Lisa Hammond Pottery Monograph 2012

LISA HAMMOND

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goldmark

front cover Pot number 76

Catalogue ÂŁ10 2

LISA HAMMOND A Sense of Adventure

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LISA HAMMOND A Sense of Adventure

Phil Rogers

GOLDMARK 2012

Lisa Hammond

At a certain moment in a potter’s career there comes a point where most of the diversions and distractions of the ‘learning years’ are left behind and one’s attention is directed along a narrower path. At last there is confidence in one’s own judgement . . . a self belief that has arisen through a process of development which included the elimination of avenues of exploration that proved less than rewarding. The inner satisfaction that comes from the comfort in one’s own creative skin and the knowledge that one’s contribution is secure. The process is called ‘maturity’ . . . the focus of creative output that squeezes the utmost from a restricted palette. Lisa Hammond is at that point in her career. . . a mature artist working within a self imposed, concentrated regime creating pots that are immediately recognisable as hers and yet belonging to a wider, largely Oriental, tradition.

Lisa Hammond’s recent work exudes the strength, style and finesse of a potter at the very peak of her form. Classical yet somehow contemporary, crisply defined yet with a softness of form and surface – Lisa’s pots, far more often than not, carry with them a complete ‘rightness’ of orchestration that is the result of a thirty-year career as a professional maker of pots for a domestic setting.

Maze Hill Pottery, her second workshop in Greenwich, is situated in a small Victorian brick built building that used to be the ticket office at Maze Hill Station, Southeast London. Aside of a three year sojourn in Devon, Lisa has been here since 1994, prodigiously

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producing an extensive range of soda glazed kitchen and tableware with an ever-increasing number of individual pieces. The pottery itself isn’t large. Where people once purchased their tickets for the short journey into central London there are now rows of shelves lined with tall, mediaeval-inspired jugs, full bellied jars, Chawan or squared and faceted bottles and lidded jars. The throwing area is small, but a well-structured system of regular monthly firings ensures that there is no bottleneck and the space is utilised to its maximum efficiency. A small corner of the building serves as a gallery and sales area. The kilns, one 90 cu. ft. and another of a more modest 40 cu. ft., are sited outside next to the railway line and must have caused more than one quizzical glance from a passing passenger in the darkness of night.

Presently, in the United Kingdom at least, there seems to be a plethora of metropolitan potters making inane, frankly very boring and extremely ‘safe’ porcelain tableware in that ubiquitous and impersonal ‘minimalist’ or ‘interiors’ style. Lisa Hammond, on the other hand, is a potter that has never been afraid to take her work to new and often taxing levels. Throughout her career she has consistently tested her materials to the limit and continues to research new clay bodies and slips that will complement the Shino glazes and respond well with the capricious atmosphere of the vapour kiln. Lisa has never been content with the relative comfort of past successes – her inquisitive nature and fascination for all things ceramic demands continuous experimentation. She is no less vigorous in her quest for the perfect firing and is constantly tweaking the schedule in response to unexpected, often minute but possibly welcome, variance in a previous firing.

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Japan has always been somewhere that Lisa has turned to both for inspiration and, in recent years, as a market for her pots. Indeed, early in 2007 she was only the second non-Japanese potter to have an exhibition of her work at the Mashiko Museum of Ceramic Art and then at the prestigious Keio department store in Tokyo. The experience of a prolonged working period alongside renowned Shino potter Rizu Takahashi at his pottery in Mino was to become a watershed in her career. Having been, for many years, one of the leading exponents of the art of Soda firing, not just in this country but worldwide, Lisa had found a new and exciting means of expression that she instinctively felt would sit comfortably alongside the soda glazed aspect to her work. In Lisa’s hands the rich oranges and pinks from the soda kiln rely heavily on a surfeit of alumina. Shino too, produces similar colouring from alumina rich feldspars and the plan was born to combine both in one kiln.

The Shino glaze, in the hands of the traditional Japanese potter, is quite unlike the overly refined, somewhat synthetic western versions. Difficult, unreliable, inconsistent and demanding – Shino in its truest form is an enigma. In essence the ingredients are very simple – the recipe sometimes contains just one material – Feldspar. The difficult part, the mystery – what makes the perfect Shino almost the potters Holy Grail, is the complex, often protracted firing with its irregular temperature gradient and reduction cooling.

