Y A N K E E L O N D O N S T U D I O
Musings from a Yankee artist abroad in London...
Moon Jar
At the British Museum I am circling a case, the case that holds a 17th century Korean moon jar. In addition to the hands that created it, two ceramic luminaries had it in their lives: Bernard Leach, who upon his death bestowed it to Lucie Rie. A non-potter would wonder, "Why this moon jar?" It’s not perfect, clearly lopsided with an awkward joining that slumps with gravity, the rim listing to one side. Remnants of ash speckle the surface (the museum has placed them at the “back“, along with the most prominent iron oxide streak bleeding through the glaze close to the base). You can see the tension in the glaze where the pressure of firing pushed formed earth against the surface glaze. And throughout there are the pits and slips of hands moving across form, disrupted by inclusions in the porcelain. And you wonder at the potter, deep in the cycle of throwing, joining, linking, remaining suspended – committed to the idea, to the tradition, to the form, but really, I think to the doing.
I am thinking of gesture, temporal gestures...
I am thinking of gesture, temporal gestures...
