VESSEL: Birdwood House Gallery, Totnes Sept 11th – 16th

Variations on the theme of Vessel by Loz Gilroy, Jan O’Highway, Verity Newman and Christina Peters; four Devon artists working with fire to explore the essence and boundaries of negative and positive space, through clay, glass and mixed media.

The exhibition features distinct and diverse approaches – from Gilroy’s intuitive interpretation of tides of emotion as expressed through wheel thrown and altered stoneware and porcelain, Newman’s mythical figurative sculpture made with local clay, the ambiguity and fluidity of O’Highway’s melted glass objects, to Peters’ traditional wheel thrown raku forms exploring containment and space.

. . . giant waves of emotion and feelings pounding shores, as we journey through life in our little boats. Held within these momentous gravitational forces . . LG

. . . a means of transport or a receptacle. My brain, within the vessel of my skull, as repository of thought and memory. I think of ships, carrying humans on the sea. VN

. . . rigid enclosing structures transformed by fire and gravity into amorphic shapes, frozen in time, fluid in meaning. JO’H

. . . sculpture; holding inner space, creating negative space and new forms. Dynamic tension achieving balance between outer and inner spaces. CP

All four artists are members of professional artist-led organisations in the South West, including Flameworks, Southwest Sculptors Association, Totnes and Dartington Open Studios Group and the Westcountry Potters Association.
www.cairdeasgallery.co.uk
www.veritynewman.co.uk
www.janohighway.com
www.flameworks.org/christina-peters