British Ceramics Biennial, 2013.
I am a great fan of Sue Paraskeva's work so was delighted to see that she was exhibiting at the Biennial. I decided that her work deserves a post all to herself, so here are the pieces we saw at the Biennial.
Paraskeva works with porcelain and uses a stick driven momentum wheel which allows her to work silently and without electricity in tune with the spin of the wheel. This is a technique used widely in Jingdezhen, the Chinese capital of porcelain. She uses wood ash slips, colouring oxides and inlayed clay. She produces tableware, altered one-offs and installation work.
Tableware
One off: Sculptural work that is thrown and altered
The pieces below I find extraordinarily beautiful. Paraskeva throws bowls on the wheel. She then takes a piece of wood, brushes it with oxides and then proceeds to 'attack' the still wet clay bowls with it. The results you can see below.
A very short video that shows how Paraskeva 'alters' her bowls. For a longer, more comprehensive exhibition of what she does, go to her website and watch the second video (the one on the right). It is definitely worth seeing.
