SARA FLYNN
SARA FLYNN
4 - 25 September 2024
Private View: Tuesday, 3 September, 6-8pm
Artist present
15 Royal Arcade, 28 Old Bond Street, London, W1S 4SP www.ehc.art | mail@ehc.art | +44 (0) 207 491 1706
To understand real three dimensions is to train your mind to know when you see one view what it is like on the other side, to envelop it inside your head, as it were. This is not something you are born with…. We learn distances by walking them. We understand space through understanding form.1
(Henry
Moore)
The relationship between pottery and sculpture is at once ancient and contemporary. Museum collections abound with ancient pottery, some of which fused functionality with anthropomorphic figuration. Spouts could be elongated to look like the horses that adorned the decorative central body of pots (ancient Iran), or human figures might become the connector of four ritual bowls (Cyprus). To a contemporary sensibility, the dissolution of art and craft genres in these ancient works seems remarkably modern. Yet, twentieth century artists readily looked to the ancient past to fathom out the future. When the British sculptor Henry Moore moved to London to study at the Royal Academy of Art in 1921, he quickly became enthralled by the collections of the British Museum. As his success grew, so did his personal collection of ancient objects, which included Pre-Columbian and Mexican ceramic figures.
To situate the work of Sara Flynn in the vein of Moore’s turn to the ancient world is not as fanciful as it might first appear. Yes, Flynn has produced pieces in bronze, and many of the rich dark glazes on her pots are patina-like, but she does not share Moore’s interest in anatomical abstraction. Instead, Flynn utilises an equally abundant daily form with an ancient history as material for investigations into contemporary plastic expression: the pot. If Moore believed that “everything in the world of form is understood through our own bodies”, 2 Flynn applies a similar focus to the ubiquity of ceramics, its ability to shift between daily tableware and contemplative sculpture. Indeed, it is not for nothing that the descriptive words of pottery relate to the body, for pots are bound to histories of consumption and conviviality. Yet, as a sculptor, Flynn is less interested in utility; her focus is on the impact of form.
Whilst Flynn’s sculptures often present as domestic shapes – vases, bowls, bottles – they always offer more than is asked of them. Forms are acutely poised and nuanced. Close inspection reveals a masterful compositional sensitivity. This is especially true in this new body
1 Henry Moore, With Henry Moore: Artists at Work (no pl: Book Club Associates, 1979), 45. 2 Ibid., 48.
of work, where Flynn produces sensations of movement through contraction, as though the interior space of a pot is resisting incursion. In what could become discordant in the work of lesser hands, Flynn carefully considers the main body in relation to the lip, mouth, and base. She seeks out planes to be caressed by light. Glaze reflects or absorbs luminosity, but also runs with or against structure. The smooth interconnectedness of form with glaze belies the trials and tribulations of its development. At turns dynamic, subtle, smooth, and angular, these works demand observation from different angles, not as pots, but as sculpture.
If Moore was correct in his assertion about our comprehension of three-dimensional objects, he deftly foretold of the ingenuity of Flynn’s artistry. Her works are indeed predicated on experience. Pleasure is derived from never quite knowing what is around the corner. Pieces are elaborated with any number of performed gestures suspended in time – cuts, dents, pinches, folds, scores – which highlight the pliability of clay when wet and its fixity once fired. Arranged in groups, motifs and rhythms emerge between pieces. Connections become intensified by form, glaze, proportion, and void. A smooth contour may give way to a surprising set of pinches and protrusions. By looking at Flynn’s sculptures, we do indeed – to quote Moore once again – “understand space through understanding form”.
All sculptors must reconcile themselves to the strengths and weaknesses of their material. Only then can they achieve fluency. Flynn’s work across media – clay and sometimes bronze – is an articulation of the strengths of clay as an expressive material, its plasticity, its ability to sit between worlds – the everyday and the art gallery – and to be both abstract and erudite. Flynn’s ceramics are not a secondary form of sculpture when compared to her fine art contemporaries: they are resolutely their equal. For Flynn has done to the pot what Moore did to the body: blaze an exciting trail for the future of artistic practice.
Ashley Thorpe
Ashley Thorpe is an author, collector of ceramics, and Reader in the Department of Drama, Theatre & Dance at Royal Holloway, University of London.
Camber Vessel, 2019-23
porcelain
33.5 cm high (SF-0387)
Spine-Camber Vessel, 2024
porcelain
26.5 cm high (SF-0388)
Composite Vessel, 2024
porcelain
27 cm high (SF-0389)
Spine-Camber Vessel, 2024
porcelain
30.5 cm high (SF-0390)
Composite Vessel, 2024 porcelain
30 cm high (SF-0391)
Composite Vessel, 2024 porcelain
28 cm high (SF-0392)
Composite Vessel, 2024 porcelain
30 cm high (SF-0393)
Composite Vessel, 2024 porcelain
31 cm high (SF-0394)
Composite Vessel, 2024
porcelain
25 cm high (SF-0395)
Composite Vessel, 2024 porcelain 14.5 cm high (SF-0396)
Inner-Fold Vessel, 2024
porcelain
17 cm high (SF-0397)
Shoulder Vessel, 2024
porcelain
26.5 cm high (SF-0398)
Inner-Fold Vessel, 2024
porcelain
18 cm high (SF-0399)
Inner-Fold Vessel, 2024
porcelain
16 cm high (SF-0400)
Folded Vessel, 2024
porcelain
16.5 cm high (SF-0401)
Spine Vessel, 2024
porcelain
24.5 cm high (SF-0402)
Inner-Fold Vessel, 2024
porcelain 11 cm high (SF-0403)
Inner-Fold Vessel, 2024
porcelain 9.5 cm high (SF-0404)
Inner-Fold Vessel, 2024
porcelain 9 cm high (SF-0405)
porcelain 10 cm high (SF-0406)
porcelain 27 cm high (SF-0407) Folded Vessel, 2024
Shoulder Bottle, 2024
Shoulder Bottle, 2024
porcelain 27 cm high (SF-0408)
Shoulder Bottle, 2024
porcelain 13 cm high (SF-0409)
Composite Vessel, 2024
porcelain 16.5 cm high (SF-0410)
Vessel Group, 2024 porcelain 105 cm wide (14 pieces) (SF-0411)
SARA FLYNN
b. 1971
Sara Flynn is a distinguished Irish ceramic artist, renowned for her masterful use of porcelain.
