Exhibitions
Heat and Dust
19-30 November 2014
Joanna is delighted to announce her new exhibition, Heat and Dust, taking place at Grove Park Terrace from Wednesday 19 November to Sunday 30 November, open 10am – 5.30pm (including Saturdays, closed Sunday 23 November) with late night openings on Thursday 20 and Thursday 27 to 9pm.
Joanna visited India earlier this year to source exotic new textiles and other craft products from artisans working in Chennai, Pondicherry and Jaipur. The result is an exhibition that conveys the rich and varied atmosphere of the country, showcasing the finest Indian hand-crafts and beautiful new contemporary ceramics and glass.
Finely woven silk saris, cashmere shawls and pashminas in a range of vibrant colours and traditional patterns will be complemented by the bright glazes and sculptural forms of work from both established and emerging artists.
Pippin Drysdale explores a range of colours from Violet to Crimson to Ochre to enliven her unique porcelain forms. Sara Moorhouse and Natasha Daintry will provide their take on the vessel in an equally dazzling array of colours directly inspired by the craft textiles in the show.
Ceramics from Clive Bowen, Richard Batterham and Kaori Tatebayashi demonstrate the beauty of functional form whilst Thiébaut Chagué’s powerful sculptures speak of the immediate relationship between earth and fire.
Chien-Wei Chang’s silver work responds to objects in everyday use in India, bringing a fresh view on a country that is undergoing rapid change.
The show will also feature ceramics by Sara Dodd and Emma Finch, and new work in glass from Juli Bolaños-Durman.
Exhibitions
The Arris, Interpreted
27 November - 24 December 2014
An exhibition of new work by Carina Ciscato
Curated by Joanna Bird
In association with Messum’s, the exhibition will run alongside a show of work by Frank Phelan.
8 Cork Street
London
W1S 3LJ
Monday-Friday 10am – 6pm
Saturday 10am – 4pn
Sunday Closed
Exhibitions, Projects
Joanna Bird at Chesney’s London
Joanna Bird presents a selection of curated works at Chesney’s the new showroom in Battersea. Joanna chose vibrant ceramic works to complement Chesney’s period and contemporary luxury fireplaces.
Chesney’s
194 – 200 Battersea Park Road,
London, SW11 4ND
Monday-Friday 9:00am-5.30pm, Saturday 10.00am-5.00pm
by appointment
Exhibitions, Projects
Carina Ciscato at Chesney’s New York
Coinciding with the Inspired by Soane launch at Chesney’s New York, Carina Ciscato is exhibiting new works including a series of roundels, which she developed as part of the Marking the line: Ceramics and Architecture.
Chesney’s New York
Suite 1119, 11th Floor, D&D Building,
979 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10022
Monday-Friday 9:00am – 5.00pm
Projects, Commissions
The North Sketch Sequence by Jacob van der Beugel at Chatsworth
The North Sketch Sequence is an entire ceramic room created using textured, handmade ceramic panels created by artist, Jacob van der Beugel. Lining the walls of the North Sketch Gallery each of the 659 warm, ochre coloured panels is unique and can fit only in one place. It is the most ambitious permanent ceramic installation ever to be constructed in a Grade I listed house.
Using samples from the Duke and Duchess, their son Lord Burlington and his wife Lady Burlington, the panels are embedded with a depiction of the Devonshire family’s DNA. Aspects of each individual’s personality are captured on raised ceramic blocks representing their personal DNA strand in an unusual and creative take on the traditional portrait.
It is a major work of art, and in the Duke of Devonshire’s words, ‘The most important addition to the house since the Sculpture Gallery was added in 1832.’ It is also the largest handmade contemporary ceramic installation ever to be installed in a country house.
The North Sketch Sequence is a landmark in Jacob’s career as both conceptual artist and master craftsman. It took four years to complete the project, completely covering the 20m long gallery. The panels are a new departure for Jacob, and he is now looking to extend his practice further by exploring new wall-mounted forms leading on from The North Sketch Sequence.
