Repair

Material: Pigmented porcelain

Dimensions: 21cm x 21cm x 16cm

Made using porcelain pigmented with stains and oxides, Repair was conceived as a meeting of sea and land, as well as a meeting of methods. For the body of the vessel, I used a coiling technique and integrated slices of the rim which emerge from the swirl of the sea. The rim was formed entirely using slices of nerikomi, a pattern formed with coloured clay. The process of forming nerikomi involves a great deal of compression, and is prone to cracking, so it wasn’t a complete surprise when a fissure began to appear. In fact, nerikomi, and other related techniques, has a high failure rate, which some artists are willing to accept in their quest for perfection, but this doesn’t sit well with my distaste for waste.

My reaction to the fissure, rather than to discard the piece, was to repair it. But as I did, another appeared. And so it continued around the rim, chasing them until they were all filled. After the initial bisque firing, I sanded the vessel and discovered that the fissures had not fully healed, and for a second time I tended to them. Then, after its conclusive firing, it was again sanded to once again reveal the fractures, which, rather than opening up, as I had initially feared, had now been tamed. As a final flourish, I took gold leaf and filled, painted, and adorned the scars in an act of reverence to the imperfect. In the end, it was the action of the clay and my reaction to it that determined its outcome.