Jonathan Keep 'Black Floor Pot'

‘Black Floor Pot’

75 x 68 x 80 by Jonathan Keep.

Keep is South African potter who lives and works in Suffolk in the UK. He is known for his digitally printed ceramics. Black Floor Pot is listed under the ‘analogue’ collection on Keep's website. Keep has been practising for over 30 years attending the prestigious Royal College of Art. Black Floor Pot is in ‘Breaking the Mould: New Approaches to Ceramics’ which was published in 2007, however it is not clear in the book, or on Keep's website when this piece was made. If I do find out, I will update it here.

'Black Floor Pot' work is made from clay, a sculpture of this size would need to be made from a clay body that can support uneven and asymmetrical shapes, possibly grogged stoneware. A look on Keep's Instagram page shows that most, if not all of his current work is created via digital printing. However in Breaking the Mould it states that this piece has been thrown 'When he throws his pots, he attempts to work from the inside out, intuitively finding the form of the internal shape and then creating the pot around it' (Hanaor 2007, p.172)

'Floor Pot' is a large bulbous ceramic form, dark in colour with tinges of burnt orange or brown. It appears burnished to a sheen, reflecting the light, in this picture we can see the light hitting the form from the left, highlighting the folds and swells. The shape rises from the floor widening and dividing into bubble like bulges, it is irregular and asymmetric. Reaching its widest point around midway up and then becoming slightly narrower. The top of the form is open, revealing a dark interior and a lip of uniform thickness. The height of the work means that the viewer would have to walk around the pot looking down into the empty space inside. To view the sides it would need to be seen from a distance or require the viewer to crouch down to the level of the work and tilt the head sideways, rather like talking to a child. 

The work is formed of curves having no visible straight lines, squat in its stance, a small dumpy humanoid creature curled up into a fetal position as though shielding itself. It reflects light, the surface looks sumptuous, like shiny chocolate, the form gives the impression of weight and appears fully grounded and stable, connected to the earth. The lines are smooth, flowing and curved, if we didn't know it was made from clay, it might suggest a softness. The eye follows the lines on a journey around the form with no fixed focal point or end point, each line joining on to another and sending you off round again. The effect is organic, suggesting growth and fluidity.

Colours appear monochromatic, in hues of dark brown with patches leaning more towards a dark iron orange. The colours are natural, earthy and dark. Space is occupied in a contained way, the piece folds in on itself appearing solid, until you reach the opening at the top which reveals the dark, empty interior. Light reflects off the surface in a somewhat muted way like the surface of a chestnut. The form itself creates shadows, swollen protuberances of the form block light to areas that are illuminated by the light source.

Although asymmetric, the form is balanced, the smooth surface and monochromatic colours create a feeling of harmony. The silky smooth surface and natural undulating curves evoke calm, flowing motions. The curves appear to follow their natural path as though the artist has worked intuitively and responsively with the clay. The work has an anthropomorphic quality, the proportions suggest a small child, suggesting limbs, tummy and a head. The eye is drawn initially to the rotund belly and the folds that reflect light in the centre, then off along the curved lines taking in the limb like bumps and soft swelling protuberances.

This bulbous organic form suggests growth and swelling, the dark earthy colours hint at solid volcanic rock formations. The guarded closed humanoid form tucking into itself evokes thoughts of vulnerability and fragility, at the same time the solid grounded nature of the work hints at stability, stillness and attentiveness. The work is designed to be viewed from multiple view points and as such responding to a two dimensional image with out having the chance to walk around the work experience it in three dimensions, restricts the authenticity of the response. I believe the artist wanted the work to be experienced first hand, I myself want to touch it, get a sense of the weight of it and feel the temperature of the surface.

Having only ever seen a picture of the piece, and not had the opportunity to walk around and examine the work, I acknowledge that my analysis of the work is limited. That said, I was drawn to the work that I could see in the angle presented in the image, its smooth organic surface is reassuring and familiar, the smooth warm brown surface suggesting skin and warm soft bodies. It looks ancient, timeless, of the earth, suggesting potential, like a seed or a nut, as if it might sprout and grow, eternal in someway and deeply connected to nature. Are we witnessing the evidence of a conversation on form and surface between the artist and their material? That conversation now finished and frozen in time and fired into solid, long lasting form, calm, solid and grounded.