Born in Cork, Ireland, Flynn’s early affinity for art led her to the Crawford College of Art & Design, where she initially intended to study painting. Her discovery of ceramics prompted a shift in focus to clay, captivated by the diverse possibilities it offered for expression. A meticulous approach to form and her exploration of the interplay between volume, balance, and surface has garnered her widespread acclaim.
Upon completing her formal education, Flynn set up her first studio in Co. Cork in 2000.
Subsequently, she was based in West Cork, and then until recently, Northern Ireland. She now lives in Co. Cork where she produces work that is recognised for its fluid, elegant shapes, accentuated by glazes in a broad spectrum of colours. Flynn pushes the boundaries of her craft, constantly experimenting with new structures.
Photograph by Glenn Norwood
She writes, My love of form, line and volume is expressed through the qualities and scope of my chosen material, which is porcelain. Of great importance is the potential of new and exciting edges, contours and shapes which can be explored through an understanding of the material’s qualities and my increasing skill.
Her ability to manipulate porcelain with such precision and artistry has made her a prominent figure in the ceramics community. She has been an invited speaker and demonstrator over the years throughout Europe, Japan and the USA, a testament to the demand and appreciation for her unique vision and craftsmanship.
Flynn’s talent and dedication have earned her numerous accolades throughout her career. Her work is exhibited widely and featured in many international museum collections, including The Art Institute of Chicago, The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. She was shortlisted for the inaugural Loewe Craft Prize in 2017 and has served on its Experts Panel since 2018, and is looking forward to continuing this role in 2025.
What immediately attracted me to Sara Flynn’s pots, when I first saw them in County Cork in 2013, was the combination of the rather formal black exterior with the highly informal pinches and squeezes. They are extremely tactile and at the same time abstract and rather distant. — excerpt from The Duke of Devonshire’s essay in our 2018 Sara Flynn exhibition catalogue
Selected Exhibitions
2024 Sara Flynn, Erskine, Hall & Coe, London, UK
Joseph Walsh & Sara Flynn: Contexte et Collaboration, Irish Cultural Centre, Paris, France
2023 Sara Flynn, Galerie de l’Ancienne Poste, Toucy, France
On Foot: An Exhibition Curated by Jonathan Anderson, Offer Waterman, London, UK
2022 Sara Flynn, Erskine, Hall & Coe, London, UK
Making and Momentum, a group exhibition curated by Richard Malone that toured Eileen Gray’s home in the South of France (2021), the National Museum of Ireland and Wexford (2022)
2021 Sara Flynn, Galerie de l’Ancienne Poste, Toucy, France
2020 Sara Flynn, Erskine, Hall & Coe, London, UK
2019 Sara Flynn, Sokyo Gallery, Kyoto, Japan
2018 Sara Flynn, Erskine, Hall & Coe, London, UK
2017 Chance Encounters 3 - Lionel Wendt, Richard Smith, Sara Flynn, curated by Jonathan Anderson, Miami Design District, Miami, Florida, USA
Disobedient Bodies, JW Anderson Curates, The Hepworth Gallery, Wakefield, UK
2016 Sara Flynn, Erskine, Hall & Coe, London, UK
2015 Ontogeny, Millennium Court Arts Centre, Portadown, Northern Ireland
2014 Sara Flynn, Erskine, Hall & Coe, London, UK
2012 Sara Flynn, Erskine, Hall & Coe, London, UK
Public Collections
The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, USA (gift of Michael and Tamara Root)
Columbus State University, Georgia, USA
The Crafts Council, UK
Crawford Municipal Art Gallery, Cork, Ireland
The Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth House, Chatsworth, UK
The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK (gift of Sir Nicholas and Lady Judith Goodison)
The Diana Reitberger Collection at the Gardiner Museum, Toronto, Canada
The Hunt Museum, Limerick, Ireland
Irish Department of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Embassies Collection (Irish embassies in Canberra, Australia, Madrid, Spain, The Hague, The Netherlands and Beijing, China)
Loewe Collection
The National Museum of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland
The National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, Wales
Office of Public Works, Farmleigh House, Dublin, Ireland
Shanghai Municipal People’s Government, China
The Ulster Museum, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK (purchase funded by Christopher M. Gorman-Evans)
Awards
2019 Merit Award, The Golden Fleece
2017 Loewe Craft Prize Finalist
2016 Merit Award, The Golden Fleece
2010 Peter Brennan Pioneering Potter Award, Ceramics Ireland
2007 Travel Bursary Award by the Crafts Council of Ireland
2006 Travel Bursary Award by the Crafts Council of Ireland
2005 Research and Development Award by the Design & Crafts Council of Ireland
Residencies
2019 A month-long residency at the Koryu Centre in Sasama, Japan, supported by The Golden Fleece Award
2013 A six-week residency at Hope University in Liverpool, UK, in partnership with the Bluecoat Display Centre and supported by The Crafts Council of Ireland
2011 A month-long residency at FULE International Ceramic Art Museums in Fuping, China
Printed by Park Communications Copyright Erskine, Hall & Coe, Ltd
Photography by Stuart Burford
Design by Elisa Dublanc