“A beautiful poetic work which is exemplary in the way it manages to turn information (of which we have so much, and which usually leaves us so cold) into art (which touches our hearts).”
Alain de Botton on The North Sketch Sequence
The installation also won the prestigious CODAaward for best interior in the residential category. The annual CODAaward celebrates the best design and art projects from all over the world. Jacob’s installation was chosen from over 336 entries from 32 countries.
The North Sketch Sequence is on permanent display at Chatsworth House, Derbyshire, UK.
Exhibitions, Projects
Joanna Bird at Suzanne Lovell Inc
In November 2013, Joanna Bird visited Chicago for a pop-up exhibition in the studio of renowned interior designer Suzanne Lovell. The show coincided with SOFA Chicago, where Joanna had a stand and Suzanne had designed the VIP room.
Showing a range of contemporary and historic works in a variety of media, Joanna and Suzanne gave a talk about the importance of decorative arts within the home and the three dimensional experience.
Foundation
Marking the line Symposium at Somerset House
26 March 2013
In conjunction with the touring exhibition Marking the line: Ceramics and Architecture, The Joanna Bird Foundation organised a symposium to discuss the interplay between ceramics and architecture and their relevance for collectors, makers and museums today. The evening concluded with a candlelit tour of the exhibition at Sir John Soane’s Museum.
Speakers:
Eric Parry RA, Principal, Eric Parry Architects
Suzanne Lovell, Principal, Suzanne Lovell Inc.
Dr Jerzy Kierkuć-Bieliński, Exhibitions Curator, Sir John Soane’s Museum
Jan Tichelaar, Director, Royal Tichelaar Makkum
Joanna Bird, Curator, Director, The Joanna Bird Foundation
Jeremy Theophilus, Co-director of the British Ceramics Biennial
Eliza Gluckman, Curator, Day+Gluckman
Andrew Burton, Artist, Professor of Fine Art at Newcastle University
Chair: Dr Glenn Adamson, Head of Research, V&A
Themes of the symposium:
Contemporary ceramic installations in historic architectural settings.
Where do ceramics fit into the wider arts sector? How does place and historical reference affect both work and audiences?
How do installations in different historic contexts show work in a new light and how does this affect the artist, viewer and critic?
How can design factories, artists and architects explore artistic collaboration?
What is the future for crossover of architecture, interior design and ceramics?
Support from the Art Fund enabled curators from around the UK to attend the Marking the line symposium.
Visit our website to see more of the work that we do: https://www.joannabirdfoundation.com/
Exhibitions, Projects, Foundation
Marking the line: Ceramics and Architecture
7 March - 8 September 2013
Marking the line: Ceramic and Architecture was a touring exhibition, which commissioned four artists to create ceramic installations responding to the life and works of Sir John Soane. Curated by Joanna Bird and Dr Jerzy Kierkuć-Bieliński, Exhibitions Curator at Sir John Soane’s Museum, the exhibition sought to challenge where and how we view ancient and modern works of art.
Ceramic artists Nicholas Rena, Carina Ciscato, Clare Twomey and Christie Brown were commissioned to create life specific responses to celebrated neoclassical architect Sir John Soane, inspired by his work, life and collections. The concept was, by introducing contemporary ceramic art into an historic architectural setting to explore the relationship between ceramics and architecture.
The exhibition opened at Sir John Soane’s Museum on March 8, 2013 and then travelled onto two further houses designed or partially designed by Soane: Port Eliot in Cornwall and Pitzhanger Manor in Ealing.
Very different dialogues between work and historic setting emerged as the exhibition translated from one venue to the next. In Port Eliot for example, themes of dynasty in Christie Brown’s work resonated not only with the life of Soane but also with that of the St.Germans family at Port Eliot, so much so that Christie produced a further two pieces, busts of the 1st Lord & Lady St Germans, to enhance the exhibition.
