A mobile image of this piece can be seen HERE on the artist's Instagram page.
Let me say before we get going, that ceramics is an area which often leaves me lost for words. I find myself gazing blankly at ranks of bowls and jugs and vases, admiring the obvious skill which has gone into them, and not knowing what else to say. I think it's partly because the objects often present themselves in the form of something useful. The questions they inspire in me are usually pragmatic: how many flowers would I get in that? will it hold water? And that feels like looking at a painting and asking "How well would it go with the sofa in the front room?"
However, I want to break that pattern and say something about this beautiful piece by Brian Tew.
If it is difficult to reproduce paintings faithfully on a website, then three-dimensional objects like ceramics multiply the difficulty. This photograph does no justice at all to the sheen and lustre of this artwork. The processes of firing and glazing have produced a complex mottled array of colours, which change with every different angle of the light. It's almost as though this sculpture is alive, waiting and ready to engage.
For me, this was even more engaging because there is no attempt here to resemble something else. What the artist has presented us with is pure form: a bringing-together of curves and surfaces in a regular and pleasing way. It is what it is. And it has volume. And substance. You feel that if you were to pick it up (After you; ceramics make me nervous in a way that canvases never do) it would be heavy. The miracle of paintings is that they can put you in mind of something. The miracle of sculpture is that it is something.
But one thing it is not, is useful. So refreshing after racks of tableware.
Usefulness clouds the issues when you're looking for art. It isn't a household object fashioned in a creative way. Nor is it simply a piece of decoration; something to brighten a dull corner of the living room. It has no other purpose than to be beautiful. It's role in life is to be appreciated, and to lift the heart.
Which this piece does.
See this and more of Brian Tew's work at Colonnade House until 8 December 2019
b.tew@btinternet.com
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