Central Saint Martins BA Ceramic Design 2016
Wow! That was some year!
Yes, it might well be my first as Course Leader, taking over from the inspirational mentor that was Kathryn Hearn. It was also the year that we have undertaken the University Revalidation process (imagine Ofsted without Ties). It is also a year when we have delivered two live projects within the academic programme and the year when we exhibited our curriculum based research at the British Ceramics Biennial. You could be forgiven for thinking that is what I am talking about. But, its not! That was some year, my first year as stage 3 tutor, working across the entire year group. And they are some group, active, enthusiastic, fun, trusting, ambitious, skillful, reflective, risk taking, playful, intelligent and enquiring. This is a group who have allowed me to try to do the things you say you’re going to do at your interview but don’t really think will happen. With this group really anything is possible! It’s a rare thing to have a group of students who are so predisposed to saying yes. They lack that world-weary cynicism that defines our age, instead they exhibit enthusiasm for their subject and its infinite possibility. They see the value in every opportunity to engage in the discourse, to drive debate and learn from others. Over three intensive years of study they have become specialists in the field of ceramics with a personal definition of what it means to be a ceramic designer. This is reflected in the arresting breadth
of practice on display in this show. We have works of monumental scale, works that explore functional paradigms, that explore myth, perception and reality. Some students chose to work in the macro with big concepts, such as societal barriers, publics, community and ritual, whilst others are interested in micro explorations of touch, taste and production. The context into which they are graduating is constantly evolving. In recent years there has been a surge in the idea of working in collaborative studio communities, where people share resources and space at a fraction of the cost. There has also been a dramatic growth in the idea of the portfolio career, in which designers and artists draw an income from broad professional practices. Alongside this we are witnessing a greater sense of a hybrid practice and co-creation, wherein participants are pooling skill sets and knowledge to work together in a given context. Into this volatile transitional context we are sending a graduating group of designers, artists and makers who have the skills, the attitude and the tenacity to succeed. Thank you to graduating Ceramic Designers of 2016, for making my first year as course leader so exciting. You have inspired me to inhabit the role of course leader fully. To suspend my disbelief, trust in our shared
vision and try to realize your fullest potential. You have contributed greatly to strong community of practice that underpins BA ceramic Design. This contribution has been complimented by a dedicated team of academics and technicians who have made this year so rewarding and so much fun. This show is a testament to that shared endeavor. So, if you are a visitor to the show reading this, looking for a studio assistant, looking for a bespoke handmade collection, looking to commission an artwork or for a designer to join your team, whatever your requirement, slow down, look around and concentrate because they are here in this exhibition and I cannot recommend them highly enough.
Tony Quinn Course Leader, BA Honours Ceramic Design
Potted history
Ceramics can rightly be considered as one of our oldest creative mediums, originating before the Neolithic period over 30,000 years ago. Its longevity owes much to its ability to serve many functions, utilitarian, decorative, sculptural and architectural and is an inescapable part of our daily lives. We eat off it, walk over it and wash in it. Clay provides waterproof coatings for our homes and is present inside our mobile phones. It is subject to the most complex of technologies and yet may only require the adept skills of the maker squeezing clay between the fingers to produce a wonderful expressive object. As I reach the end of my ‘Post Neolithic’ forty-six year career at Ceramics at Central Saint Martins, starting as an eager student in 1970, continuing as a print technician, visiting lecturer and finally as Professor, it inevitably becomes a time for reflection. It has been my great fortune to work alongside some of the most innovative makers and inspiring teachers: Gordon Baldwin, Gillian Lowndes, Eileen Nisbet, Richard Slee, Robin Levien, Tony Quinn, Duncan Hooson amongst many, and not forgetting Kathryn Hearn who steered the course out of troubled waters in the 1990s to shape it into the driving force of Ceramic Design that it has become today. Each decade seemed to herald new challenges - diminishing resources, increased student numbers, rising costs, but it is the strength of the course team
that it has always seen challenges as opportunities on which to build and move forward in a positive and creative direction that extends the life of the subject and provides its graduates with a life changing experience. Without its students there would be no Ceramics at CSM, and forgive me if I no longer can recall all of your names or recognise all your faces, but you were the reason I was here. It has been a privilege to help shape so many creative lives and hopefully provide a little inspiration along the way. So to the class of 2016 as we graduate together, I wish you a life full of creative achievement and fulfillment, you have been a great group to work with.
