Reviews & Articles

Ceramic Review 162

Review of solo show at The Harley Gallery in September 1996

It is tempting when looking at any form of art to ascribe meaning based on knowledge of the artist rather than an analysis of their work: to make connections probably superficially and perhaps in error, between an aspect of the maker's life and the intentions of their art. Much hand made ceramics in particular can be seen as a highly abstract form of self-portraiture. Often functioning as a decorative, ornamental or utilitarian object but without a subject other than to manifest something of the essence of its maker.

In Antonia Salmon's current show at the Harley gallery in Nottinghamshire she does indicate her preoccupation with balance and space but it feels as if her subject is an internal experience rather than an exploration of the external world. The exhibition contains thirty or so pieces and is made with seven different types of object from simple decorative plates to complex double walled bowls precariously nesting in a modified spherical form. Like some scientific instrument or, more softly, a protective cradle. Some of the work revisits a familiar interpretation others seek to readdress a familiar, if elusive concern.

All the work shows Salmon's obsession with precise form and fetishistic surface. Thrown or coiled, often with the original shape altered to make closed volumes, burnished and sometimes slipped or engraved with an exactness and attention to every component that provides a foil for the promiscuous fire smoking of the pieces with sawdust.

Before becoming a potter Salmon studied Geography. It is possible to interpret the work against this background. The scored lines show a mapmakers concern for measurement juxtaposed with the untamed landscape of carbon marks. Two bowls are decorated with targets, their walls pierced so that they can be lined up like a theodolite. Other pieces are reminiscent of naturally formed balancing rocks while others borrow imagery from Celtic standing stones. But art is more complex and such comparisons may only serve as an introduction to the process of looking.

My instinctive response to the work is one of aloneness, of isolation and self-containment, the almost religious feeling one may have when walking in a wild place where ones sense of self is contextualised by a different perception of time and space than is possible in every day life. The work is contemplative and still and is well served by the environment of the Harley Gallery whose rural location and chapel-like interior offer a peaceful and appropriate setting for this exhibition.

Sebastian Blackie 1996

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