Caroline explains her thought processes:
Whatever the cause of disruption, and whenever we become aware, our time as humans is demanding and is always going to be finite. For me the focus came with the deaths of my parents, both at age 61 and before I was 24. This became my moment for redirection, heading to ’The Dark Peak’ landscape of Derbyshire and recently to the wide skies and big coastline of Norfolk. Living in these environments without the support of parents, the landscape and the weather became characters in my story.
In September 2024 I stayed off grid at The Watchhouse on the north Norfolk coast at Blakeney Point where there is just nature, there is barely provision to absorb the presence of humans and there can be no waste. Everything for our stay had to be carried in and carried out. Water, food, wood. And at the end, we had to eliminate all evidence of our presence there.
Below are some recent images of work in progress for Viewing Room 08
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My art practice has been influenced by these locations and the growing impact of the environmental crisis. For the last 5 years I have been reconsidering the remnants from my ceramic processes, addressing the possibilities of the byproducts of my making, Rethinking and Reimagining the nature of the materials I have at hand. I am now developing a cyclical approach where I collect and fire the glaze sedimentation and clay shards of each new piece I make. This offers me new surfaces, and a material of unique character to carry forward into future work.
I was recently commissioned for a Superflux installation at Weltmuseum Vienna, ‘Relics of Abundance’ in The Craftocene, a proposition to see the detritus of the Anthropocene not as waste, but as the raw material for renewal. I hand-built in terracotta clay with additional gold leaf, the 1965 iconic cast plastic Nesso table lamp by Giancarlo Mattioni / Artemide.
This challenging project involved revisiting the coiling technique I learned from Magdelene Odundo during my undergraduate studies. At the heart of my work for this exhibition with painter Mary Blue and Contemporary and Country I am exploring the material closeness to the earth and our need to find resolution from difficulty.
I am excited to be embracing the freedom of hand building, through the manipulation and flexibility of soft clay extruded through my hand cut dies and combining these with thrown and press moulded forms.
My approach to glaze is also evolving following critique with curator Hugh Pilkington, and for this new approach I am using the material as a pigment applied to extend the narrative during the making, unusually before the first bisque firing, and sometimes reducing the number of firings, as well as the traditional last layered surfaces. For this I have three glazes that I have been testing and exploring in layered combinations through emotive, gestural brush-marks on porcelain ‘Postcards’ and other forms I am calling ‘Clay Canvases’.
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About the author
Paul Vater
PAUL VATER
Paul conducts studio visits to maintain strong relationships with artists, designers and craftspeople who show their work with us. He manages the main C&C website and has developed the online shop where selected works are presented for sale.
Paul established his design company, Sugarfree, in 1990 and quickly gained a reputation for delivering fresh, effective marketing campaigns and brand identities for clients including Save the Children Fund, United Nations Association and UNHCR. Over the years those added to the roster include IPC Magazines, Arts Council England, The Roundhouse, Barbican Centre, Arts Marketing Association, Look Ahead Housing and Care, Paddington Waterside, BBC Worldwide, Commonwealth Foundation, Prestel, City of London Corporation, Baker Street Quarter, Victoria BID and the University of East Anglia.