‘This is a fascinating exhibition with contemporary artists taking inspiration from one of our most visionary architects. This is a show that should attract anyone with an interest in art, design and architecture and I hope it will introduce many more people to Soane’s work and legacy, including his gem of a Museum in Holborn and his home at Pitzhanger Manor.’ – Boris Johnson, Mayor of London
An educational programme accompanied the exhibition, including a symposium at Somerset House, Masterclasses run by Carina Ciscato and a Village of kilns at Port Eliot.
Marking the line: Ceramics and Architecture was supported by the Arts Council England and organised by The Joanna Bird Foundation
A fully illustrated catalogue is now available to buy at the price of £10 (+1.60 p&p). To order please email your details to info@joannabirdfoundation.com
Visit our website to see more of the work that we do: https://www.joannabirdfoundation.com/
Exhibitions
Michael Cardew, Pioneer Potter Exhibition
26 September - 3 October 2012
Joanna Bird presented a seminal group of works by Michael Cardew at the Fine Art Society, London to coincide with the launch of Tanya Harrod’s major biography The Last Sane Man: Michael Cardew: Modern Pots, Colonialism, and Counterculture published by Yale University Press for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.
The exhibition included examples of Michael’s work throughout his career. These include bowls and lamps from Winchcombe, Abuja soy and talc pots and Wenford stem cups.
Michael Cardew was one of Bernard Leach’s first pupils. In 1926, he set up a traditional English pottery in Winchcombe, Gloucestershire. His aim was to produce functional affordable pieces. He worked from grass roots, mixing his own clay body and all the pigments and glazes.
In 1939, he returned to Cornwall to set up a pottery at Wenford Bridge and in 1942, he established a pottery in Ghana. He trained West African potters and brought his western ideas and technology to the more traditional primitive pottery of West Africa.
Commissions
James Rigler Table
James Rigler was commissioned by the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire to create a ceramic table, the commission was open to his interpretation within certain size limitations.
Rigler drew on his sculptural practice and previous experience with mixed media to create a table made up of five separate pieces. The final piece was created in ceramic, marble, wood, steel, gold leaf and rope.
Commissions
a sounding line by Edmund de Waal at Chatsworth
It has been a particular pleasure for Joanna to work with the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire on the installation they commissioned from British studio ceramicist Edmund de Waal.
The final work – now on display at Chatsworth – is the culmination of nearly two years’ discussion and decision-making. Entitled ‘a sounding line’, it reflects the connection Edmund felt with the historic porcelain in the State Rooms in the floor above his installation, which is located in the Chapel Passage.
Chatsworth is full of porcelain. Porcelain rests in vitrines and on desks, on mantelpieces and corbels, within fireplaces, on dining tables and stretching up to the ceiling in the porcelain room. There are formal garnitures and groupings, dinner services and wayward accretions, beautiful singletons and impressive masses: porcelain is as much a part of the texture of the place as the pictures and the furniture.
A sounding line came out of conversations with the Duke and Duchess, and the agency of Joanna Bird, to bring an installation of my porcelain into Chatsworth. Installation is ‘art-world speak’ for a sculptural grouping of work: it seemed crucial to find a way of resonating with the historic collections in a strong but sympathetic way.
The Chapel Corridor with its pairing of fireplaces and high corbels- and its softly modulated light- was the setting chosen. I’ve always wanted to make a piece that you walked along, where variations in forms and colours and tones revealed themselves as you moved and this was what I have tried to do. The feeling that I had was one of music echoing through the house- sounding and resounding. So the two mantelpieces and the high corbels have groups of twenty-four vessels that are loose ‘musical’ reflections of each other. The vessels are glazed in a spectrum of different glazes based on the celadon glazes of the Far East. Within the chimneypieces are two groups of very large white and cream-glazed lidded jars with touches of gilding, echoes of the formal 18th century groupings of jars far away in the State Rooms. For I hope that a sounding line acts as a very personal and very particular reflection on Chatsworth’s porcelain.
Edmund de Waal
The installation is made of 52 porcelain vessels in 5 celadon glazes and 14 thrown porcelain vessels in 5 white glazes