Keep's work is refined, hours of work would have gone into throwing, building and balancing the shapes, joining them, polishing and buffing the surface to a rich sheen. The image gives the sense the work has been smoothed and waxed rather than glazed. He manipulates the materials into a form that resonates with the earth, nature, growth, bodies and skin. The folds and crevices in the clay, like those in our own bodies, the natural curves and undulating bulges lend a sense of natural order unfolding.

In relation to my own work, I am instinctively drawn to the vessel, not always being able to justify why. This is the reason I am drawn to investigate. I too see and appreciate the anthropomorphic qualities of the vessel, the foot, the belly and the neck being commonly used language to describe ceramics that have the potential to contain. In evaluating Keep's work I want to know why he chose the vessel, he doesn't appear to intend the work to be used to contain anything other than the space it enfolds, therefore it must contain meaning in order to validate it. I relation to this in Breaking the Mould it states;

'His pieces deal with the universality of emotion-the way in which an object can elicit a universal gut-reaction. It is this universality that draws him to vessel forms...using the pot as a metaphor for the human body, he creates a dialogue between the 'skin', or the exterior of the pot, and the emotional interior'

I can connect with the idea of an object creating a gut reaction having felt it myself, most memorable when viewing the work of Anish Kapoor. I felt as though I was being physically sucked into the work itself. I can't say that Keep's work created such a strong physical response, it was more a feeling of connection and familiarity of being grounded, earthed. 

The concept of the vessel as a metaphor for the human body, a 'skin' concealing an emotional interior, does work for me. The work is reminiscent of a small child, crouched protectively on the ground, suggesting a vulnerable interior to be protected. Whilst the exterior form has solidity, its colour is consistent and rich, it appears rooted to it's spot, suggesting the 'skin' or exterior is stronger than that which it cautiously holds within. This is justification for having the containing vessel shape, it is a metaphor that has been used many times in ceramic art. certainly one that I have used myself in my own work. I wonder if this reading of the vessel it obvious, tired and over used? Or is it in fact synonymous with the very nature of the vessel, inseparable and unavoidable? If so does this association limit or constrain the ways in which ceramics that take the form of a vessel can be read? 

In exploring this work I feel I have deepened my understanding of the vessel in ceramics, but have also uncovered many more questions. I hope I will have the time in the future to deepen my knowledge and investigate further.

New Designs

I am currently designing some new pots using curved forms, slip decoration, sgraffito and inlay of contrasting and harmonious colours. Below are some of the pots and plates I have been working on. I have been developing my skills in using the sgraffito technique and will continue to do so during my one day a week at home, making in my kitchen (not so glamorous, I know).  It will be slow, but hopefully consistent. After many years of refining my forms in my vessels, I feel happy with the shapes. It is the surface decoration that I have not been able to pin down, and that is where I find myself in my ceramics journey at this time. Trying to pin stuff down.

I am also toying with the idea of developing discourse on ceramics, by talking about it more here on this blog. My reasons for doing this? To increase my knowledge of ceramics and the history of ceramics and to talk about ceramics in the context of art. I am not a writer, at all. But I am very interested in learning more. This idea is embryonic, as in, I just thought of it this afternoon. And it is half term, so I have time to think about these things because I am not teaching Art & Design four days a week. SO maybe nothing will come of this idea. My four year old son just stomped in and is urgently requesting to know what I am doing, whilst peering through a kaleidoscope at my computer screen.....now he his brushing my hair. So I will take a break here....and see if I actually make it back.

The New Series

This is the second pot from my new series, I plan to make a whole load of these in different colours so they look something like this....

Excuse the rubbish picture. I plan to make the whole set and make a special shelf for them to sit on. I am on pot two which is as yet incomplete, that means 18 and a bit to go. I imagine there will be casualties along the way so I anticipate making 25 or more pots before I reach the finished article.

Bring it on.

Damn It

I am drawing to the close of 8 months of not actually making any ceramics due to looking after my daughter. My brain has been on holiday from teaching. Hours of thinking time that was previously dedicated to teaching, marking, planning, admin etc has been dedicated to what ever I want to think about. The first 7 months were consumed with the worry and newness of being a mum. The remaining 2 months my brain has started to actually think. Especially in the evenings when baby is asleep and John is marking, before I would have been doing the same, marking or planning or whatever. Instead I have been reading what ever I want, doodling mindlessly and thinking.

