Elspeth Owen

Elspeth Owen

ELSPETH OWEN

The Oxford Ceramics Gallery 29 Walton St. Oxford OX2 6AA

46

$UWLVW¡V 6WDWHPHQW I live and work in Grantchester near Cambridge - my workshop is the former village cricket pavilion. My most familiar material is clay and my ceramic work has been widely shown in Britain and in Canada, Croatia, France, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan and USA. As a young woman I studied history at Oxford University and worked as an academic, a social worker and a teacher before I started going to pottery evening classes in the mid seventies. In place of an art school training I taught on the legendary Open University course Art and Environment. I have been a feminist since the time when it was called being D PHPEHU RI WKH :RPHQ¡V /LEHUDWLRQ 0RYHPHQW DQG D SHDFH SURWHVWHU since the Aldermarston Marches and Greenham Common. ,QVSLUHG LQ SDUW E\ WKH :RPHQ¡V 3HDFH &DPS DW *UHHQKDP , KDYH LQFUHDVLQJO\ PRYHG DVLGH IURP PDNLQJ ÀQLVKHG REMHFWV DQG LQWR ZRUN where the passage of time, the live process, is a key element.

Tender, direct, resilient, with a thin skin: that is how I think my work may touch you. To sustain working in this way means my remaining open to the emotions and sensations of an ordinary life. I keep slipping beWZHHQ FDWHJRULHV OLIH DUW WKHUDS\ SOD\ ULWXDO DQG ÀQG WKDW ,¡P XVXally in more than one at a time, and with something up my sleeve!

Elspeth Owen

20

47

46

43

47

44

25

30

38

8

(OVSHWK 2ZHQ In his essay on the connectivity of things Martin Heidegger uses a pot DV DQ H[DPSOH +H SRVWXODWHV WKDW WKH SRW¡V DSSHDUDQFH LWV ZDOOV DQG base, are not its essence but that this lies in our sense of its containment, The potential to receive and to hold is what links it to other things that make up our world. A resonant, brimming void. It is a useful way WR HQJDJH ZLWK (OVSHWK 2ZHQ¡V ZRUN 2ZHQ¡V SRWV KDYH D PDMHVWLF VWLOOQHVV 7KHLU EDODQFH VOLJKW DV\Pmetry, subtle patina and modest scale evoke calm and contemplation.

They are not so much pots to be looked at as pots that invoke all our senses in a visceral immersive experience.

3HUKDSV VRPH RI WKH SRZHU LQ 2ZHQ¡V ZRUN OLHV LQ WKH VLPSOLFLW\ RI its making. Each pot is formed from a single piece of clay, which is VTXHH]HG UHSHDWHGO\ LQWR VKDSH EHWZHHQ ÀQJHUV DQG WKXPE 1R FRLOV DUH DGGHG VR WKH RULJLQDO OXPS GHWHUPLQHV WKH ÀQDO VL]H ,W LV SHUhaps one of the most intimate ways of making a pot, indeed with the direct connection between the clay and the body of the maker it must be one of the most intensely tactile ways of making anything. The SRW¡V VXUIDFH PD\ EDUH WUDFHV RI LWV IRUPLQJ EXW RIWHQ WKLV LV HUDVHG RU interred by scraping and the application of slip (liquid clay) that has been stained with metal oxides to introduce a broad palette of delicate colours. These materials are enhanced as they react with salts and FRPEXVWLEOHV LQ WKH ÀULQJ 7KHVH SURFHVVHV PD\ QRW EH WHFKQLFDOO\ VRphisticated but they require skill and sensitivity and require experience EHIRUH WKH\ UHà HFW WKH HDVH DQG FODULW\ RI 2ZHQ¡V ZRUN Owen has worked in a spacious, somewhat dilapidated, cricket pavilion LQ *UDQWFKHVWHU VLQFH ,W LV D SULYDWH VSDFH à RRGHG ZLWK QDWXUDO light. It bares the marks of its former life but also contains collections WKDW KDYH EHHQ PDGH GXULQJ LWV WLPH DV DQ DUWLVW¡V VWXGLR OLWWOH IUDJ-

55

9

to

63

1

4 2 3

16

15

14

13

17

40

39

42

41

18

PHQWV RI VLJQLÀFDQFH :KLOH WKHUH LV QR VHQVH RI DQ\WKLQJ KLGGHQ LW LV a space that feels as if it has absorbed and accumulated many stories into the fabric of the building, which in turn Owen has embodied in her SRWV 7KH\ DUH VWRULHV WKDW UHTXLUH WLPH DQG UHZDUG UHà HFWLRQ 6LQFH +HLGHJJHU ZURWH KLV HVVD\ WKH ZRUOG KDV ÀOOHG ZLWK HYHU PRUH sophisticated means to communicate, but these tools reinforce the hegemony of the audiovisual over our other senses and weakens our KROG RQ WKH VSDFHV ZH RFFXS\ 2ZHQ¡V SRWV DUH H[WUDRUGLQDU\ DQG LPSRUWDQW WKLQJV WKH\ ERWK JHQWO\ DIÀUP RXU FRUSRUHDO VHQVLELOLWLHV DQG through their material physicality, refer us to the immaterial.

