The Poetics of Glaze: Ceramics Surface and the Perception of Depth

摘要

This research by practice into the visual and aesthetic qualities of ceramic glaze investigatesudits ability to create an impression of depth. Because perspectival depth alone can not fullyudaccount for my artistic concerns, and the requirements of perspectival illusion are at oddsudwith some of my major artistic preoccupations, such as an interest in accidents andudimprecision in material rendering, I raised the hypothesis of a poetic dimension of depth,udposing the research question for this project:udud“What is poetic depth in a ceramic glaze?”ududTraditionally, research into glazes focuses on aspects of material science, craftsmanship,udarchaeology or art history, and optical depth has been the subject of investigations into theudmicrostructure of glaze. By seeking to address the aesthetic dimension of glaze I am movingudaway from such concerns. While the aesthetics of ceramic glaze is a new field of research,udwith little existing material, I am seeking to find parallels with practice, theories and researchudfrom the field of literary poetry, even though by ‘poetic’ I am referring to a quality that is notudonly mediated by language and goes beyond the field of literature. Further, I am alsoudreferring to Gaston Bachelard’s approach to material imagination through his poetics of theudnatural elements and to the concept of transitional space developed by psychoanalysts of theudBritish Independent Group, Donald Winnicott and Marion Milner.ududMy thesis consists of a threefold dialogue between my artistic practice of glaze, theories andudpractices of literary poetry and the concept of the transitional phenomenon.udMy findings are at the intersection of those three elements, and they are the results of myudinvestigations through both making and writing:ud• ‘Poetic tension’ is a paradoxical and conflicting process between authority – the abilityudto control – and subjectivity on the one hand and factors of dissent, questioning theudvery possibility of authorship, on the other: among these are the unconscious and theudmateriality of the glaze.ud• The concern for interiority is a central element of poetry, the transitional phenomenonudand my works.ud• My practice of glaze is an attempt to re-enact and objectify the fusion between theudself and the world, addressing the issues of the illusion of all-encompassingudsubjectivity and the disillusion of objectivity, both key elements of the transitionaludphenomenon.ud• Play has been a natural development of my practice of glaze and I further establishedudparallels with the literary poetic in a shared aspiration for subversion, dissent andudlaughter.ud• The concept of the formless permeates Bachelard’s material imagination and myudpractice of glaze. Moreover it is often a prerequisite for Winnicott’s and Milner’sudapproach to creativity and play.ud• Failure is the essence of a certain form of poetry, which Georges Bataille summed upudas the ‘Impossible’. It is also a key aspect of my practice of glaze: an essence of fluxudor a further element of play whose irresolution or unlikely balance can create yetudanother dimension of the poetic.ud• Flux is a necessary element of glazes but it also summarizes the dynamics anduddialectics of the transitional phenomenon and of the Bataillean ‘Impossible’ and theudplayful poetic.ududAll three strands: my practice of glaze, the literary poetic and the transitionaludphenomenon intertwine, cross-fertilize and develop in parallel. Together, they haveudhelped articulate the concepts and the artistic vocabulary through which the poetic andudthe transitional phenomenon have become operative categories of aesthetics, artisticudpractice, and of research processes.