SPHERES, FORMS
& VESSELS
MADELEINE KREPEL MEYER
CERAMICS PGl
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
INITIAL WORK CONTRACT
METHOD & MATERIALS
EVOLUTION OF THE WORK
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INTRODUCTION
This report is a record of twelve months work.
With the aid of photographs and drawings, I will describe how the work presented here, follows the initial work contract.
Following the evolutionary nature of the work process, a description of the influences and concepts whicn gave them visual expression will be reviewed.
The forms are mainly vessels involved with positive and negative space. The intrinsic act of containing is important to me - with its endless actual and symbolic possibilities. The vessel has a strong analogy with the feminine principle. Its function is to hold, to preserve, to protect, to receive and to ^ve out. The form is centered about its cavity, and my time is spent struggling to convey a narrative which carries a sense of spontaneity
immediacy and sensuality, and its form, a sense of permanence. Hand marks are left on the work in the hope that the accumulation of the sensations convey liveliness, energy and strength.
The pieces evolve from each other, each one is needed to augment the rest, yet can stand quite well alone. They are to be exhibited in related groups because their
complexities become more apparent when viewed with pieces from which they have evolved.
^ e work has ^ n influenced by the less sophisticated folk ^ of Eiirope, South Amenca and the Middle East. The
elements of colour, pattern and line displayed with yitahty in peasant or folk art, have left a strong
impression on me, as does the boldness, the sincerity and ine expressiveness that emerges from childrens' art and the decorative, story telling aspects that it evokes. I would like to plant the forms in the earth, and make them look natural there. To me it is essential that they have some function, holding water or plants, sheltering birds, rather than being purely decorative.
INITIAL WORK CONTRACT
The author Lawrence Durrell said in a review of Henry Miller's writings that,"there are two distinct types of
creative people'.
The first controls his material and shapes it. The second delivers himself over, bound hand and foot to his gift. Durrell compared the poet Alexander Pope - a
representative of the former type - with William Blake and D.H. Lawrence. Both representatives of the latter artists who, he argues in the case of Lawrence "make use of their art in order to ^ow by it, in order to expand the domain of his own sensibility."
My work is instinctive and intuitive, a direct response to my emotions, experiences and events I do not impose a strict order or discipline on the way my work evolves, rather, with ceramics as the vehicle, I express the person I feel myself to be. For me, art is a process of self
realisation as much as the pursuit of an artistic ideal, and consequently I feel in harmony with Durrell's latter description.
I continue to search for the most successful means of expression within the limits of the techniques and materials. Although important, I place less emphasis on technicalities and the need to control and order my subject matter. " The significant factor is the experience of creating".
This puts me at odds with the dominant ceramic tradition which emphasises order, control and technique. This does not mean aesthetic criteria is abandoned.
Zoomorphic forms evolved as a combination of cylindrical and round forms. They have simplicity but are livelier and more expressive.
As the themes I am attempting to interpret have
unconscious and conscious beginnings, I do not attempt to duplicate precisely. Only a vestige or memory remains which can be distorted or exaggerated, but still retaining certain basic essence of their origins.
METHOD AND MATERIALS
Simplicity is the key word in my approach to ceramic technique and technology. I use an earthenware terracotta handbuilding clay, basic white casting slip, oxides and commercially prepared body stains.
The clay itself appearing through the surface decoration of the pot is a necessary part of the visual concept, blending the basic material and the surface decoration. Coil building is the technique with which I have become most familiar and where I am most fluent. Two or three pieces are worked on simultaneously, giving them the
EVOLUTION OF THE WORK
I commenced the post graduate year with spherical forms with narrative on the outside in coloured slips. The vessel was the wiritual "Mother" of the story. I drew detailed images oAhe past, like small photographs, images related to personal history. Cultural influences allowed for appropriation of folk images. Although these forms were acceptable, I wanted to move on.
A group of winged cylindrical figures evolved. The had elegant possibilities, but elegance is not a quality that I am looking for. The narrative image became more
-FUNERARY OBJECTS
The next theme resulted from the physical decline and eventual death of my father and the need for a resolution of a difficult relationship.
I escape in my work, he escaped in exaggeration and distortion of truth. I drew his stories on paper and on forms. By taking the narrative dialogue and ^ving it a visual manifestation, I allowed for the resolution of issues of conflict. Some were quite successful, the forms more than the decoration. At the moment I am finished with them, but no doubt they will resurrect and be used again. Somehow they become part of my language.
Following t h e zoomorphic pieces, a ^ o u p of
anthropomorphic pieces emerged. The surface decoration became more intense, tighter, t h e pieces smaller.
The last stage of the postgraduate year, led to the
production of what were originally to be pigeon houses and bird baths. The pigeon houses lost their entrances and the bird baths have become deeper and deeper, reminders of chalices, and baptismal fonts.
The tall domed shapes can be historically related to many traditions, architectural and cultural.
For the chalice shapes, the surface treatment is drawn from a variety of sources, past and present events, memories and emotions. The forms have a relipous significance for me, baptism, innocence, belonging, initiation, more superstitions than beliefs.
INFLUENCES
My work is the product of an amalgam of influences. I am forty five years of age, I have travelled widely, I have studied, and have been influenced by my own culturally mixed background. All these experiences are wedded into my artistic expression.
For example, the zoomorphic forms have a strong reference to Chinese funerary objects, primitive and ancient
cultures. This appropriation of an eclectic imagery can be recognised in the work. If one was to search for particular influences, I could cite the work of:
Jean D'Buffet Chagall Paladino Miro Calder Klee Kandinsky