It is so nice to be me again. I forgot who I was. 

I have revisited music from my teenage years, Nirvana and Hole especially, I remembered what it felt like to be 13 years old and feel like an odd one, a black sheep and how the music made me feel like I wasn't the only one. I read through old journals and surprised myself with what I have done and who I have become. I found a bit in my diary from the mid 90's that said how Nirvana had changed my life, I know it sounds dumb but is true, the nature of what I wrote about in my diaries changed around then and the things that concerned me also became more thought out, it was probably growing up as well but it did help me define who I wanted to be.



All this writing and thinking has made me wonder if clay is a prison. Limiting myself to one media. I feel this loyalty to clay, probably from reading too much Ceramic Review. I feel obliged to use clay. I like to paint portraits and insects and do other things as well. I was reading the other day about Taylorism and the division of labour, how industrialization and the streamlining of the workforce has separated the hand from the brain. People who make on factory floors do not conceive ideas like they did back in the day when a carpenter would design make and sell their work. It is all broken up. This happens in art as well. In some cases the artist has the idea and someone else makes it. So is ceramics dead? Am I flogging craft from a bygone era that is now only reserved for rich people who can afford lovey hand made things. I don't like that idea. I don't want to make cute things that go with bunting, and I don't like Bernard Leach.

If we are talking about clay I really like the work of Małgorzata ET Warlikowska for me it is ballsy, feminine, disquieting. It is about culture and media, it is relevant to the world we live in. I feel stuck in a rut, my work is too tame. I need to dredge myself dry. I need to be true to myself. 



I read this quote from George Bernard Shaw....

"Whilst we......the conventional....were wasting our time on education and organization some independent genius has taken the matter in hand..."

That scares the crap out of me. What if we are so bogged down with every day life etiquette, like the court of Louis XIV ruled to tiniest nth my an absolute monarch. I heard that he made up so many stupid rules to keep his court occupied that they didn't have time to think up ways to rebel. He even had them grow their little finger nail because the right way to knock on a door was my scratching it with your little finger nail. What if everyone has something to give? But we are so worried about what size clothes we wear whether we have the right ideas/opinions/outlook.  

The thing is there is no truth only opinion and knowledge. Every one has different opinions and it was once knowledge that the earth was flat. So everyone should just do what they like as long as it doesn't hurt anyone. Trouble is if anyone feels like I do, sometimes I don't know who I am, or what I think, and I don't have the luxury of TIME, to think about all these things and do something about it.  To create art is a luxury. 

So how do I access myself, how do I make my true feelings and ideas rise to the surface and how do I know they are real? I get that we are part of a society and the culture and conventions of that society will have a bearing on who you are. If I was born in Syria I would not be making pots that look like TITS. But still on some level I worry about saying the wrong thing about not being PC. It is generally true that all new ideas start on the margins of society Outside Society. Some are absorbed into the mainstream, like Grunge music and others stay on the edges. Some ideas are wrong and therefore fade away, some simmer away until their time comes. Those that are absorbed become part of everyday culture and that is one of the ways we move forward. Point is YOU HAVE TO BE ON THE OUTSIDE you have to be courageous and take the shit from people who don't agree with your ideas. But still do it. You have to find the time to think the thoughts, to know your own voice among all those around you, and then you have to do something about it. 

So I know that I need to know myself. I know that I lost sight of myself in the day to day life of an ordinary 30 something woman in the 21st century. I hope when I return to work on Friday 13th of February and don't go back under and I remember this moment.

TV Opportunity for Ceramists

I received an email with the following information if anyone fancies becoming a TV star!

Love Productions, the makers of BBC1's ‘The Great British Bake Off’ in London.

We are currently producing an exciting new programme for BBC Two about pottery. We are scouring the country for potters and ceramicists to take part in this new talent search that will test all the different aspects of their craft.

I am emailing to see whether it would be possible for you to pass on the attached information via your blog to help spread the word about the programme.
Would this be possible?

If you yourself or anyone else is interested in applying you can request an application form at pottery@loveproductions.co.uk (preferred) / 0207 067 4829.