Sebastian Blackie

22

23

48

12

24

48 49 45

29 28

36

28

35

34

20

21

32

33 31

42

41

45

6

5

7

8

27

26

51

53

50

54

37

10

11

19

52

1

Small blue vessel

5 x 5 cm

2

Small green/brown vessel

5 x 6 cm

3

6PDOO ÁHFNHG YHVVHO

7.5 x 7.5 cm

4

/DUJH ÁHFNHG YHVVHO

13.5 x 12 cm

5

Tiny dark trumpet

3 x 8.5 cm

6

Tiny light trumpet

3 x 9 cm

7

Smooth trumpet

7.5 x 15.5 cm

8

Smooth trumpet

8 x 15 cm

9

Textured trumpet

6.5 x 19 cm

10

Small coarse round vase no.1

7.5 cm tall

11

Small coarse round vase no.2

8 cm tall

12

All blue big bowl

12.5 x 18.5 cm

13

Mottled small round vase

8 cm tall

14

Smooth small round vase no.1

6.7 cm tall

15

Smooth small round vase no.2

6.3 cm tall

16

Smooth round vase

8 cm tall

17

Mottled medium round vase

11 cm tall

18

Large dark round vase

13 x 18 cm

19

Necked blue pot

11.5 x 15 cm

20

green/blue bowl

22 x 12 cm

21

Coarse dark bowl

14 x 20 cm

22

6PDOO ÁHFNHG UHG ERZO QR

7 x 9.5 cm

23

6PDOO ÁHFNHG UHG ERZO QR

7 x 9.5 cm

24

Blue oval bowl

18 x 12 cm

25

Coarse dark bowl

18.5 x 12.5 cm

26

Necked blue pot

13.5 x 14 cm

27

Pale oval bowl

11.5 x 14 cm

28

6PDOO GDUN MDU QR

9 cm tall

29

6PDOO GDUN MDU QR

9.5 cm tall

30

Large blue round vase

13 x 18 cm

31

Narrowing blue bowl

13.5 x 9.5 cm

32

6PDOO ÁHFNHG SRW

9 cm tall

33

Small blue pot

9.5 x 7 cm

34

6PDOO EOXH JUHHQ MDU

12 x 9 cm

35

Pale inside bowl

9.5 cm tall

36

Narrowing big blue bowl

16 cm tall

37

Treasury dish

24 x 3.5 cm

38

Dark dish

23 x 3.5 cm

39

Pale dish

23 x 4.5 cm

40

Large pale dish

5 x 30 cm

41

Small green bowl

5 x 9 cm

42

Small blue/pink bowl

7 cm tall

43

*UHHQ UHG MDU

11 cm tall

44

%OXH MDU

9.7 cm tall

45

Pale bowl

9.5 x 17 cm

46

'DUN MDU

15 x 15 cm

47

0RWWOHG MDU

16.3 x 13.5 cm

48

Coarse red/brown bowl

13.8 x 19 cm

49

Big bowl with pale inside

14.5 x 32 cm

50

Wall hanging no.1

20 x 14 cm

51

Wall hanging no.2

20 x 14 cm

52

Wall hanging no.3

20 x 14 cm

53

Wall hanging no.4

20 x 14 cm

54

Wall hanging no.5

20 x 14 cm

55

Tiny white bowl no.1

4 x 2 cm

56

Tiny white bowl no.2

4 x 2 cm

57

Tiny white bowl no.3

4 x 2 cm

58

Tiny white bowl no.4

4 x 2 cm

59

Tiny white bowl no.5

4 x 2 cm

60

Tiny white bowl no.6

4 x 2 cm

61

Tiny white bowl no.7

4 x 2 cm

62

Tiny white bowl no.8

4 x 2 cm

63

Tiny white bowl no.9

4 x 2 cm

Essay by Sebastian Blackie, Artist & Professor of Ceramics, University of Derby Photography Š2012 James Fordham 'HVLJQ DQG /D\RXW E\ %HQMDPLQ $FNODQG

www.oxfordceramics.com