Lisa’s time with Takahashi was a turning point in her life both creatively and technically and has given her an understanding and appreciation of true Shino that is rare in the West. Every nuance, every unexpected variance of colour or texture is examined in great detail either in attempt to repeat an effect or to eliminate in the next firing. Lisa is uncompromising in her quest for the qualities she

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seeks but is always open and receptive to alternative directions that the kilns or the materials might suggest to her. The combination of the capricious vaporous atmosphere, the unctuous Shino glazes and the constant search for variation and refinement within her repertoire of faceted and altered, thrown shapes has created a new, sophisticated and seasoned body of work.

I have often related to students the notion that a good pot, irrespective of the outward appearance, should contain an inner skeleton. The fashion amongst wood firers for instance, to make ‘loose’ or ‘freely thrown’ work is an attempt to ape some of the better known Japanese wood fired wares such as Iga or Shigaraki – particularly Iga. Often, these pots fail because there is little understanding of the nature of the original together with scant regard to the ‘bones’ of the pot – the skeleton I spoke of. One is left with flabby, formless and unstructured forms where it is hoped that the flashed effects of the fire will perform a miraculous rescue. Lisa Hammond’s pots display the structured form implicitly and with obvious clarity even though the outward appearance can be softened by the thick, sometimes crawled shino glaze or the sometimes extreme variation of the directional soda vapour. The outer skin is draped over an inner framework and the pots sit erect and dignified confident in their poise and balance. There is never a brushed decorative motif – no decorative afterthought. All decoration is in the clay or in the glaze itself – confident faceting, the spontaneous sweep of the fingers through wet glaze, the unwavering and direct hakeme with a coarse brush or the ghostly impression of a scallop shell adding its own dynamic to the side of a swollen bottle. All of these are decorative treatments that are dictated by the structure of the pot and together they create an

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integral whole – an expression of the entire unity of clay, glaze and form.

It is my contention that the element which marks out the work of an excellent potter from that of the ordinary is an almost indefinable ‘correctness’ of orchestration and a crispness of form which one sees in silhouette. There is for some an intuitive ability to ‘see’ almost immediately that the proportions of a pot are correct. The neck is suited to the body, the height of the pot is appropriate to its breadth, the angle of growth appropriate to the width of the base and height of the wall to the shoulder and so on. Cardew had this talent, more so than Leach. Hamada certainly had it in abundance.

Lisa has it too. There exists within the best of her pieces a comfortable, almost nonchalant truth that may have come from years of designing table and kitchenware with a unifying style but more likely, I believe, is born within her and unteachable.

In this show for the Goldmark Gallery, at a time of her life crisscrossed with major changes and tumultuous decisions, Lisa has somehow produced an impressive body of more than 250 pieces of work illustrating an expansive range of shapes, colours and textures. Thick, unctuous Shinos – pitted and crawled in the most marvellous ways – glowing with pink and orange warmth. Ash celadons provide a cooler green or blue counterpoise to the heat of the Shino. Finger sweeps through slip and glaze create an energy over the surface of the Chawan and Yunomi complementing the relaxed throwing. Faceting that is both free and controlled at the same time. The sensitive, imaginative and technically very tricky use of a second, poured layer of glaze, frozen as if in defiance of gravity, conjures images of landscape or waterfall.

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For me, at least, studio pottery should say something about the intimate and often elemental relationship of glaze to clay. A pot should communicate the maker’s joy and endeavour in its making and converse with its purchaser on a daily basis revealing new and formerly unseen secrets. Importantly, a pot should display a sense of adventure. For Lisa Hammond, pottery is an all-consuming vocation – yes, it represents her livelihood but to Lisa, pottery represents far more than a means to exist – pottery is her life, her passion. I know no other potter who is more concerned with the search for constant improvement and refinement. The new work, with its austere, uncompromising Japanese influence integrated with a European potter’s instinctive blend of function with aesthetic consideration presents a maker working at the top of her form but with the promise of even better to come.