Prof. Rob Kesseler University Chair of Arts, Design & Science
BA Ceramic Design 2016
www.csmceramicdesigners.com facebook.com/ceramicgrads16 @csm_bacd @csmBACD
Ellis Hooson
Born in Stoke-On-Trent, the heartland of the ceramic industry, Ellis Hooson’s work primarily relates to subjects surrounding contemporary society and politics. Her current project is a comment on London and communication between people as they move around the busy and increasingly commercialised city. This project comments on the interactions between people when forced into contact with each other through certain moments. Ellis aims to bring together the importance of communication in a society so driven by fear of others, avoidance and personal space.
eshoosondesign@gmail.com www.cargocollective.com/eshooson
Sun-A Kim
Sun-A Kim’s works relate to with Korean traditional craft skills in modern society. The aim of her current project is to visualize her own perspectives on Korean tradition in a broad spectrum. Tradition and contemporary could not exist together at the same time but it is possible to see them together through her ceramic works. Also, it helps the audience to trace the history of Korean traditional and contemporary culture.
sunakimceramics@gmail.com www.sunakimceramics.com
David McGuire
From a young age I have always been interested in making objects, both functional and sculptural. Any kind of tangible forms that have my hand marks and kinetic energy stored in them, are important to me. I specialise in bespoke sculptural forms, mainly influenced by my love for music and natural sound. Working mainly on the wheel, I use the fast paced energy to create exciting forms and shapes.
l2etro@live.com
Oi Lam Lee LuLu
With the passion of jewellery, LuLu focuses on using different ceramic materials to join in her contemporary body adornments design. Her current work is focused on a jewellery piece which has the harmonious combination of Chinese and Western elements. She is looking at the design of hairpins from the ‘Ming’ dynasty of China and the ruff which is from the Elizabethan era, an epoch of English history.
lululeeoilam@hotmail.com www.lululeeoilam.com
Ronalds Ofkants
Torsion, Tension, Compression and Shear, these are the primary forces that I explored and utilized in creating ceramics pieces. Working with thrown ceramics at its limits and beyond has allowed me to understand these forces and what it takes to create a hand thrown piece. In my thrown ceramic pieces I exaggerate the effects of these forces, allowing some of the them to fail on my terms. Replicating mistakes and saving the distorted outcome as a warning of what could happen.
fr2645@gmail.com
Harriett Sennett
Harriett creates her pieces by using traditional methods of hand building. Hand painted with slip, each piece is unique and individual. Various techniques have been used in the making process to enable Harriett to create exciting, vibrant and eye catching surface qualities. Her work is a response to how we use and create relationships with our surrounding environments.
harriettsennett48@googlemail.com www.harriettsennett.wix.com/ceramics
Sandra Stallard
Sandra’s excitement for ceramics is about hand-building, surface pattern and experimental glazing. She prefers areas where there is contrast in colour and texture. Producing glazes from raw materials and combined with clays resonates with her interest in natural medicines. Acupuncture is based on the elements, wood, fire, earth, metal and water, as is ceramics, and the alchemy and the metamorphosis in ceramics are similar to homoepathy. Sandra belives that the ceramic process is a continuous investigation and inspiration.
sandrams1@hotmail.co.uk www.serasera.co.uk
Murat Arkallayev
From Russian descent and raised in the United Kingdom, Murat’s exposure to multicultural backgrounds is illuminated in his work. His current work has a contemporary appeal, focusing on modern tableware design inspired by natural resources and surroundings. Murat’s most recent collection takes the form of a Japanese tea-set inspired by the Zen garden and features a unique interactive quality with the consumer. A myriad of different materials have informed his present designs. From art and fashion textiles, to product design and ceramics; Murat is fully equipped to cater to a vast set of agendas.
murat_arkallaev@hotmail.com
Lucy Mae Anderson
I have designed a table setting that consists of four plates, two of which will move when food is placed onto the others. How each plate will act is unclear, as the prints on them can easily be misinterpreted. The end result will be four people sitting down to dinner with only two of them being able to eat. I hope that this experience will prompt participants to consider how and why they value food. Food is one of our most basic physiological needs, yet it seems to me that often it is taken for granted because it is so freely available. Because food and eating has become so complicated, with people attempting to define food in black and white terms, it is not necessarily valued for being a source of nutrition and pleasure and the majority of people are left even more confused about how to eat. It is my aim to create a discussion around the massive amount of complicated information there is about food.
lucy@lucymaeand.com www.lucymaeand.com
Sarah Christie
‘Library’ addresses access to knowledge and culture. Libraries are endangered holders of knowledge, agents of curiosity. They allow us to overcome boundaries, whether real or imagined, or those that we are persuaded of. In this work, a ‘letterscape’ of word-forms exploring script and type creates entry-points. It is surrounded by a boundary of potsherds, which may be crossed: in this piece, visitors are invited to respond with their own writing on the potsherds, contributing to a tally of opinions.
sarah@sarahchristie.net www.sarahchristie.net
Yung Cheuk Chung Eugene
There is always a system that helps to organize in between every building. Through this work Eugene is attempting to transfer the architecture element, the grids he discovered through his own experiences and observation, to a thin layer of porcelain sheet, a clay that can provide fine texture, details and translucency to ensure cohesion.
eugcyc@gmail.com www.cyceugene.com`
Joely Clinkard
The pieces which I create are influenced by my direct surroundings within the city, its changing landscape, wild spaces and culture. Hand-built and hand decorated, each vessel is an individual. My work is a spiritual and expressive celebration of the diverse and vibrant groups of humans who make up a cityscape.
