Final Poster

54N - A Sense of Place

“Unruly places have the power to disrupt our expectations and to re-enchant geography. They force us to realise how many basic human motivations – such as the need for freedom, escape and creativity – are bound up with place.” (Bonnett A, 2014)

Introduction

“We are a place-making and place-loving species, drawn by as much a wild desire to escape to anywhere as it is by a need to anchor to a certain somewhere.” (Bonnett A, 2014)

Latitude: 5400’07.5”North, Longitude: 2 40’44.6”West takes the observer to the edge of the fells of the Trough of Bowland, where they will be greeted with extensive views across the Irish Sea and to the Cumbrian mountains across Morecambe Bay. The fells offer a sense of wilderness, of an unruly landscape with a certain harshness associated with the North. Hills linked by the ancient pathways of our ancestors have been immortalised with coldly inhospitable names like Wolf Crag, Grit Fell and Thorn Crag but actually provide a home to a resident population of red grouse, oystercatchers and hen harriers, while lapwings and curlews make their noisy temporary home there during the nesting season.

Common species of plant such as bilberry, heather, bryophytes and rush dominate the landscape with a sward of sedge grazed by hardy breeds of sheep. The mean temperature in January of 3 means that there is a bleakness to the winter months.

54N takes organic material from this upland landscape and allows the vegetation’s form to live on, producing a permanent impression of the landscape – of one point in time and space. It rules the unruly and makes a fixed place portable (Davidson, 2005). It sees composition using materials that would otherwise decompose. 54N makes the impermanent permanent, accentuating nature’s detail of structure and form by pushing the physical limitations of porcelain’s ability to support shape and hold composition.

Overview

54N endeavours to retain as much physical detail as possible, placing the emphasis on the spaces between the organic material as if it were in situ. This is achieved with the negative space created by the process of loss during firing. The physical limitations of porcelain are the key drivers to produce each component, thanks to the way porcelain is worked with in its pliable clay form, or as a slip with varying degrees of viscosity.

By its very nature, porcelain allows both strength and delicate structure and, in its unglazed state, allows the observer to focus on form alone. To quote Jane Perryman, “without the physical bones of glaze, naked clay is able to invite an immediate response by revealing a range of direct aesthetic and tactile qualities.” (J. Perryman, 2006)

Other ceramic artists, such as Katie Spragg, Nuala O’Donovan, Vanessa Hogge, Guy Van Leemput, Tine Durvell and Therese Leburn, all use natural form as their main influence, building shapes akin to natural tissues from memory, their imagination or from mathematical design. The work of Katie Spragg is of particular interest as she produces delicate grass-like forms, which are either as a portable piece or as an installation or permanent sculptural feature. For a variety of reasons, porcelain is used by all of these artists. Once high-fired, porcelain’s characteristics of being dense, hard and translucent hold fascination for the artists and observers alike.

Development

The idea of 54N originated with a desire to capture or envelop articles in order to produce a memento for safe keeping, while taking advantage of the translucent nature of porcelain.

Initially, the project in Design Practice 1 led research into varying types of surface texture with press-molding and incorporating organic material directly within. Methods taken from Atkin (2004) and Standen (2013) were implemented in order to create very fine sheets of clay and suitable molds.

Press-molding can also give the illusion of transforming organic material with original natural looking shapes and textures into a new fossil-like existence (Standen, 2013).

The aim was to produce an outer case akin to one found in nature, but containing another natural form that could only be identified by placing the object over a light source. The fragility of the form soon became apparent, with undesirable finishes caused by warping and cracking.

The desire to hark back to time spent outdoors immersed in the untamed landscape (Wilson, 2014) was the key motivation for studying heathland, its flora and fauna. Surrounded by the Bowland Fells, the studio is ideally placed for regular escapes and for observing nature’s annual cycles. The subject for Design Practice 2 developed after trials on various heathland plants such as bracken, grasses and bryophytes. The seemingly ubiquitous rush (Latin name Juncus), which thrives in the fells’ poor soil has a straw-like form which lends itself to producing interesting forms.

The research turned to experimenting with slips as a way of coating the various plant-life.

A series of tests on commercially available slips was undertaken, noting their absorbency by the organic material and their ability to coat as well as to survive firings without disintegrating. It was found that the consistency of the slip and its ability to be held by the material depended greatly upon its viscosity along with the softness of the plant material and its ability to shrink with the slip. Homemade slips were therefore produced and then tested using various porcelain powders, the de-flocculant sodium silicate and water. Paper fibres were added with reference to Standen’s (2013) recipes and drying techniques using Mathieson’s (2010) various suggestions. Firing involves the loss of the organic material. This means that, with the initial burn, a dependence on suitable extraction is key.

In order to narrow the research, rush was chosen for its highly structural form and its ability to hold slip whilst drying. Its dense foliage provides tiny voids between each leaf and it is this area which fills with slip and, once fired, the loss of the material leaves incredibly delicate cylindrical shapes and voids giving a high degree of texture.

The project took two routes. Firstly, the effectiveness of loss of material in the firing meant that the voids left were separated by the thinnest of porcelain walls. They are both fragile and yet incredibly hard. The tiny cylinders left behind have an almost hair-like quality and with each tiny tube, a unique pattern.

Secondly, further testing on immersing rush in porcelain meant that the tiny cylindrical shapes could be created in a solid piece, which holds fast the fragile shapes, making portable the seemingly chaotic wilderness.

Conclusion

As Bonnett (2014) suggests, man is both place-making and place-loving by nature, and the desire to escape is matched with a desire to anchor.

In terms of the project, 54N has pin-pointed a place of wilderness – an uruly landscape, a place of freedom, escape and creativity.

As a study, it has provided challenge in terms of material choices, technical development of specific slips, their handling and techniques associated with managing moisture levels (Loder, 2013) and firing.

Producing works that involve the burning of substantial amounts of organic material comes with its own hazards. Ideally, an outdoor gas kiln would be used. Higher temperatures contribute to porcelain’s high density and translucency (Tristram, 1996; Jones, 2007). There is scope to push firing temperatures in excess of 1300 which in turn will affect warping of the fine remains.

54N as an installation captures a momentary experience of being in an unruly wilderness. It is a recording of absolute time and place. Natural order is made permanent, facilitated by ceramic. A keepsake is created and made portable. Composition is made from the inevitable decomposition.

54N – A Certain Somewhere –5400’07.5”N Longitude: 2 40’44.6”W.

This work is an expression of a specific location and time – a point that had its own locality and a region that was untamed. On first appearance, the pieces are solid with hard edges and a certain starkness. Further inspection leads the observer to experience to fragility of form with the fine voids and airy remains created by loss.