Phil Rogers, potter and writer

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1956

Born, London

Education 1974-78

Medway College of Art, Kent 1 year Art Foundation, 3 year Dip AD Ceramics

Studios and Workshops 1980-85

Set up and established Greenwich Pottery Workshop, Greenwich, London Designed and produced Salt Glaze Functional and Studio Ware

1984-85

Sandy Lockwood's studio, Sydney, Australia. Evolving new work & exhibiting

1994-present Set up Maze Hill Pottery, Greenwich, London Designing and producing a wide range of soda glaze functional ware and individual studio pots, alongside an Education and Training Centre 2003-04

3 months Mino, Japan Invited to work and exhibit alongside Riz端 Takahashi

2010

Established new studio at Kigbeare in Devon Masterclass Workshops & Exhibition Curator Workshop with Rizu Takahashi and Shozo Michikawa at Kigbeare Studio

2011

Workshops with Ken Matsuzaki and Rizu Takahashi

2012

Returned to Maze Hill Pottery

Teaching and Lecturing 1979-present Taught and lectured extensively both in the UK and overseas 1980-94

Part-time lecturer/post graduate

1985

9 months lecture post New South Wales, Australia

1999-2008

Part time lecturer, Camberwell College of Art, London

Goldsmiths College, London University, London

Associations 1998

Elected professional member of the Crafts Potters Association

2002

Elected Fellow Member CPA

2003

Elected Council Member CPA

2009

Elected Deputy Chair CPA

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Selected Exhibitions 2000

Solo show, Gallery St. Ives, Tokyo, Japan

2000/2/3/4

Crafts Council, Chelsea Craft Show

2001

Solo show, The Red Gallery, South West

2003

Museum's Mino Ceramic Park, Misunami Museum, Japan Nagoya Japan, Gallery St. Ives, Tokyo, Japan

2005

Axis Gallery, Ropongi, Tokyo (Crafts Council)

2005/6

Tokyo Dome Tableware Exhibition

2005/6/7

Table Manners Touring Exhibition, Crafts Council

2006

Solo show, Oakwood Gallery, Nottingham

2007

Solo show, Mashiko Messe Museum of Ceramic Art, Japan

Solo show, Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham 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 Shino Symposium and group exhibition, Toulouse, France

2009

The Potters of Maze Hill, Harlequin Gallery, London 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

Tea Bowl Festival, Mungyeong, Korea 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

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Commissioned Work 1999-present 15 ceramic works commissioned by sculptor Roger Hiorns Exhibited in many galleries both in the UK and overseas 1999-present UK exhibitions include 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

Awards and Grants 2000/01/05

Mission grants Crafts Council to Japan

2005

CPA Charitable Trust for Research in Japan

2005

Awarded solo grant for Trade Exhibition in Japan

2007

Awarded solo grant for Exhibition in Japan

Other Information Since 1995

Has trained 10 apprentices at Maze Hill Pottery

2008

Founded ‘Adopt a Potter’, charitable trust. Set up to raise money to fund student apprentice potters

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Illustrated Pots

sizes in cm

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10.5 x 8.0 11.0 x 9.0 8.0 x 15.0 9.0 x 16.0 7.5 x 16.5 9.0 x 12.0 8.0 x 34.5 8.5 x 8.0 10.0 x 7.5 11.0 x 14.5 17.0 x 10.0 12.5 x 8.0 7.0 x 4.5 10.0 x 8.0 9.5 x 10.0 27.5 x 14.5 17.0 x 16.5 25.0 x 20.0 25.0 x 20.0 14.5 x 18.0 25.5 x 10.5 23.5 x 8.5 25.5 x 9.5 28.0 x 25.0 31.0 x 14.5 29.5 x 26.5 17.5 x 12.5 28.0 x 27.0 23.5 x 23.5 42.0 x 37.0 37.0 x 38.0 36.0 x 23.0 9.0 x 7.0 9.5 x 7.5 9.0 x 7.5 9.5 x 7.5 14.0 x 14.5 8.0 x 14.5 7.5 x 16.5 7.5 x 16.0 7.5 x 16.5 2.5 x 18.0

