skin coated with the stories of their makers
To feel the pot is to also be able to understand its ability to function, this means that for a potter to know the consistency and tactility of his wares he must keep his hands placed firmly on its body This is a skill undesired of artists as tactility is a foreign concept with their work To feel the pot is to know the pot In Korea there exists the pottery tradition of Onggi which involves thick rolls of earthenware clay coiled round in layers to form large jars used for the fermentation of different foods Due to the introductions of plastic and refrigerators the number of Onggi pots as well as the potters mastered in the tradition have depleted greatly. Like many other traditional pottery wares, Onggi made today seems to now belong to the arts. Despite this it cannot be denied that it is art which is responsible for keeping the tradition alive today Jin Gyu-Heo is one of the few Onggi masters left, he dedicates his life to preserving this ancient tradition, one in which took Heo 10 years to master. Every step of the making process is essential to the one that comes after it The potter is able to determine the precise thickness of the pot, as if he gets it wrong the whole pot loses its purpose. Onggi requires the use of tools; however, each piece is crafted to suit its individual master We watch as Heo takes his wooden paddle, the Surae, and brings his head close to the pot as he taps its sides, he pays close attention to how the Surae feels on the pot combined with the sound resonating from within as it will tell him the thickness of the pot, and let him determine whether the pot is good or bad (Business Insider India, 2022, 3:15) Heo’s justification for continuing the tradition of Onggi differs greatly from that of his predecessors, who made their wares when there was a need for them. Traditional potters like Jin Gyu-Heo
now make their pots in an age where the need to interact with their forms has disappeared, his pots live now as an attempt to preserve their traditions of making, to keep the relationship between potter and clay alive even if they are the only people left who place their hands upon them Onggi is a dying tradition which represents more than simply the loss of these magnificent pots but more so of those willing to continue practising the traditions of such crafts The beauty of pottery lies heavily in our ability to physically place our bodies against theirs, but these haptic connections are also becoming a thing of the past Our desire to touch has been outweighed by that of sight We are losing the desire to place our hands on the objects that surround us, and therefore we are losing an understanding of the materials that are a part of said objects, their origins and our understanding of the material world starts to fade. Howard Becker (1928), an American sociologist believes that craftsmen who are prodigies in their field are now becoming debased by artists who have ‘invaded’ their craft Becker adds that the applied arts can trace their origins back to crafts. That art is craft that has been appropriated by having its function removed and its form and meanings warped to suit the individual artist's ideologies. In turn as a society, we begin to set new standards of quality within the objects that art imitates, the crafts We forget about the vessel's physical properties and instead focus on its implied philosophies (Becker, 1978). The tradition of Onggi finds itself honoured as art instead of a widely used utilitarian craft
Fig. 1.1. Lee Seung-taek, ‘The Tower’ (1964),360x50x50cm, earthenware, image courtesy of Seoul Art Guide
Lee Seung-taek (1932), a Korean artist who takes the form of the Onggi vessel and abstracts them As with his untitled work made in 1964 exhibited at the Wönhyönghoe, Central Information Center, Seoul An artwork that featured several Onggi pots hanging from the walls of the gallery, their bodies were disfigured, made to mimic the work of an unskilled craftsman, but that had their philosophy grounded in its opposite, an attempt to isolate the intended functions from the materials that one would traditionally apply them to We can see within Lee’s work “The Tower” made in the same year, which depicted six Onggi jars stacked on top of one another, that the artist intends to give the traditional craft entirely new meanings (GALLERY HYUNDAI, 2022, 5:43). Art historian Joan Kee describes how the earthenware jars, when placed in upright positions or up onto walls, become “quasi-architectural” art pieces. With this change of meaning enforced by the artist, their original functions become blurred, particularly for a craft whose functions are no longer being carried through to today (Kee, 2013) There is also no mention as to Lee’s working methods and overall skill as a potter His process of making each pot is left blank as to suggest it is not important Which for an artist and their artworks this implication is true As Becker has put forward, the craftsman can devote many years to perfecting their craft, it is this earned
