Lisa Hammond Catalogue - 2016 - sample pages

Lisa Hammond

1

goldmark

Price ÂŁ10

Lisa Hammond

2

Lisa Hammond Speaking Without Words

Michael Tait

goldmark 2016

Clay

Cuckoo /ˈkʊkuː/

For clay takes men (women)

1. noun

And teaches them

a long-tailed, medium-sized

The craft, the skill

bird, typically with a grey or

The knowledge

brown back and barred or

The life within

pale underparts. Many

The force beneath

cuckoos lay their eggs in the

The parent earth

nests of small songbirds.

Where power Is in the clay

2. informal noun

And all we do

a mad person.

Is snatch a little Of the glory

3. adjective mad; crazy.

John Chappell.

‘people think you're cuckoo’.

4

Cuckoo Too I think this description might fit me perfectly, perhaps without the bit about the underparts!

In this show I have laid my eggs in many kilns—many of my own kilns over the last three or more years—carefully selecting the best pots from each firing.

Other times, not finding any to select!

Last year, whilst I was the invited resident potter for seven weeks at Mashiko Museum, feeling like a cuckoo, my pots were placed in five kilns of others. All were placed very carefully in the nests and nurtured; needless to say not all of them hatched. From some kilns rare beauties emerged; sadly, from others many were lost.

In particular, the kindness and care of fellow potters and ‘Song Bird’ Ken Matsuzaki ensured that I came home with some beautifully fired pots.

Madness?

I do not put my pots in an electric kiln, flip the switch and walk away…!

Lisa Hammond 2016

5

Speaking Without Words Entering an exhibition of Lisa Hammond's work you are instantly overwhelmed, not only with sheer pleasure at the range of colours, forms and textures but by the multiplicity and mastery of techniques. Black and red clays with tan slip then with white shino, crackle slip and clear over glaze, ash on shino and her now classic soda, fired in natural gas kilns with soda. Pots are thrown, carved, faceted, their shapes altered off the wheel then glaze and slip applied with pours, drips, drenches, scrapes and swipes, always with an easy, natural open hand. Any one or two of these techniques brought to fruition would satisfy many potters but Lisa remains always attentive, relentlessly investigating and pushing her work forwards. Intuitive and sensual, her work emerges from constant motion, incessant inquiry in practise.

'Many people don't understand that my work isn't pre-planned, it's technique-led. I'll try things, they won't work but I'll see something that feeds a new way of working. It comes through the making, paying attention and noticing little things...'

This is apparent in a new development since I'd last seen Lisa's work. She's experimenting with a red clay body with an over glaze that is reacting with the soda in her kiln to create pots, sometimes with a quiet serene depth and sometimes explosive yellows, blues and greens. She's still exploring the new technique but I see her familiar inquisitive focus at the possibilities. On the next studio visit there will be a glittering array of work revealing the potential

9

8

7. (previous page) Tsubo Tan soda slip with finger wipes 33 x 31 cm

106. Chawan Black clay. Half dipped white shino 7.5 x 12 cm

of these materials in all their dimensions. By then of course, she'll have revealed more surprising leads and have set-off already on new journeys of discovery.

Closer inspection of the broad sweep of her work reveals the unique character, specific motion of fingers, a way with tools and decoration, movement and gesture expressed-into, upon and through the material. Great swiped parabolae and careful drips and pours of slip, drenches of glaze that metamorphose, combining with the character of the clay in the mysterious unpredictable atmosphere of her vapour kiln, in the wood and gas kilns she has fired-in to realise an extraordinary array of surfaces, textures and colours. Pots are never over-dressed, glazes and slipwork communicate with the body of the pots to accentuate the motion that made them. As you make a deeper study of the work you're rewarded with glimpses of a subtle psychophysical language, to trace a unique exploration through the pots relating one to another and each to the whole. An exhibition for Lisa is a still moment in multiple journeys of inquiry, a chance to gather and reflect on where creative and personal paths have led and where to go from here. Pots are never endings, they are punctuation in an ongoing story of making and being, those words separate as written but only one thing in experience. Lisa's practise reflects and renews her, identifies and nourishes her, gives her life momentum, direction and purpose.

The easiest imperfect analogy for the working practise of the finest potters is the way we use language at its best, in writing and speech, indicative of our origins and histories, our mood and

9

168. Teapot Tan shino slip with hakeme 13 x 21 cm

apprentice, between potters, collectors and enthusiasts, gallerists, exhibitions and museums. This story is about pots but also about a quiet, unspoken knowledge slipping through hands, led by example, inspiring and guiding new personal explorations.

Some lead the way and within that community there are a few figures like Lisa who bind us, direct and shape us, offer opportunities, gather us up and make of us something more than we can be as individuals.

The pot of a maker who is a master of her art is expressive of her character. Lisa's pots are thrown with an easy, open and generous style and form. There is no hint of pretension, artifice, or overreaching conceptual ambition. Her work is authentic, a product of experience, close attention and relentless practise. It invites the art of serving tea, of giving and sharing food and flowers, of looking carefully and reflecting. Lisa's work is the art of her life offered to enrich our own, a reminder of hands and heart, of doing and being, the knowledge not contained in what we think and what we say but suffusing the sensual realm, so inexpressibly richer. Each pot is a concrete transmission of one life to another that transcends the confines of language. A gift indeed, to those blessed with the spirit to receive it.

Michael Tait 2016 (Michael Tait is a Commissioning Editor for The Guardian, a writer, film-maker and former student in Lisa's classes at Maze Hill.)