joely@joelyclinkard.com www.joelyclinkard.com
Srabani Ghosh
My interest lies in the materiality of clay and how its processes and qualities may be used as a platform for narrative expression. As a response to Central Saint Martins at Kings Cross, I have used ceramic as a medium to explore ways of developing a visual language which communicates the vibrancy and creative provenance that the presence of the college brings to the site. Constructed from 910 handmade bricks my final project Assimilation is a large scale architectural sculpture made in collaboration with sponsors HG Matthews, a niche brick works in the Chilterns. The structure is a facsimile of a left over Victorian detail from the original Granary Square site. The intention has been to use the ubiquitous brick to celebrate the history of Central Saint Martins from inception in 1854 to the present day, whilst making a physical connection to the Kings Cross site and the brick makers of the past.
srabani@srabanighosh.com www.srabanighosh.com
Lý Thiên Co Friedrich
My cross-cultural upbringing informs a lot of my work. I express this through food, as a means to explore the food experience and how ceramics can transform the momentary experience of flavour into a permanent, physical object. Within my final project, I am creating objects for the making and consumption of Kombucha tea, offering the opportunity for people to create a calming ritual for themselves, as a contrast to the business in our daily lives. Kombucha tea has many characteristics which are positive for our physical wellbeing, whose importance I think should be extended to our mental and spiritual wellbeing as well. The objects are a reflection of the calm and relaxation we deserve to give ourselves daily.
lytc.friedrich@gmail.com www.ltclitchifriedrich.tumblr.com
Jess Martin
Jess’s work focuses on contemporary tableware with a twist. Her current project is about incorporating a fault into a functional design feature. With a torn edge she aims to create a collection that changes the experience and feeling when using the tableware.
mail@jessmartinceramics.com www.jessmartinceramics.com
Megan Niell
Throughout her work Megan has always had an interest in the social art world, being inspired by her surrounding environments and role models. This allows her to express her views into her artwork. The project which is finishing her degree is about ‘Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD)’ which from personal experiences of her surroundings. ‘She wants to make people see what they may not perceive of themselves’.
meganniell93@outlook.com www.taurusartworks.co.uk
Robyn Tayler Payne
Case studies such as the Namib Desert Beetle and the Lotus effect inspired Robyn’s project of a ‘mist collecting surface’ for irrigation in countries such as Namibia. Using the natural morning mist that is created when the cool air of the ocean and warmth of the desert meet, Robyn has created a surface that captures and collects this moisture from the air to be reused in the irrigation of drought resistant crops.
info@robyntaylerpayne.co.uk www.robyntaylerpayne.wix.com/robyntaylerdesign
Lucy Be Phillips
My designs are a celebration of slow living and offer a contemporary ritual for everyday urban living. I design and make functional tableware that offers you pockets of time to prepare, and enjoy carefully handcrafted experiences.
info@lucybeceramics.com www.lucybeceramics.com
Niamh Phillips
Niamh’s work is about collections and the various ways we group our visual surroundings. She is interested in the infinite ways objects can be eclectic, providing there is a common thread. In her latest work she has attempted to translate details from brutalist buildings into a lighting and tableware range. It is these details that echo throughout the objects and unite them together as one large collection.
npceramics@gmail.com
José Maria Salgado
Plate “beforemath” encompasses the making process that the everyday plate goes through before it reaches the table. It showcases the stages of creation of a plate and informs the user of how it was made. It is a token of information of this commonplace object. In a limited series, this “objet d’design” alongside the mould each plate was jiggered from creates a collection that communicates aspects of variation within repetition, mass craft production, and provenance of the manufactured object.
jmlsalgado@gmail.com www.jmsalgado.co.uk
Akvile Zukauskaite
Akvile expresses her passion for experimentation with materials and visual communication of her pieces. Adventurous and expressive use of different clay bodies, including the ones she has sourced herself, are used to combine traditional techniques with a personal adaptation of collaging in 3D using ceramic materials. Each piece she makes is a collage of different surfaces, textures and qualities and every layer of materials gives character and depth to the piece. ‘Fragments and Stories’ is an exploration inspired by her Lithuanian heritage and is driven by a continued search of exciting qualities. Each piece is an illustration of her childhood stories and she allows the pieces to be the story teller. ‘Ceramics like painting, Ceramics like collage’
akvile.zukauskaite@yahoo.com www.akvilezukauskaite.com
Acknowledgements
Central Saint Martins BA Ceramic Design 2016
Catalogue designed by JosĂŠ Maria Salgado and Sarah Christie
Grateful thanks to the following:
Cover designed by Michael Ainscough
Tony Quinn, Duncan Hooson, Rob Kesseler, Emma Lacey, Kathryn Hearn, Elizabeth Wright, Alex Fraser
Printed by Aldgate Press
Andy Allum, Simeon Featherstone, Naomi Bailey, Stephen Graham, Kate Luck and Petra Sajkas Ricky Lee Brawn , Helen Ingham, William Dickinson, Nichol Keene, Lucy Ashdown, Margaret Wagstaff We would like to thank everyone who contributed to our crowdfunder: Agnese Graudina Charlotte Tim Cohen Zoe Kypri Julie Akhtar Edward Finneron Julia Rowntree Tone777 Paul Ratcliffe Olivia Murray Rosie Clinkard Eileen Phillips Joff Clinkard Sue & Rob Harewood Dental Surgery Sue Martin Chris Anderson Marylark Lisa Phillips
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