- May 24, 2023:
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Fotos von Martin McWilliams Beitrag
- May 24, 2023:
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Fotos von Martin McWilliams Beitrag
- May 24, 2023:
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Fotos von Martin McWilliams Beitrag
- May 24, 2023:
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- May 24, 2023:
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- May 24, 2023:
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- May 24, 2023:
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Solo Exhibition in the Keramion
Form in Space -
To the ceramic work of Martin McWilliam
A look at cultural history proves it. Pottery is one of the earliest cultural expressions of man and is a yardstick and carrier of the cultural levels, with the vessel clearly being the main task. The hollow form of hands together in their function of scooping and drinking was probably the model for the first clay vessels, which were created by pressing, squeezing and shaping. In their tactile quality, they nestle against the hand pit and at the same time allow one to feel the symbolic power of the vessel. The vessel is an ancient symbol for receiving, absorbing and preserving.
The ceramic work of Martin McWilliam revolves around the vessel, which is characterized by the encounter with the aesthetics of Japanese tea ceramics. Not the perfect, symmetrical and calculated, but the beauty of the imperfect, asymmetrical and random are characteristics of this aesthetic, which also characterize Martin McWilliam's vessels. The organic and irregular character is already achieved when turning the potter's wheel, when the Chinese porcelain beads embedded in the clay create imbalances when the pot walls are pulled up. On the surface, the enclosed pearls set relief-like accents, whose aesthetic appeal is further enhanced by the lively play of colours of the applied glazes. This painterly effect is the result of a firing process that Martin McWilliam also explored and researched in Japan. Due to the wood fire in the self-built three-chamber kiln, a wide variety of colour nuances, encrustations, traces of fire and shades are created by ash flight and glaze gradients. In this process, coincidence plays a major role, which can only be controlled to a limited extent by the artist's "director's instructions". But that's what makes it interesting and exciting. Martin McWilliam is always amazed at the results of wood fire burning, which often deviate from his intended vision of the end products.
An atmosphere of the archaic and original characterizes this group of works of tea vessels, in which the four elements are condensed in the truest sense of the word. Since ancient Greece, earth, water, air and fire have been regarded as the primary substances (arché) of the world. In the Middle Ages, Hildegard von Bingen set the elements in her four-part world view in analogy to the four seasons, the four cardinal points and also to the temperaments of people. Air is assigned to the sanguine, fire to the choleric, water to the phlegmatic and earth to the melancholic. This assignment reflects a close connection between the primary substances of the world and the human soul. But the vessel made of clay is also a symbol for the human body, which is reminded of by numerous vessel figures. And it is no coincidence that the ceramist speaks of the foot, the belly, the neck and also the lip when creating vessels. Martin McWilliam's vessels are therefore closely related to people. They are an examination of the primary substances of the world, honour the vessel as a carrier of meaning and encourage contemplative contemplation. A comparison to the idea of the Japanese garden is appropriate here, which is never a kitchen garden, but always designed as a place of meditation against the background of Zen Buddhism. In the case of Martin McWilliam's vessels, too, their function is not the primary focus. Rather, they are objects of aesthetic experience that can invite the gift of stillness and deceleration.
Martin McWilliam's vessel objects appear even more removed from practical utility. They tell of an artistic examination of the form and its surface. The ceramist has developed a design language in which the vessel is "ironed" into the surface and the volume of a hollow body expected by the viewer is only simulated. This original and innovative game of optical illusion, confusion and irritation is continued when bisected vessels stand as a torso on a metal plate or when vessel abbreviations appear in foreshortened perspective as sparse scratched drawings on a ceramic plate. The appeal of the fragmentary is to be emphasized as well as the appeal to the viewer's imagination to fill in what is missing. Our viewing habits are also called into question by the artistic deceptive effects, which can be reminiscent of Cubist painting. As in the cubist paintings, forms are broken in the ceramics and different perspectives are interwoven. The aim of this artistic position is to guide the viewer around the disassembled object in an imaginary manner, which addresses the tension between space and time. And yet another level of meaning of these vessel objects must be emphasized: the demonstration of the unreliability of our sensory perceptions. Again, there is a parallel to Zen Buddhism and its original distrust of visible things in their impermanence and nothingness.
Martin McWilliams was already inspired by East Asian culture and Japanese ceramics while studying ceramics at the Bournemouth Art School and Dartington Pottery Training WOrkshop (1975-78). His years of apprenticeship and travel not only led to various workshops in England, Germany and Switzerland, but also to Japan, where he encountered the Japanese ceramic tradition intensively. There, Martin McWilliam explored the materials, techniques and firing processes, but above all internalized the spirituality that is so closely associated with this tradition. This explains the authenticity of his ceramics, which enchant with their archaic dignity and their aura of magic and mystery. In our increasingly disenchanted world, we can be thankful for this appeal of Martin McWilliam's ceramics. And we are also grateful for the ceramist's contribution to the cultural climate in Oldenburg county where Martin McWilliam has lived and worked since1983.
Martin Feltes - May 17, 2023:
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Fantastic opening in the Keramion last Sunday : )
A great honor to be showing there! - Apr 18, 2023:
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New Work
We have just carried out the 65th Sandhatter Noborigama firing.
I'll show the results at the next open studio weekend
from April 28th to 30th
maybe you want to stop by : ) - Apr 16, 2023:
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