WestminsterResearch http://www.westminster.ac.uk/westminsterresearch Re-modelling clay: ceramic practice and the museum in Britain (1970-2014) Breen, L. This is an electronic version of a PhD thesis awarded by the University of Westminster. © Miss Laura Breen, 2016. The WestminsterResearch online digital archive at the University of Westminster aims to make the research output of the University available to a wider audience. Copyright and Moral Rights remain with the authors and/or copyright owners. Whilst further distribution of specific materials from within this archive is forbidden, you may freely distribute the URL of WestminsterResearch: ((http://westminsterresearch.wmin.ac.uk/). In case of abuse or copyright appearing without permission e-mail [email protected] RE-MODELLING CLAY: CERAMIC PRACTICE AND THE MUSEUM IN BRITAIN (1970-2014) LAURA MARIE BREEN A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Westminster for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy This work forms part of the Behind the Scenes at the Museum: Ceramics in the Expanded Field research project and was supported by the AHRC [grant number AH/I000720/1] June 2016 Abstract This thesis analyses how the dialogue between ceramic practice and museum practice has contributed to the discourse on ceramics. Taking Mieke Bal’s theory of exposition as a starting point, it explores how ‘gestures of showing’ have been used to frame art-oriented ceramic practice. Examining the gaps between the statements these gestures have made about and through ceramics, and the objects they seek to expose, it challenges the idea that ceramics as a category of artistic practice has ‘expanded.’ Instead, it forwards the idea that ceramics is an integrative practice, through which practitioners produce works that can be read within a range of artistic (and non-artistic) frameworks. Focusing on activity in British museums between 1970 and 2014, it takes a thematic and broadly chronological approach, interrogating the interrelationship of ceramic practice, museum practice and political and critical shifts at different points in time. Revealing an ambiguity at the core of the category ‘ceramics,’ it outlines numerous instances in which ‘gestures of showing’ have brought the logic of this categorisation into question, only to be returned to the discourse on ‘ceramics’ as a distinct category through acts of institutional recuperation. Suggesting that ceramics practitioners who wish to move beyond this category need to make their vitae as dialogic as their works, it indicates that many of those trying to raise the profile of ‘ceramics’ have also been complicit in separating it from broader artistic practice. Acknowledging that those working within institutions that sustain this distinction are likely to re-make, rather than reconsider ceramics, it leaves the ball in their court. Contents List of illustrations Acknowledgments Author’s declaration IntroduCtion 1 Background 3 Theoretical framework 6 Definitions 9 Research strategy 12 Structure 17 Chapter ONE: Contextual review 24 Towards a standard 27 Looking for a home 33 Crafting a presence 40 Institutionalisation 45 Expansion? 54 Chapter TWO: Shifting institutional landsCape 62 New order 63 Consumption and accountability 68 Engagement and context 77 Dialogue and impact 85 Beyond the bountiful 95 Chapter THREE: CeramIC practice and the collection 99 Accommodating the contemporary 100 Inspiration 109 Critique and intervention 120 Fluid identities 132 Chapter FOUR: Space and place 140 Sculptural ambitions 141 Vesselism 151 Framing the multiple 161 House and home 170 Site and situation 179 Chapter FIVE: Materiality and proCess 191 Touch 192 Craft and facture 203 Beyond studio production 213 Unmaking 221 Chapter SIX: The medium-specifIC exhibition 233 as a means of definition Ambiguity and re-definition 234 New standards 241 Expanding the field 251 Ceramics as site 260 Conclusion 270 Bibliography 282 Illustrations 330 List of illustrations 1. Alison Britton. The Maker’s Eye, 1981. Installation shot of curated display, Crafts Council Gallery, Waterloo Place, London, UK. 2. Philip Eglin, Microwave Oven-safe Madonna, 2001. Porcelain. V&A Museum, London, UK. 3. Katherine Morling, Split-Headed Fish and Seahorse, 2012. Earthstone clay, porcelain slip and black stain. Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, UK. 4. Paul Astbury, Trash Monument to Poor Craftsmanship and Poor Art, 1974. Mixed media. Installation shot, Crafts Advisory Committee Gallery, Waterloo Place, London, UK. Image courtesy of the artist. 5. Paul Astbury, Space Ship Derelict, 1974. Press-moulded porcelain, glaze. Crafts Council Collection, London, UK. 6. Eduardo Paolozzi, Cyclops, 1957. Bronze. Tate Gallery collection, London, UK. 7. Jo Stockham, Neutral History, 1987. Mixed media. Installation shot, Stoke-on-Trent City Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke-on- Trent, UK. Image courtesy of the artist. 