Jemma Gowland

Waterperrys, 2022

I have a question. Are there more figurative and for lack of a better word zoomorphic ceramic are about then there use to be - At AIC at Windsor there was an awful lot of hares and animal things and faces and stuff not just pots. I find them hard to understand - to connect with - whereas a good pot can shout at you from across a room, they only whisper. There is too much to take in - pots are simply to understand

Fairs have always been subdivided between Functional Pots, Figurative work, and Ceramic Art. I think there may have been fewer functional pots this year; I'll have to do a head count at Farnham next week and see if it still makes up the majority of the stands. I guess some years one section is a bit larger than in other years.

dantheman wrote:seems a little out of date to me in a society that champions equal rights

I don’t know what was going through her mind when she started with the masks, but I was chatting to her this year and her pieces have become a lot more subversive with the graffiti and punk pieces. She fired a large piece in the Oxford Anagama Kiln that was holding a  hand grenade. Unfortunately the grenade cracked during the firing (photos of the grenade below, but not with the anagama-fired figure which I think had gone off to another exhibition). I wanted one of her punk pieces but they were over £400 each because of the extra firing needed to add the glaze. She could have sold them many times over if they’d been cheaper

They are too freaky for me to be honest