I am excited to have been selected to exhibit in the 16th International Biennial of Artistic Ceramics of Aveiro in Portugal. I am honoured to be in exalted company with a host of renowned international clay artists. 

My Ceramic Wallpaper: Peonies has been selected.

Ceramic Wallpaper: Peonies, was created as part of my project Interbeing for The Ceramic House, an ambitious exploration of collaborative ceramic and sound art practice in Britain and China that took place throughout 2021. It also formed a photo essay entitled Silk Roads and Floral Routes contained with my book Perfection of Understanding, whereby the peonies were digitally installed on to walls in China selected by Chinese artists involved in Interbeing.

The peony is the official emblem of China and has great value in Eastern culture. An eternal symbol of royalty, honour and wealth, it is present in many religious festivals and traditions. The peony, most exalted of the Chinese symbolic flora, is a popular motif found on traditional Chinese porcelain.

Technical characteristics

The work was created on a wood firing symposium in Denmark, where I was guest artist. Inspiration came from visiting sites of ceramic production and collections in China, including Jingdezhen, Guangzhou, Foshan, Nanjing and Shanghai. I modelled prototypes that I used to create plaster moulds and cast 4 different flower forms and 8 different leaf and stem forms which, together, form a repeating pattern that can be extended infinitely. The material is unglazed, porcelain greenware. Using two different kilns, one installation was fired in a wood kiln with soda for 36 hours, and the larger installation was in a large Fred Olson wood kiln for 6 days and nights. The colours and textures that resulted were caused by the flames, wood ash and soda over the duration of the firings. The piece selected for Aveiro was fired in the Fred Olson kiln.

Wood fired installation panel

Unglazed wood fired porcelain

1.8m x 3m