New Ashgate Gallery champions the best of contemporary art and craft providing an unparalleled resource in Farnham, Surrey and beyond
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Paul Wearing
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Biography
Paul Wearing engages with the relationship between nature and culture through the glazed surface and form of coil-built vessels. The vessel is a great symbol of civilisation and echoes the man-made and structural environment in which Paul lives. In contrast to this, naturally occurring textures found within urban and rural environments perpetually interact and alter this order. Surfaces have undergone energetic change and transformation through forces of growth and decay, and it is these events, these moments which affirm life. Such textures can be rendered through volatile and blistering glazes. The tension between the man-made form and natural [glaze] phenomena in my work, brings into focus the nature of our materiality and fragility. It is at its most potent however when calling us to exist in the present, inviting us to experience sensuous, tactile qualities, reconnecting us with a direct, immediate perception of the world. The ruinous surface as a call to live, to experience and grasp the moment is rooted in time.
The vessels are formed by press-moulding the base and coiling the walls; a slower technique allowing me constant flexibility and control. Certain marks and textures revealing the making process remain as a ground for the glazing.
Paul's treatment of the glazed surface renders evidence of brush marks and chemical reactions. Glazing is a lively activity and the surface is transformed through the accumulated layers of slips and glazes. In places, layer upon layer can simultaneously build and crumble, in others, the glaze is barely present, leaving just a trace. The process begins to reveal its own language, determined in part, by chance. Once applied, the materials are set to react within the conditions of the oxidised firing process reaching around 1230 degrees centigrade. Glazing and firing processes are repeated until the optimum depth and complexity of surface appears.
