Ceramic Art London 2018

Yesterday I went to Ceramic Art London which is ‘The International Contemporary Ceramics Event’.  It is a 3 day event held at Central Saint Martins in the remodelled Granary Building which is a fantastic setting of striking architecture.  I got there with what I thought was plenty of time to grab a coffee & piece of cake before heading to the lecture theatre for a talk by Grayson Perry.  Apparently not.  The lecture theatre was filling up fast and I didn’t want to miss out, so I forwent the planned midmorning indulgence and took my seat.  Grayson Perry did not disappoint.  He had the whole (very full) room laughing within 2 minutes and he continued to entertain us with his extremely open and honest talk about identity and social classes for an hour including some Q & A at the end.

There is a full schedule of talks by many others working in the creative sector including Phoebe Cummings – winner of the Woman’s Hour Craft Prize 2017 and Keith Brymer Jones – renowned ceramist and judge on The Great Pottery Throw Down. I only had time for one talk unfortunately, but I was more than happy with my choice.

Onward to the actual exhibitors and their work! Amazing quality and variety.  For me it was a particular joy to see Jonjin Park and his incredible pieces made from layered papertowel & porcelain slip.  We chatted about how he acheives his ‘Stratum’ effect and some Korean traditions in ritual vessel making which has now added to my ‘to do’ list for further research.  I only wish I’d bought that piece from his MA show back in 2014 which was above my budget then, but now with his advancing career and work……ah, well, I can admire from afar!

Others who I really enjoyed seeing were Hannah Tounsend, Patricia Shone, Ashraf Hannah – actually I can’t pick as they were all a joy. What a great opportunity to see and sometimes handle works by makers who I admire,  as well as be introduced to work by makers that I hadn’t come across.

Pictured : Grainne Watts, Lara Scobie, Ashraf Hannah

To me, this is a top day out – it was only slightly marred by the train home being packed so I had to stand for the entire journey which meant that not only did my legs ache but I didn’t get to sit with the catalogue for an hour going over it all again.  I did however rectify this when I got home by poring over the catalogue with a chilled glass of wine.