skill that is reflected by the efficiency of the vessel to carry out its function The skill of the artist, however, is reflected in their ability to produce the same vessel, but the proof of their skill is based on the standards that they choose to set for themselves Standards not based within the object's tactile abilities but its capacity to transfer to its viewers their makers personal ideologies (Becker, 1978) Despite this Lee made the conscious decision to depict Onggi pots as they were a strong symbol of his country's traditional cultures and heritage Within the concept of the traditional Onggi vessel there also permeates within it the traditional pottery techniques involved in its making The chosen positions of the Onggi vessels, stacked in tall formations within the gallery mirror the methods of stacking the vessels in the kiln as well as in storage before they are sold Taking the viewer, particularly Korean viewers who would already be familiar with the pot's history, back to the workshops where the vessels were born, back to the era in which they were vessels used primarily for utilitarian purposes. Both artist Seung-taek Lee and craftsman Jin Gyu-Heo are makers of the same vessels and whose beliefs surrounding Onggi are that of preserving their countries traditions of said craft. Nevertheless, the understanding for tactility of their pottery separates them, this is due to their differing environments in which they earned their skills The traditions of making in which Heo has spent his life training to attain could one day be lost to time For Lee art is eternal, his pots need only survive through their artists' nonmaterial ideologies Art objects, although their forms will always be reminiscent of the crafts they have stemmed from, unless we are to see the methods behind their finished forms, the traditional processes involved in their making will cease to be recognised As well as our own understanding of what the human hand has and can make
Chapter 2: Look, Don’t Touch
2:1 – Yagi Kazuo and
Fig 2 1 Yagi Kazuo, ‘Mr Samsa’s Walk’ (1954), 24 x 11 x 50cm, Wood-fired Shigaraki stoneware, image courtesy of The Japan Times
When pottery as well as many other forms of craft are placed in the environment of the museum or the gallery, they immediately belong to the visual sense alone. Fiona Candlin discusses the first museums as places where not just sight, but touch was incorporated as a part of how viewers could explore the objects presented to them (Candlin, 2017). However, these patrons belonged to a select elitist class in society Candlin recounts writer Martin Jay’s opinion on the matter as he proclaims the visual sense as being the most proficient of all the senses Glenn Adamson (1972) describes in his book “Fewer, better Things”, that touch has been long viewed as the ‘primal’ sense(Adamson, 2020). A sense belonging to the uncivilised man whereas sight along with hearing, as Monika Wagner (1944) suggests, were senses which were associated with the ‘knowledge of God’. Wagner continues that touch was a trait which had to be made redundant for the arts to be placed within a greater hierarchy of creation (Lange-Berndt, 2015, p 26-27) There is a suggestion made here that material holds within itself our certainty and understanding of our current world By placing our hands on the material before us we would be led away from the immaterial notions placed upon it by the arts We would be brought back to the values and ethos associated with the earth and away from that of heaven, God and a newer, more romantic world These values belong to a time when Europe was governed by the church and by the laws of God, yet they still find themselves attached to our present curatorial practices Museums and art galleries still place the ceramic vessel out of reach from the visitor either behind hardy glass
cases, ropes, fencing or placed onto tall shelves and plinths, turning the vessels into statues, things of high importance for which only the visual sense is astute enough to comprehend their significance But that also refers to the viewer as undeserving of touching their forms and that our hands are made into weapons which may cause irreparable damage to their fragile surfaces It appears only by placing the vessel out of reach can it then be viewed as art This assumption is proposed by Walter Benjamin when quoting Franz Gliick, in his writing “On Ships, Mine Shafts, and Crucifixes in Bottles”, in which “anything that can be touched cannot be a work of art” (Benjamin and Jennings, 2005) That only when situated in ways that suggest the rejection of touch are material things respected as works of art. The functional ceramic vessel welcomes touch by its way of being a functional object It is tactile by nature. However, if such an object is to be placed into the environment of the art gallery where these haptic qualities are removed, what point do appendages such as the handle, spout, foot and rim of the pot serve? With the end of the second world war brought with it the radical wave of Avant Garde The desire to change our perception of normality, for traditional pottery this wave effectively changed the idea of what the ceramic vessel could be. Its form was disfigured and transformed from a thing of tactile utility into a sculpture of artistic expression. Japan was a country whose loss of a war brought with it a passion among its younger generations to evolve its current traditions In Kyoto, a city world renowned for some of the finest ceramic wares ever produced Their skills as potters were made so by years of unwavering faith in their pottery traditions Yagi Kazuo (1918), an artist who took great inspiration from western ideas of artistic expression brought into Japan after the second world war, influenced Yagi to go against tradition and eventually change the entire concept of the ceramic vessel, he wanted to “make something new rather than embracing any orthodoxy”(WINTHER-TAMAKI, 1999). Many young Kyoto potters shared these same views, eventually leading them to form a group known as “The Sodeisha” They’re intentions were clear; to stop following tradition, question