8. Magdalena Odundo, Acknowledged Sources, 2002. Royal Staffordshire porcelain plates, transfer-print. Installation shot, Russell-Cotes Gallery, Bournemouth, UK. 9. Edmund de Waal, Arcanum, 2005. Mixed media. Installation shot, National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, Wales. 10. Marcus Thomas, A Sense of Place, 1995. Slipcast clay. Installation shot, Aberystwyth University Ceramic Collection and Archive. 11. Grayson Perry, Angel of the South, 2006. Cast iron. Installation shot, The Collection, Lincoln, UK. 12. Tony Hepburn, Clay and steel construction, about 1971. Stoneware, silver lustre, steel, slip. Private collection. 13. Anthony Caro, Month of May, 1963. Steel, aluminium, painted magenta, orange and green. Tate Gallery collection, London, UK. 14. Richard Mackness, Cult 1000, 1977. Fired clay, wood, straw, cord, black oiled pigment. Bristol Polytechnic degree show, Bristol, UK. Image courtesy of the artist. 15. Percy Peacock, Impact Imperative, 1978. Fired clay, raw clay, found objects, paint, wax, fabric. Image courtesy of the artist. 16. Jim Robison, Megalithic Column, about 1980. Installation shot, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, UK. Image courtesy of Yorkshire Sculpture Park. 17. Paul Astbury, Sticky, Dry, Open, 1980. Wood, dry porcelain clay, sticky putty. Installation shot, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, UK. Image courtesy of the artist. 18. Paul Astbury, Sky Tunnel, 1980. Porcelain, sticky tape, aluminium. Installation shot, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, UK. Image courtesy of the artist. 19. Elizabeth Fritsch, Improvisations from Earth to Air, 1976. Reduced stoneware pots with painted slip decoration. Installation shot, British Crafts Centre, London, UK. Photograph © Ceramic Review. 20. Glenys Barton, Terminal Zone I, 1974. Bone china with silk screen transfer. 21. Glenys Barton, Sky Plateau II, 1976. Bone china with silk screen transfer. 22. Craft shop at the V&A, London, UK (1974). © Design magazine. 23. V&A ceramics galleries 1909. Image courtesy of the V&A Museum, London, UK. 24. V&A ceramics galleries, London, UK, 1999. © Ceramic Review. 25. Bruce McLean, Pose Work for Plinths I, 1971. Black and white photograph on paper and board. Tate Gallery collection, London, UK. 26. Andrew Lord, Round Grey Shadow, 1978. Earthenware. Leeds Art Gallery collection, Lotherton Hall, Leed, UK. 27. Gwyn Hanssen-Piggot, Still Life, 2 bottles, goblet and beaker, 1992. Wheel-thrown Limoges porcelain, glazed and wood-fired. V&A Museum, London, UK. 28. Andrew Lord, Cubist vase and tray, 1978. Hand-formed stoneware. V&A Museum, London, UK. 29. Edmund de Waal, Signs & Wonders, 2009. Porcelain and powder coated aluminium. Installation shot, V&A Museum, London, UK. 30. Cecile Johnson-Soliz, Twenty Eight Pitchers, 1994-96. Installation shot, National Museum Wales, Cardiff, Wales. 31. Edmund de Waal, Modern Home, 1999. Installation shots, High Cross House, Dartington, UK. 32. Richard Slee, Bedroom Snake, 2001. Glazed ceramic, installation shot from The Uncanny Room, Pitzhanger Manor, London, UK. Photograph by Philip Sayer. 33. Those Environmental Artists, Living Space at Stoke, 1991. Mixed media, installation shot. Stoke-on-Trent City Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, UK. 34. Conrad Atkinson, Mining Culture, 1996. Ceramic landmines with on-glaze painting on biscuitware, installation shot. © The artist and Courtauld Institute of Art, London, UK. 35. Clare Twomey, Consciousness/Conscience, 2001-present. Bone china. 36. Clare Twomey, Trophy, 2006. Installation shot. V&A Museum, London, UK. 37. Clare Curneen, Daphne and replica hands, 2006. Partially glazed porcelain. Gallery Oldham, Oldham, UK 38. Felicity Aylieff, Bittersweet (top), 2001. Press moulded Almondsbury red brick clay; Twist and Turn (bottom), 1996. Press moulded white clay body with aggregates of fired coloured porcelain, fired terracotta and borosilicate and ballotini glass. Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester, UK. 39. Caroline Achaintre, Camden Arts Centre residency, 2014. Installation shot, Camden Arts Centre, London, UK. 40. Keith Harrison, Bustleholme, 2013. Mixed media. Installation shot, De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea, UK. 41. Clare Twomey, Made in China, 2013. Installation shot, British Ceramics Biennial, Stoke-on-Trent, UK. 42. Bouke De Vries, Vanitas (Exploded Teapot), c. 1765/2012. Exploded Bow porcelain. Image courtesy of the artist. ACknowledgments Pulling together this thesis has been both a joy and a battle, which I could not have fought without the backing of a large team of supporters. Firstly, my thanks go to my supervisory team: Christie Brown, who has