HI Gill,

Tam Irving led the second ‘conversation’ at the Museum of Anthropology with Glenn Lewis and Debra Sloan. With carefully planned questions he encouraged the two artists to reveal the thinking behind their work, Glenn’s from 1969 and Debra’s from her very recent year spent as ceramic artist-in-residence amongst the Koerner Ceramic Collection.

Tam pointed out that both artists have strong connections to the Leach Pottery in St. Ives. Glenn was an apprentice to Bernard Leach back in the day, honing his wheel-throwing skills before returning to Vancouver and becoming involved with ‘Intermedia’. He recently returned to St. Ives, along with fellow apprentice Warren MacKenzie, for a historic workshop.

Debra has given three workshops at the same studio, and although she can and does throw functional ware she is primarily a sculptor and while at St. Ives she chose to use Bernard Leach’s whimsical roof finials as inspiration. Several roofs in the much-loved seaside town now sport new ceramic finials. Debra has responded with more details on her St. Ives residency and workshops, on Koerner’s intentions and with more thoughts on David Lambert’s work from the last century. To read her letter go to the next blog.

The assigned word for this pair was CENSORSHIP so Tam gave some dictionery definitions and explanations of same before asking the straightforward question, ‘should galleries be free of any form of censorship?’ That was easy.. both said ‘yes’! But then Glenn went on to explain what had happened with the large mural that is his one piece in the current show. It is composed of one foot square tiles superimposed with a salt or pepper shakers. Some are broken. All are white. He made eight on each day and on two days he kept a journal instead of adding the shakers. This somewhat tongue-in-cheek artwork was considered too risqué by the Canadian embassy folk so they decided to send it all the way back to Ottawa from Osaka, where it was intended to be part of Canada’s Pavilion for the Osaka World Fair in 1969. It sat in storage for years and now is owned by the Vancouver Art Gallery. Do you think the shakers are too phallus-like? for Japan?

Debra, having worked with Walter Koerner’s life-time collection of Anabaptist pottery from his home country of Czechoslovakia, feels that he had a connection to their struggles and escape. Not Anabaptist but Jewish, he escaped Europe and made his home in Vancouver. As part of his huge financial funding of the Museum he insisted that the folk pottery from his homeland be housed all together in the Koerner Gallery. Debra has used her signature press-moulded babies as a canvas for applying decals and painted images that reflect the tin-glazed ware in the collection. She thinks of them as cautionary containers. The Museum has now instituted an ongoing residency for ceramic artists to work with the collection for some months. Sharon Reay has the position now.

Although the show ‘Playing With Fire: Ceramics of the Extraordinary’ is intended to celebrate the unusual rather than the predictability of functional ware, I think that some work or artists were chosen as a way of bringing to light the History of Ceramics here in BC. Tam told me to be honest so I shall note here that I think that the mid-Century work of David Lambert should not be considered extraordinary, except as politically incorrect ware from the past, and certainly should not be housed in the Multiversity Gallery. I can see that this is probably a temporary display but it doesn’t fit into this show and I think that Indigenous and other visitors to the collection will be dismayed. I’ll add the curator’s explanation here. Am I being a censor?

My next blog will look at Paul Mathieu’s conversation with his students Ying Yueh Chuang and Alwyn O’Brien.

As Linda mentioned in the previous post, venerable Vernon potter Bob Kingsmill entertained us while we ate our lunch on Saturday with tales of Axel Ebring. Bob moved to Vernon four years after the old potter died but he has collected stories about and pots made by Axel Ebring ever since.

http://www.vernonmuseum.ca/cr_axel_ebring.html

The events at Shadbolt Centre this past weekend mark the BC Potters Guild’s 60th Anniversary so it was appropriate that Bob be asked to inform members about the first potter to establish a workshop in the province. He described the irascible old fellow, adding more to the story told on Vernon Museum’s website biography, above.

One of his slides shows the underside of an Ebring plate so that you can recognize one of his pieces in an antique shop. Collectible!

The pots were thrown using locally dug clay and fired in his wood-burning kiln with a lead glaze.

Bob also brought along two platters made by another pioneer BC potter, David Lambert. For many years one could find his plates, dishes and ashtrays in gift shops. They generally featured his interpretation of Northwest Coast Native designs. Nowadays we feel it is inappropriate for a non-native person to use these images. First Nations artists rightly insist that art using their designs should be purchased from them only.

Why am I approaching this topic? Emily Carr painted Northwest Coast designs on her pottery back in the thirties and we can find examples of imitations made for sale ever since settlers came across the art that was already here in BC. We found that Maori designs are everywhere in New Zealand. They form its identity and I’m sure the work is made by Maori and non-Maori artists alike. Here, I would never presume to use native images on my work. Probably I’ve been sensitized by my husband who taught courses on Northwest coast Aboriginal Art and is a collector of said Native art.

So I slightly grimace whenever I see Lambert pots for sale. I cannot purchase any art that blatantly uses native designs, from any North American area, unless I know that the artist has a right to use them.

Do leave a comment if you have thoughts on this topic.