the perception of the ceramic vessel and ultimately push its form to a point where utility was made impossible Many of Yagi’s vessels had the features of traditional Japanese pottery but they were deliberately distorted. Vessels that had spouts which were positioned at angles, vases whose spherical bodies had been compressed flat, vessels attached to small plinths which held their large bodies up by a small point making them look unsteady and at the point of collapse Intentional features which sought to reject function. One of the most Avant Garde of all their vessels was Yagi Kazuo ‘Mr Samsa's Walk’ Louise Allison Cort describes how its body was made by wheel throwing multiple parts, it had many mouths, some used at its base to create its feet, and its size was small standing around a foot in height (Cort, 2024) All features associated with traditional pottery were changed in a way that created something completely new and non-functional As the artist stated himself his work was ultimately “the goal of obtaining a
creative harmony between Japanese ceramic tradition and western modern art ” In The Journal of Design History writer Bert Winther-Tamaki (1959) proposed that it was the environment of the art gallery which severed the ceramic vessel from function, turning it into an ‘objet’ for visual appreciation only, which made the path for artists like Yagi to explore their own ideas surrounding ceramic form Tamaki continues that Yagi believed in the fact that “creativity itself was impossible without unceasing contact with the everyday” That both the functional and non-functional ceramic vessels within the space of the gallery were, although abstracted from utility, they could not take away the fact that the forms themselves were still grounded within domestic life (WINTHER-TAMAKI, 1999).
2:2 – William Staite-Murray and Hans Coper: Exhibiting Tradition
Fig 2 2 York Art Gallery, ‘Excitations’ Exhibition (2011-12), photograph of the exhibition, courtesy of York Art Gallery
Many of the first ceramic vessels to be exhibited within the gallery space were inspired by traditional pottery styles and techniques However, the potters behind such vessels, whose desires were to have their works displayed as art, were not raised through the traditional upbringing of craft, but instead were graduates from prestigious art schools and colleges Their work was the culmination of conscious thought surrounding their visual aesthetics. Unlike the non-functional sculptures of Yagi Kazuo, works by artists such as William Staite Murray (1881) and Hans Coper (1920) were still very much alive with purpose beyond that of the visual sense, they were still grounded in utility Also, unlike artist Lee Seung-taek, they
displayed their works without abstract poses, they were displayed as simple pots on shelves Their interest fell onto the beauty of their simple designs. Yet their choice to display their wares as works of art, although making society finally be able to see the beauty of the traditional pot, also contributed to the wares being treated as we would paintings, creating a separation between the physical and the visual Murray was one of the first potters to display his pots in the context most associated with paintings, such as his work ‘Wheel of Life’, a stoneware vase with white and brown slipware made in 1939 As potter Julian Stair (1955) explains in his writing “Factive Plasticity: The Abstract Pottery of William Staite Murray”, Murray characterised his wares not by their material make up but instead, as he would a painting, using romantic and idyllic titles reminiscent of ‘mood and character’ (Thorne and Matson, 2016, p. 59). Bringing his pots into the immaterial world of visual appreciation. Traditional pottery, as it was usually made by those of lower economic standing, would be left unsigned, the traditional pot is just that: a pot. It is its form and its function, there exists no maker in which to associate it with, it would hold no value as the potter would most likely have been an unknown peasant. Art however is rarely left unsigned, as it does add to the work's value As Stair explains, the artist has the ability to feel his work on a personal, individual level whereas traditional craft was made between multiple workers, the one who makes the form and the other who decorates it Pottery as a craft was something that had multiple makers and therefore multiple ideas surrounding its design With art, the entirety of the vessel belonged to the artist They were the creator of both the form and its visual aesthetic (Thorne and Matson, 2016, p 52) Artists like Murray tended to make only one of each pottery form, unlike the traditional potter who would throw many of the same vessel, each with near identical dimensions The single artist pot holds greater value than many identical craft vessels as it is seen as something rare and unattainable. Going back to the writings of Howard S Becker, “no one wants to buy a copy from an artist, only from a craftsman” (Becker, 1978). This paired with Murray's choice of displaying his work within the art gallery, placing his wares on plinths and even today his works are held behind glass cabinets as seen in the York museums 2011-2012 exhibition: ‘Excitations’ featuring many studio potters works including that of William Staite Murray The space was brightly lit, the ceramics can be seen standing in tall glass cases in the centre of the room, where it was made impossible for people to touch their forms (York Art Gallery, 2024) Murrays forms were, although based within traditional techniques, abstract.