Tea Jar. Black clay, white shino Tea Jar. Faceted. Pink shino Open Bowl. Black clay, crackle slip & celadon glaze with incised marks Twisted Open Bowl. Red shino with incised marks Open Bowl. Black clay, white soda shino & incised marks Chawan. Black clay, crackle slip & celadon glaze Platter. Black clay, crackle slip & soda Yunomi. Black clay, crackle slip & celadon glaze Yunomi. Cut sided. Burnt red shino Teapot. Black clay, poured white shino, akebi handle Iga Vase. Black clay, poured white shino Incense box. Red shino Incense box. Black clay, white shino Tea Jar. Faceted. Tan soda glaze Chawan. Cut sided. Red & orange shino Faceted Bottle. Poured red shino Lidded Jar. Cut & altered. Poured pink shino Lidded Jar. Faceted. Tan soda glaze Lidded Jar. Faceted. Black clay, poured white shino Mizusashi. Black clay, poured white shino Cut Sided Vase. Poured orange shino Leaning Jug. Orange lustre shino with hakeme mark Leaning Jug. Black clay, lustre shino with hakeme mark Tsubo. Poured white shino with pink blush Faceted Bottle. Black clay, poured white shino Tsubo. Tan soda glaze with finger wipes Tall Lidded Jar. Cut sided. Shino with pink markings Tsubo. Tan soda glaze with grey cape Medium Tsubo. Tan soda glaze Large Tsubo. Black clay, poured white shino Lidded Tsubo. Black clay, poured white shino Bread Crock. Tan soda glaze Yunomi. Cut & stretched. Red shino Yunomi. Cut & stretched. Soda shino Yunomi. Cut sided. Black clay, smokey shino Yunomi. Cut sided. Black clay, white & orange shino Teapot. Blue soda glaze with hakeme brush mark Summer Teabowl. Soda glaze with feldspar Summer Teabowl. Black clay, white shino with incised wave marks Summer Teabowl. Black clay, gold sugar shino Summer Teabowl. Black clay, gold sugar shino with swirl pattern Set of Six Plates. Black clay, white shino with finger wipe

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sizes in cm

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108.

113.

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Set of Six Plates. Black clay, hakeme with shell marks Iga Vase. Black clay, pink & white sugar shino Yunomi. Red & white shino with pink blush and poured band Yunomi. Cut sided. Black clay, thick white shino Yunomi. Cut sided. Black clay, white shino with smokey pink halo Tsubo with Lugs. Woodfired. Orange flashing with ash shoulder and melted feldspar Tsubo with Lugs. Woodfired. Orange flashing with ash shoulder and melted feldspar Tsubo with Lugs. Woodfired. Orange flashing with ash shoulder and melted feldspar Bottle. Poured white and red shino with heavy soda to neck Iga Vase. Red shino with iron spots Yunomi. Cut sided. Black clay, red and peach slip Faceted Lidded Jar. Black clay, white shino.

Tea Jar. Faceted. Tan soda glaze Tea Jar. Cut sided. Black clay, white shino Incense Box. Black clay, poured white shino Incense Box. Poured red shino Incense Box. Poured red shino cross marks Incense Box. Black clay, poured white shino Incense Box. Black clay, poured white shino Sake Bottle & Cup. Black clay, crackle slip with celadon glaze and incised line Squared Sake Bottle & Cup. Black clay, thick finger wiped shino Gourd Shaped Sake Bottle & Cup. White slip with celadon glaze Sake Bottle & Cup. Black clay, lustre shino Tea Jar. Faceted. Black clay, white crackle slip with celadon glaze Tea Jar. Faceted. Finger wiped red shino Tea Jar. Faceted. Burnt red shino Tea Jar. Faceted. Black clay, white shino with red hakeme marks Incense Box. Burnt orange shino Small Tsubo. Black clay, thick white finger wiped shino and oily surface Medium Tsubo. Poured white and red shino with heavy soda to neck Tall Squared Bottle. Black clay, hakeme slip Small Squared Bottle with Lugs. Black clay, white slip with celadon glaze & fern decoration Faceted Bottle. Black clay, poured orange shino Tall Faceted Bottle. Black clay, poured white slip and celadon glaze Small Squared Bottle. Black clay. Hakeme slip soda glaze Bottle. Black clay, white shino with finger marks Tea Jar. Faceted. Black clay, poured white shino Footed Bowl with Lugs. Faceted. White crackle slip with celadon glaze Chawan. Faceted & altered. Black clay, white slip with finger marks and celadon glaze Chawan. Faceted. Black clay, poured white shino with red edges Chawan. Faceted & altered. Black clay, white and pink crackle shino Yunomi. Black clay, white crackle slip with celadon glaze

