Debut Shedding

BARK 

BARK, a continuing series of individually extruded, porcelain offcuts. The work takes inspiration from a piece of Bark’s ability to embed the story of organic growth, change and time. To hold this story within a delicate form. Bark drifts and no two pieces are the same.

I share this story through delicate and vulnerable, hollow, porcelain extrusions, that come together. Each shares story of a time gone by. I call each work a performance of shedding, as each is both a capturing and letting go. The work is an opening up, freeing, and invites interpretation at an architectural scale. 

I have begun with a debut shedding, 105 extrusions, that are soon to be fired, and have images and a film to shared how the work comes together. BARK no 1 was performed using four different hand cut instruments, over the last course of four days. Each work can be broken down into 3x3.5m compositions of 25 porcelain offcuts. The film was shot with the work in its unfired and most delicate state.

Bark
The work is a reflection of me 
And where I am at
I cannot separate from it 
Thankful for that for what it has brought me through 
Because of this the work has become a way of working 
To open up
It is a work beyond my imagination 
Procedural so there is a structure 
A form 
To guide me to a point where I can act spontaneously 
But at part of a bigger picture 
Where this reflection of where I am at sits truth fully 
Bare 
Revealing as a result of where I am as
Siting 
As a shedding of where me and the process to work was at 
Allowing fluidity in the act of making 
Emotion 
Spontaneity 
But also continual growth 
Softened vulnerability each day 
Shedding the outer layer 
And living on 

Bark no 1 is the first shedding where I have released my route to expression across a canvas and scale that is able to tell the full story of where I was at in the point of making 

The scale is time 
And each extrusion reflects a moment in that time scale 

For the two years I walked and asked why I am drawn to nature 
Why settings and forms draw my attention 
Their resting, poised
It is the momentary passing 
That I realised I was drawn to 
Even still they reflect 
Encapsulate 
Movement 
Growth 
The trunk of a tree as much as the moving beach. 
Through walking, writing 
Freely, and reconnecting to a material that’s waits 
Poised for impression 
I realised my reason for working with my hands is to connect to growth 
Change. To create work that grows 
Not a reflection of something I pass that has already grown, taken form. 
But to create a way in which I can walk into a studio a grow something 
Express an extension and interpret that extension of me, 
Of the time. 
I was searching for a way to walk to react to visions, that expand 
Immerses, 
Ones I can stand in, next to
And constantly reinterpret 
Work sheltered from this mindset of wishing to reinterpret to always reflect a time gone by, fluidity 
And not be changed because of changing times.

Trees, I realised, are reflections of the journeys and encounters. Each passing is word, in its silhouette, it’s joining, it’s vulnerability and it’s strength. Branches extreme out inviting. But it is the tree and the overall growth that I realised I was drawn to. That I realised this journey to forming a structure free me to work to was about. Growth is why not two trees and no two impressions of bark are the same. It is this allowance for continual growth and not change that 

The balance between change and growth interests the work. Movement and fluidity is a direct reflection of procedure to make. The guideline and the freedoms I place upon myself. Through arrangements of 25, pauses occurs when I pause, exhausted, frustrated, feeling a moment of failure. During bark one I believed the work was about one day. At 3pm I grew frustrated in the exhaustion that this was not shaping to be the case. Of course, creating a work that is about action, only in the performance does it reveal its true self. Fortunately I took myself off, passed ….. the grow boys, and planted some pumpkin seeds. The time helped me see the work was building. It can pause. Sleep. And continue on. Because the next mark will

Always be the next part. Over four days BARK no.1 was played, a shedding, each set aside layer allowed to rest, harden away from my impression. Each remained an impression on my mind, my vision, evolving as each pice grew. On 28th April the work was brought out. Opened up to reveal the visions true self. Left for interpretation. 

The process continues on. I learn through performance of work. I grow through making work. I also needed to play. Shapes if night imagination of what occurs form pushing a triangle into specs. The child’s game of pushing shapes through their relative openings, is not so much about fitting but passing, dropping. The space that interests me is what happens when I do my bit, connect one to another to pass, what happens in the space, this space from play and imagination, what takes shape beyond my side. This reconnection to a feeling, I realised the work was not about the endless shapes I could draw, but through selecting relatable, distinguishable shapes, I could explore this imaginary space that sits by one what I can see. circle, triangle, square and star, distinguish them selves through edges and faces. When the drop they pass and draw lines in this space, soften and engage with the space they pass. Their order allows a building, an overal vision. But free from what I can only see, revealing a vision beyond my imagination. Each shedding will be a reveal. It will be an imagination and a reflection of myself, of a time gone by. The process to play, to continue on, to create new work, will endure. The work is development.

Bark no1
2022
Ensemble, 100 porcelain offcuts
3.5m x 18m
Shedding start 10:25
Shedding end 20:04

Performance no1 (unfired in its most delicate state. The work is still growing and remains sheltered, vulnerable, until fired. The work reveals and changes through this first performance. Breaks are part of it. Handling is part of it. This state, as with the soft and mailable one before, is part of it)
2022
Dummer Down field 
Performance Start time 13:30
Performance End time 17:00

Movement 1 
25 porcelain offcuts 
duet, circle 
3m x 3.5m 
Shedding start 10:25
Shedding end 20:04

Movement 2
25 porcelain offcuts
duet, triangle 
3m x 3.5m 
shedding start 10:25
shedding end 20:04

Movement 3
25 extrusions
duet, square 
3m x 3.5m 
Shedding start 10:25
Shedding end 20:04

Movement 4
25 extrusions 
duet, star 
3m x 3.5m 
Shedding start 10:25
Shedding end 20:04

I was thought, in architecture art and design, to present a work as though speaking to your grandma. April 26th, two days prior to performance no.1, I visited my Grandma, and shared some studies to bark (Haptics and Passing). 

Notes from a conversation with Patricia Maccintish, work from my 30s in her hands. Ceramic vessel from my teens, I made for her, beside her.

Sometimes,
There is change,
but there is not growth.
Change,
but it’s not talking about growth and
freedom.

Definitely shedding has a relevance to time 
weathering, ageing.

You have to shed in order to grow, 
The outside is ridged
The only way to grow is to shed your skin.

It can keep on going,
There is movement in one
And there is change in the other but their isn’t movement, as much.

To change and grow, and to portray a sense of freedom and release. 

Flowering

Freedom

That is what is in there

Inspirations comes from nature and want to show growth development and freedom to change. 

To change and grow, and to portray a sense of freedom and release. 

Opening up 
Butterfly 
Flower 

You can see you are ready to open up

Reach

“Now drive carefully and not in the clouds”

April 30th

Bark is my opening up