Many of the works by Hans Coper not only shared this trait but enhanced it Coper’s work was influenced by traditions further back in history than the mediaeval English and Chinese influences of Murray Coper took great interest in the forms of Ancient Greece and Cyprus The Ashmolean Museum’s 2021 exhibition featuring many of Coper’s vessels, also displays
them from behind the glass cabinet The works were presented as ornaments rather than functional pieces of pottery. Charlie Park, the curator of the Hans Coper exhibition, describes how Coper’s early work made through the 1940s into the 1950s, were like they had been “brought out of a tomb in Ancient Greece”(Ashmolean Museum, 2021, 5:27) Coper looked to the past in order to create his forms, imitating their marks using the etching technique sgraffito, in order to make the vessels look older (Ashmolean Museum, 2021, 5:37) Park continues that Coper's work was more reliant on texture than with English potters like that of Murray, who prioritised colour as one of the main aesthetics of their work Coper would visit museums to view their ancient pottery artefacts, where he would replicate the forms but make his vessels slightly more angular and streamlined to suit his modernist style (Ashmolean Museum, 2021, 5:37). Edmund De Wall describes Copers work as feeling “very close to the human body” as his forms were rounded but also straight and tall, they held many contrasting lines and movements that were akin to the features of the body (Phillips, 2023, 3:13) In Copers later work we see a shift toward more abstract forms, they become more disconnected from utility and more sculptural, however they become more familiar with the human form Yet they are in essence still, ‘vessels They are left open at the top and hollow on their insides so that their bodies may still provide a function even if they are made with artistic expression in mind The choice for today's galleries to exhibit functional ceramics as ornaments placed out of reach does well to help the viewer place more of a value onto forms which previously would have been seen as things of the past whose tactility renders them mundane Yet this physical barrier imposes on us that visual appeal is all that can be seen as significant to a vessel's overall ‘beauty’ As the vessels themselves are viewed as valuable their utilities are rendered obsolete
Chapter 3: Vessels in the Background
3:1 – Art Vessels within the Home
Fig. 3.1. Tsujimura Shiro, ‘Ido-Style Tea Bowl’ (2002), 9.84 x 15.56 x 15.56cm, glazed stoneware with slip, image courtesy of Minneapolis Institution of Art.
Traditional pottery exists to serve a function It is made by the people for the people But when an object is designed for and used within the setting of the everyday it becomes just as passive to us, it becomes a thing of static certainty The introduction of the arts into the home has given us a thirst for the new and constantly evolving forms associated with them Jean Baudrillard (1929) and his essay “Subjective Discourse or the Non-Functional System of Objects” writes that utility is a trait which is no longer certain. It is now based upon our own opinions surrounding what it means for something to be considered functional A badly made pot may be able to hold matter within it but will quickly show signs of wear as a result, but we choose to use it as it can technically function as a vessel even if it is only for a brief time (Candlin and Guins, 2009, pg. 49). Pots with which we associate a high visual value are, although may be made with great skill and possess a high durability, have their functions removed by our refusal to interact physically with them. As we view them as art pieces which would be difficult to replace if they were to be damaged or have their value tarnished with signs of wear. Much like with museums and galleries we place a greater effort in preserving the objects themselves than we do their traditions of making We have no knowledge of how our pots came to be, their material makes up, our concerns lie primarily
on whether they improve the visual aesthetic of our homes As Baudrillard explains, ‘possession’ is placed within the same level of importance as ‘utility’. Both are interlinked, to own an object is just as pragmatic as if you were to use it This becomes a rather helpful philosophy for the problem of over consumption, as we cannot possibly use every item we own, however we may be allowed to feel satisfaction in the action of our possession of said objects We instead, use the plates, bowls, mugs and other ceramic vessels which we find most disposable When their poorly constructed bodies break, we dispose of them and simply repurchase their imitation for a more than affordable price This goes much against the ethos of traditional pottery, as the pottery vessel should be crafted in a way where it can be valued for both its tactility and its visual appeal This is supported by Japanese Art Critic Yanagi Soetsu (1889) in his book “The Unknown Craftsman” where he speaks of pottery made for the arts being priced so highly that only those of an elite class like the art collector can afford them, they are separated from ‘the people’. Yanagi describes this as “a mortal wound to craftsmanship”, that by removing the functional vessel from domestic society, you consequently