16

17

56. Large Mizusashi Red clay. Finger wiped shino, soda fired 26 x 20.5 cm

18

19

23. Leaning Jug Crackle slip, hakeme 28 x 15 cm

30

31

174. Handled Tsubo Iron clay. Black slip. Blue nuka with hakeme mark 58 22 x 11.5 cm

Selected Exhibitions 2000

Solo show, Gallery St. Ives, Tokyo, Japan

2000/2/3/4

Crafts Council, Chelsea Craft Show

2003

Museum's Mino Ceramic Park, Misunami Museum, Japan

2005

Axis Gallery, Ropongi, Tokyo (Crafts Council)

2005/6

Tokyo Dome Tableware Exhibition

2005/6/7

Table Manners Touring Exhibition, Crafts Council

Nagoya Japan, Gallery St. Ives, Tokyo, Japan

2006

Solo show, Oakwood Gallery, Nottingham Solo show, Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham

2007

Solo show, Mashiko Messe Museum of Ceramic Art, Japan Solo show, Keio Gallery, Tokyo Solo show, Contemporary Ceramics, London The Pot, the Vessel and the Object, Aberystwyth

2008

‘Collect’, Victoria and Albert Museum, London

2008

Ceramic Art, London

2009

The Potters of Maze Hill, Harlequin Gallery, London

Shino Symposium and group exhibition, Toulouse, France Ceramic Art, London Tea Bowl Festival, Mungyeong, Korea Solo Exhibition, Goldmark Gallery, Rutland ‘Collect’, Satchi Gallery, London 2010

Ceramic Art, London Tea Bowl Festival, Mungyeong, Korea Solo Exhibition, Redbarn Gallery, Cumbria Selected Group Exhibition, Gallery Besson, London

2011

Ceramic Art, London Tea Bowl Festival, Mungyeong, Korea Potters Tea Party, International exhibition, UK Potters and Painters, New Ashgate Gallery

2012

Harlequin Gallery at Winchcombe, Potters of the South West Tea Bowls, Gallery St Ives, Tokyo, Japan Teaware from the Edge, Cavin Morris Gallery, New York Solo show, Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham

59

28. Leaning Jug Black clay. Red soda slip 27.5 x 15 cm

60

40. Iga Vase Black clay. Poured red slip 21 x 10.5 cm

61

2013

Solo show, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Ceramic Art, London Leeds City Gallery Tea bowls exhibition, Taiwan

2014

‘On The Wheel’, Contemporary Ceramics, London

2015

Solo show, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Three month residency at Mashiko Museum, Japan. Five works selected for permanent collection.

Commissioned Work 1999-present 15 ceramic works commissioned by sculptor Roger Hiorns Exhibited in many galleries both in the UK and overseas notably The Jerwood Gallery, London; Covie Moria, London; The Tate, Liverpool, ‘The Secret Life of Clay’; Tate Britain, London 2005

Caravaggio exhibition, The National Gallery, London

2011

Large commission to USA for collector

2011

Large commission for Tom Aikens Restaurant, London

Other Information Since 1995

Has trained 12 apprentices at Maze Hill Pottery

2008

Founded ‘Adopt a Potter’, charitable trust. Set up to raise money

2010-2013

Various masterclasses and workshops with Rizu Takahashi. Shozo

to fund student apprentice potters Michikawa, Ken Matsuzaki, Svend Bayer.

161. Tall Jar Tan slip, shino & hakeme with carbon trapping 30 x 9.5 cm 159. Tall Jar Blue shino soda with hakeme 30 x 9.5 cm

62

63

goldmark

Uppingham, Rutland, LE15 9SQ 01572 821424 Text: © Michael Tait, 2016 Pot photographs: © Jay Goldmark / Vicki Uttley Location photographs: © Jay Goldmark Design: Porter / Goldmark ISBN 978-1-909167-30-8 goldmarkart.com

155. 154. 153.. 3 Small Carved Boxes Various glazes 6 x 5 cm

GOLDMARK CATALOGUES 1 Phil Rogers, 2005

17 Mike Dodd, 2011

2 Clive Bowen, 2006

18 Anne Mette Hjortshøj, 2012

3 Lisa Hammond, 2006

19 Lisa Hammond, 2012

4 Mike Dodd, 2007

20 Svend Bayer, 2012

5 Ken Matsuzaki, 2007

21 Jean-Nicolas Gérard, 2013

6 Svend Bayer, 2007

22 Ken Matsuzaki, 2013

7 Jim Malone, 2008

23 Takeshi Yasuda, 2013

8 Phil Rogers, 2008

24 Nic Collins, 2014

9 Lisa Hammond, 2009

25 Phil Rogers, 2014

10 Ken Matsuzaki, 2009

26 Ten Japanese Potters, 2014

11 Mike Dodd, 2009

27 Clive Bowen, 2014

12 Clive Bowen, 2009

28 Lee Kang-hyo, 2014

13 Svend Bayer, 2010

29 Jean-Nicolas Gérard, 2015

14 Nic Collins, 2011

30 Mike Dodd, 2015

15 Ken Matsuzaki, 2011

31 Ken Matsuzaki, 2015

16 Jim Malone, 2011

32

Lisa Hammond, 2016

GOLDMARK FILMS 1 Phil Rogers, A Passion for Pots, 2005 2 Ken Matsuzaki, Elemental, 2009 3 Svend Bayer, Potter, 2010 4 Nic Collins, Potter, 2011 5 Jim Malone, Potter, 2011 6 Mike Dodd, Potter, 2011 7 Anne Mette Hjortshoj, Paying Honest Attention, 2012 8 Lisa Hammond, A Sense of Adventure, 2012 9 Jean-Nicolas Gérard, The Potter's Potter, 2013 10 Takeshi Yasuda, Made in China, 2013 11 Phil Rogers, Drawing in the Air, 2014 12 Clive Bowen, Born, Not Made, 2014 13 Lee Kang-hyo, Onggi Master, 2014

goldmark uppingham rutland

goldmark