JAN DOWNES

GATHERING

1 OCTOBER - 24 OCTOBER 2015

10AM - 4PM TUESDAY TO SATURDAY (& SUNDAY 11 OCTOBER)

We are delighted to have Dr Faye Neilson, Lecturer, School of Creative Arts, The University of Newcastle, to officially launch the exhibition at 5pm, Thursday 1 October 2015.

This collection of work is a gathering of fragments of my existence. Elements of living that offer comfort and solace. Nature, sea, light, shelter.

I work with Southern Ice porcelain, which is a pure white clay that offers the magic of translucency. It is challenging to work with, I etch and carve the surface in order to achieve a tonal range of translucency and diversity of markings. The thinner the more translucent, and the more fragile. Sometimes I push it past its limit with disastrous results!

The Gathered forms are made by pouring liquid clay into a mould made of a suspended fabric vessel shape. The texture of the cloth is imprinted on the clay and through firing it is vitrified. In making these forms I was thinking about shells; the ephemeral vessels of home for sea life.

I envision Nightlights as objects of comfort. My mark-making is also drawn from remembered landscapes. They are made in plaster moulds and when the clay is leather hard it is etched so the light that penetrates is of varying intensities.

The intaglio clay wall prints Lap lines are taken from carved plaster sheets, based on remembered and imagined sea and landscapes. The colour has been airbrushed at an angle to accentuate the markings.

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