remove societies association of said vessel from the home environment (Soetsu Yanagi, 1989, pg 203) At the end of the nineteenth century, in an attempt to bring back the old values and cultural heritage of prewar Japan, The Tea Ceremony was established Around the same time Yanagi Soetsu along with a few others, gave rise to the ‘Mingei Movement’, a wave of folk pottery connoisseurs who aimed to save the traditional crafts by way of appreciating them for their serving of the people within everyday life The Tea Ceremony was a space that invited both art and craft into the same space, where one could admire the visual and tactile beauty of traditional ceramic wares Guests would traditionally be offered green tea, poured for them by the host into a ‘chawan’, the Japanese tea bowl, where they would then drink from the vessel. Philosopher Yuriko Saito characterises the tea ceremony as a way of appreciating the ‘flux’ of everyday life That the tea house serves as a moment in time where we may consciously acknowledge their significance in carrying us through our domestic lives (Saito, 2001) Contemporary artist-potter Shiro Tsujimura has been making tea bowls throughout his career. In his book “Shiro Tsujimura: An Art of living” forwarded by Axel Vervoordt, we see Tsujimura as an artist who places his wares onto plinths within a gallery setting, yet he is also a craftsman who makes many of the same form for the purpose of serving as functional pieces within the home. He and his wife eat and drink from the vessels he produces. We even see him carefully prune and place a tree branch into one of his large, round vases His wares are displayed within minimalist galleries where all the focus is placed on their rustic forms But they are also seen layed out in his garden, in amongst grass, against the walls of his home, unassuming as if they have been lying there for centuries Tsujimura's work belongs to both the tactile and the visual senses Some of Tsujimura's most notable vessels are his
“Chawans” or tea bowls Vervoordt recalls his visit with Tsujimura where he invited him into his self-crafted tea house, where the author was served tea in one of Tsujimura ‘Ido’ tea bowls (Vervoordt, 2024, pg 20) A Korean tea bowl which was used by the Korean peasantry of the fifteenth century A highly favoured style used within the tea ceremony as it reflected the modest and simple nature of domestic life, particularly the domestic life of the peasant In Constance Classens (1957) book “The Deepest Sense: A Cultural History of Touch”, she mentions that the lower classes had bodies which were seen as being “harder and coarser” than that of higher society Their bodies had been weathered by physical labour. Rendering them rigid and roughly textured (Classens, 2012, pg. 187). The Ido tea bowl is another physical representation of this as its body, too, is scarred by imperfections it sustained through the course of its life. Being used again and again as it would have been the only bowl its owners could afford However, within the tea ceremony, these scars serve as confirmation of a vessel's ability to provide for its owner, without any care to its visual appeal, it was unpretentious, a trait highly respected by those frequenting the modern-day tea house. Classens defines that “touch created emotional dependency” which was viewed by modern scholars as something lacking in discipline and rationality For artist-craftsmen such as Tsujimura, who goes against the rules of even the tea ceremony. For which control still permeates He refuses any precise, controlled movement of the body, instead he lifts and places the objects in a manner which feels most natural to him Vervoordt explains that Tsujimura, when performing the ceremony, carried it out “his way” (Vervoordt, 2024, pg 20) The rituals associated with the control and rational thought appreciated by the upper-class intellectuals, his way of interacting with his vessels was through the innate rhythm of everyday life
Fig. 3.2. Clive Bowen, Photograph of Bowens kitchen showing his tile work and pottery (2024), image courtesy of The Scottish Gallery
As mentioned previously, the average homeowner has the tendency to place their most visually cherished items in the foreground of their homes, in living rooms, spaces associated with relaxation and upper-class society Whereas the items which are handled on a regular basis, which most likely have little to no visual appeal, are placed in the backgrounds, in cupboards or shelves within rooms like the kitchen where physical labour is most present Particularly in the west, even the food we place into our domestic vessels must be made to outshine the plate or bowl that it is placed upon or inside The modern-day plates have always been simple in design, white with little to no textures or imperfections to their forms They are to be invisible as to contrast with the food placed upon them We take no joy in the visual or tactile beauty of functional ceramics Clive Bowen (1943), an English studio potter based in North Devon, works primarily with coloured slips, applying them to pots in traditional methods used by potters since the seventeenth century Slipwear is a traditional style of decoration by way of making the pot appear unassuming but at the same time it gives the vessel a sort of ordinary beauty, one which does not try to overshadow the other items in the home but is still beautiful. Bowen describes that “the whole idea of function, to me, is vital to what I make” (Goldmark Gallery, 2014,1:00) We can see Bowen sitting down with friends and family to eat a meal. The food is presented on his own slipwear plates and bowls, they work in harmony with the food placed on top of them, they have their own beauty which adds to the experience of the meal. In an article from Ceramics Monthly, Lyla Kaplan
