In September 2011, a group of Irish ceramic artists will travel to the Chinese town of Fuping, Shaanxi, to make the foundation collection for the newly built Irish Pavilion at the Fule International Ceramic Art Museum. The Irish Pavilion will showcase the best of the new wave of ceramic art emerging from Ireland, marrying the ancient techniques of the East to our own cultural traditions. It is a permanent exhibition space created to house the work of those ceramic artists whose subtlety, skill and vision captures the spirit of contemporary Ireland. Eleanor Flegg, writer, and Andrew Standen Raz, film maker and photographer, will travel with the group to document the residency. The Irish Pavilion opens on the 4th October 2011.
The blog is written by Eleanor Flegg, whose opinions may not necessarily reflect those of the group.

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

News from Mandy

Here's an update from Mandy Parslow: 'Still slowly developing the vessel forms which began on the return from China. At the moment I'm making towards Ceramic Art London in the spring. Also spending lots of time hopefully positively influencing a new generation of makers while lecturing on the BA Honours Ceramics course at Limerick School of Art and Design.'


Monday, November 11, 2013

Alex's update

Alex Scott says: '

Since 'Bricks in the Rain' my energies have been channelled on producing new work for 2 major Irish exhibitions. The first being 'CULTURECRAFT', in Derry/Londonderry as part of the UK city of Culture calendar. For this I developed the chair forms that had so enamoured me in Fuping, but interpreted a more personal response by reflecting on the chair that belonged to my maternal grandmother. This was a vernacular piece of country furniture from the turn of the century and resulted in a piece of work that was much bolder and larger in scale than the work made in China.

The other challenge I faced was for the show 'FIGURE' at the Millennium Court Arts Centre in Portadown October 2013. This group exhibition of 7 ceramic artists was curated by Michael Robinson, and was reviewed in Ceramic review (issue 264). My work used simple press moulded elements to suggest representation of the figure as opposed to the more literal interpretations chosen by Robinson from the other makers. This was an opportunity to continue with the exploitation of surface quality and unglazed clay body that was one of the major elements of the work I made in China'


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Dr Eleanor Flegg
17 Vernon Street
Dublin 8
087 7693670

Neil's news

Neil Read says: 'At the moment I have three pieces in the Ceramics Ireland juried show at the Pierce Museum in Dublin and early next year will be involved an exhibition at the National Crafts Gallery in Kilkenny. That exhibition is the second showing of 'Culturecraft' which opened this Autumn in the London Street Gallery in Derry as part of its City of Culture celebrations. It was opened by President Higgins (see photo).

My piece for the Derry show deals with the culture that changed for my family in Pettigo, Donegal where my great grandfather was Post Master. The family lived in the village from 1610. British all their life, partition meant they found themselves in the Irish Free State. They had to leave "in a great hurry" under threat in 1922. The stamps document the life of my family and the post office as they changed from British to British with an Irish over print to Free State.'

You can read more about Neil's work at www.neilreadceramics.com.


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Dr Eleanor Flegg
17 Vernon Street
Dublin 8
087 7693670

Michael says...

Here's a news flash from Michael Moore: 'Following my time in Fuping and our experiences of Bricks in the Rain exhibitions in Dublin and Cork, I have been developing a layered series of pieces. Some with bursting colour as in the 'Double Walled Form' from 'Bricks' but also now a cooler series of pieces I describe as the 'Second Skin' Series. 'Flow' which you see here, inspired by pillow forms, describes this cooler layering of white on white. This is currently on exhibition at the Galatea Gallery, Bucharest, Romania. I understand the show goes to Germany next. (Nov. 2013)'

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Dr Eleanor Flegg
17 Vernon Street
Dublin 8
087 7693670

Back to the blog

First of all I just want to say that it's totally brilliant to know that people are still reading the blog - thank you all for your comments. The adventure itself seems such a long time ago and at the time I had wondered if I wrote too frankly about my take on Fuping and its wonders. It was such a big experience, kind of traumatic and wonderful, and has totally informed my work, to the extent that I am now writing sci-fi about ceramics. And there is a brick factory somewhere in the mix...
About a year after coming back from China we had an exhibition, Bricks in the Rain, in Dublin and Cork. You can find out all about it on the Bricks in the Rain Facebook page. The film that Adrew Standen-Raz made about the residency, Made in China, was shown at the British Ceramics Biennial yesterday.
So the residency generated quite a bit of group activity in its aftermath but now everyone is doing their own thing so I've emailed everyone in the group for news and images and I will be posting these over the next few weeks.
I know that it is a nightmare to actually post comments / join the blog and will get advice on this. The next time I blog I will use a different hosting service.

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Dr Eleanor Flegg
17 Vernon Street
Dublin 8
087 7693670