A L I S O N W E S T
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K I R S T Y A D A M S
Kirsty Adam’s work is both functional and holds aesthetic meaning, retaining the spontaneity and delicacy intrinsic to making on the potters’ wheel. A Japanese comb tool is used to create and enhance the throwing lines. Her Icelandic collection is the culmination of a research trip to Iceland to express the ‘otherworldliness’ of the landscape.
Kirsty is an award-winning ceramicist currently working from her studio in Newcastle upon Tyne. She originally trained at Brighton Art College and then on the potters’ wheel in Japan. She has developed a personal approach to throwing on the wheel using porcelain clay, to produce unique pieces for the home.
Exhibitions and Events
Being Human
6th March - 19th April 2020
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J O P E A R L
Jo Pearl trained in Ceramics at Central St Martins following a professional career that has spanned current affairs TV, Architectural PR and textile design. All of these previous lives influence her new field of practice, and often lead to a political dimension to the work.
In April 2020, English Heritage is hosting Jo Pearl’s first solo show at Down House, the museum of Charles Darwin’s family home. Her work has also been exhibited at Contemporary Sculpture Fulmer, Ceramic Art London, Southwark Cathedral, and the Lethaby, Pangolin London and San Mei Galleries. Jo’s animated film WhyTheFace? has been selected to be included in the International Film Festival of Fine Crafts in Montreuil in April 2020, where it will be showcased among thirty films from 28 countries.
Contemporary concerns about the human condition inform Jo Pearl’s practice. She works in clay for its tactile plasticity, its ability to record expressionist mark making, its transformation when fired. Combining this with stop-frame animation allows her to create an illusion of life and explore the fleeting: what emotions look like figuratively and feel like in abstraction. The combination of slow-motion clay animation, and fired sculptures gives viewers permission to stare and connect with the six emotions Charles Darwin saw as fundamental to human evolution: happiness, sadness, fear, surprise, disgust and anger.
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