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2.5 x 17.5 15.5 x 10.0 9.0 x 7.5 9.5 x 7.5 9.0 x 8.0 9.0 x 11.0 13.0 x 14.0 14.0 x 17.5 23.0 x 14.0 16.0 x 10.0 9.5 x 7.5 14.0 x 12.5 9.0 x 8.5 9.0 x 7.0 7.5 x 5.5 6.5 x 5.0 6.0 x 5.5 6.5 x 5.5 6.5 x 5.0 13.5 x 9.0 15.0 x 9.0 14.5 x 8.0 15.5 x 8.0 10.0 x 7.0 10.0 x 7.5 9.5 x 7.5 11.0 x 7.0 6.5 x 5.5 18.0 x 17.5 26.0 x 24.5 28.0 x 13.5 20.0 x 11.5 20.0 x 11.0 30.0 x 13.5 21.0 x 11.5 25.5 x 16.0 9.0 x 7.0 11.5 x 22.0 8.5 x 9.5 9.0 x 10.5 9.5 x 10.5 9.5 x 8.0

sizes in cm

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212.

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Chawan. Faceted & altered. Black clay, white crackle slip with celadon glaze Chawan. Faceted & altered. Black clay, white shino with red edges Chawan. Faceted & stretched. Soft burnt red shino Chawan. Faceted. Soft red shino Oval Teapot. Faceted. Tan soda glaze with wicker handle Teapot. White crackle slip with celadon glaze Large Tsubo. Tan soda glaze with running ash Large Platter. Black clay, poured white shino with pink blush Set of Four Sake Cups. Soda glaze Sake Bottle & Two Cups. Woodfired, red shino Large Jug. Tan soda glaze with hakeme mark Large Tsubo. Black clay, poured white shino with iron spots

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9.0 x 10.5 9.0 x 10.0 9.0 x 11.5 9.5 x 10.5 12.5 x 12.5 15.0 x 15.0 43.5 x 34.5 7.0 x 34.5 4.0 x 8.5 14.0 x 10.0 30.5 x 12.5 35.0 x 33.5

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www.goldmarkart.com Goldmark Gallery Uppingham, Rutland, LE15 9SQ 01572 821424 Text Š Phil Rogers 2012 Photographs Š Jay Goldmark Design Porter / Goldmark ISBN 978-1-909167-01-8

Our grateful thanks to James and Elizabeth Saunders Watson for allowing us to photograph at Rockingham Castle.

GOLDMARK CERAMICS MONOGRAPHS 1

Phil Rogers New Pots 2005 2 Clive Bowen New Pots 2006 3 Lisa Hammond New Pots 2006 4 Mike Dodd Recent Pots 2007 5 Ken Matsuzaki (2007) Thirty Years of a Living Tradition 6 Svend Bayer (2007) New Pots 7 Jim Malone (2008) The Pursuit of Beauty 8 Phil Rogers (2008) A Potter of our Time 9 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 18 Anne Mette Hjortshøj New Pots 2012 19 Lisa Hammond (2012) A Sense of Adventure

GOLDMARK CERAMICS FILMS 1 2 3 4

Phil Rogers - A Passion For Pots Ken Matsuzaki - Elemental Svend Bayer Nic Collins

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Jim Malone Mike Dodd Anne Mette Hjortshøj Lisa Hammond

For further details or to order: visit www.goldmarkart.com or phone 01572 821424 67

Each Lisa Hammond pot has a life of its own, its own sense of renewal.

They all offer their own pleasures, an intimacy that adds another dimension to the way we eat and drink, to the ceremonies of the everyday, to the space we occupy.

In short, to the way we live our lives.

David Whiting

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