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The hand built
kiln made during Yasuo Terada's residency |
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'Playing
with Fire' represents a proposal set up by Cornish based ceramicist
Jason Wason.
As a member of the 'Japanese Connections' group, he has invited a
fourth generation potter, Yasuo Terada, from Japan over to the UK. |
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| St
Ives International |
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+ 'Playing
with Fire' is a proposal set up by local Cornish based potter,
Jason Wason - a memeber of the 'Japanese Connections' group.
+ A fourth generation potter,
Yasuo Terada will be resident at The Leach Pottery during March.
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History
of Bernard Leach in Japan
On February 18th 1911, Bernard Leach, a painter and printmaker
went with his friend Tomomoto to see if they could organise
an exhibition of their drawings at the newly opened independent
art gallery Gahosha, in Tokyo.
The owners gladly assented and invited the newcomers to join
other artists in the tearoom to the rear of the building. Someone
who spoke English suggested to Leach that he paint a design
on a teabowl, this he did.
The bowl was put into a small charcoal fired raku kiln on the
veranda of the house, three quarters of an hour later the kiln
was registering a blistering 1000centigrade.
The hot pot was then picked out with tongs and put on the floor
beside the kiln.
Bernard says of his time: "To my amazement the pottery
withstood this treatment, the colour gradually changed and crackles
formed in the glaze, twenty minutes later someone handed me
the pot back in a piece of cloth. I was entralled and on the
spot was seized with the desire to take up this craft."
The rest is history.
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| Yasuo at
work |
There are
powerful cultural and spiritual links between St Ives and Japanese
potters because of the life and works of Bernard Leach who was based
at the Leach pottery in St Ives.
The site is still open to the public and is regularly visited by Japanese
potters and ceramic enthusiasts wishingto pay homeage to Leach and
the various Japanese potters who worked there or who influenced Leach.
This month Yasuo
Terada - a fourth generation artist potter from Seto near Nagoya in
Japan - has been invited to come to the Leach Pottery and build a
similar charcoal raku kiln to that which Bernard Leach came across
in 1911.
Invited guests will be present to watch how the kiln is built, to
fire their own teabowls and to become familiar with the glaze technology
involved.
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| Yasuo Terada
and Jason Wason |
Japanese Connections
represents a group of artists, who in various ways look to Japan as
an influence in their work. Members of Japanese Connections were recently
invited bt Terada to work with him and fire their artworks in his
anagama kilns prior to exhibiting their work at 'C' Square gallery,
Chukyo University, Nagoya.
Leach Pottery Raku Kiln Construction & Firing
Yasuo Terada will be resident at The Leach Pottery for 10 days. During
this period he will construct a small raku kiln. He will research
and test local materials in order to develop suitable clay bodies
and glazes for new work (principally teabowls). The new work will
be fired in the kiln and exhibited at The Leach Pottery showrooms.
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| Hand built
kiln |
Regional Artists
Workshops
Yasou Terada invited regional artists - from Falmouth College of Arts,
Adult Education in Penzance and Penwith College - to bring several
pre-biscuited tea bowls and showed them how to build a small Japanese
style raku kiln (about 50 bricks), how to decorate their pots using
new glazes) and charcoal fire their work.
Renowned artists from around Cornwall including - Christina Amadeus,
Graham Jobbins, Colin Scott and Alex Smirnoff spent a weekend at the
Leach Pottery making clay sculptures, which will then be biscuit fired
by Jason Wason. A straw and paper kiln is then going to be built in
the 2nd week of July 2002 at Tremenere, nr.Marazion, which will be
an open event that the public are invited to attend. More information
on this event will be available near the time.
The Leach Pottery is open Mon-Sat 10-5pm.
Sponsers of Playing
with Fire |
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