It is probably easier to think of ceramics and stillness than it is to think of ceramics and movement. But there is a transforming connection between these opposites: fluidity and watery clay on the wheel and its rhythmic handling; the hardness of fired clay.
Bernard Leach, ever alert to these connections, once wrote of a favourite pot in his personal collection: “Every movement hangs like frozen music in delicate but precise tension. Volumes, open spaces and outlines are parts of a living whole; they are thoughts, controlled forces in counterpoise of rhythm.” If ceramic is akin to music, could ...
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