writes that the function of a vessel is not just achieved through it being used but the ‘context’ in which it is used. “The table on which it is sitting, the food it is holding, the person who picks it up, or the people who are sharing it together” (Kaplan, 2007) These external factors can also determine a vessel's ability to carry out its function, for meals are made enjoyable experiences not just by the ingestion of food alone, but by the objects that facilitate the act
Within Jean Baudrillard’s essay “Subjective Discourse or the Non-Functional System of Objects”, he mentions the way in which we have a tendency to place a high importance on objects which have been made by human hands of the past as it tends to make us think of the object as ‘unique’ due to its inability to be made again. Traditional craft, whether made today or decades ago, places this feeling of admiration onto its objects as the patterns and forms are those we associate with the human hand, the physical body of another has made the object and now it is here in the present, held by our hands and our bodies (Candlin, 2009, pg. 43). Within the article “The Handmade Effect: What's Love Got to Do with It?” by Christoph Fuchs, Martin Schreier, and Stijn M J Van Osselaer, when questioning several handmade producers, it was discovered that handmade objects were “more attractive due to their uniqueness” But also, that the love of the craftsman for their work leads to the final craft being perceived as something which is “imbued with love” (Fuchs, Schreier and Van Osselaer, 2015) Objects made purely for function need not have any other distinguishing features that are not their forms, however many traditional craftsmen like that of Clive Bowen choose to add decoration the surfaces of their wares and glazes onto the outside of vessels as to once again, make the experience of using them a more enjoyable experience However, they also make the environments they are placed in and used in become alive with character and artisanal love Physical labour becomes a positive act, as the objects we handle are made to look and feel beautiful. Bowen states that “making for me is part of the pleasure of making pots”, and when discussing the debate between objects being viewed as art or function, the potter described how he thought “it was all the same” (Goldmark Gallery, 2014, 1:03)
Conclusion
Throughout this dissertation there is a narrative that is being built between traditional craft and touch Traditional craftsmen tend to physically interact with their materials in a much more intimate way Whether it's the relationship of a potter's hands to the rhythmic movements of clay at their wheel or the euphoria of sitting down at the dinner table with our meals placed on beautiful hand-crafted vessels, pottery made through traditional methods of making is designed to have a physical connection with those who interact with it However, through the works of artists William Staite-Murray, Hans Coper and Yagi Kazuo we can see that when their vessels are placed into the elitist environment of the art gallery the body is separated from the vessels to place all our focus onto their visual qualities. Compared with the vessels of Clive Bowen, Shiro Tsujimura and Jin Gyu-Heo whose work finds their appeal through the feel of them in our hands, and their placement within our homes, in areas of physical labour like the kitchen A space that unlike the gallery is designed so that all its objects are within our reach, as going back to the philosophies of Walter Benjamin, when that physical bond is removed, we choose to focus solely on their visual appeal, they go from belonging to craft to then becoming pieces of art We can also see through the writings of Howard Becker (1928) the effects art imposes onto the people's perception of craft We stop placing importance onto the physical properties of craft as well as placing more appreciation for individual vessels made by artists than vessels whose forms have been replicated repeatedly by craftsmen This tells us that we are straying from tradition which reflects and supports our everyday lives in favour of contemporary art as it represents a higher class of living The consequence of this leaves traditional crafts like Onggi and potters like Jin Gyu-Heo who still strive to keep the tradition alive today, at a constant battle, making functional vessels that will never serve their function Yet it is through artist craftsmen such as Shiro Tsujimura and Clive Bowen that we can see the ways that traditional craft enriches our lives and our homes as without them we would not be able to function as comfortably in our environments. That, although art vessels are made to enrich our eyes, it is craft vessels that are made to enrich our lives
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