I have used seaweed in my work for some time, laying it directly onto the surface of pots during firing. For years I have been meaning to test its use as a glaze component. Wood ash is commonly used in glazes as is other organic matter, I have only ever seen one reference to seaweed ash. It took a sack full of seaweed to make a handful of ash, enough for a few tests.
It is so rewarding using raw materials from my surroundings. I am often struck by the subtlety of the materials and how they exude there location. These tests with seaweed ash definitely have a sense of the atlantic about them. Every raw material that I collect has a unique quality, a strength of character that prevails through the extreme metamorphic processes of the firing.
I left a Votive Jar among the kelps and Worts, which have been such a rich and important resource for thousands of years.
I have been reading through some of my old Archaeological literature from my time at university and have come across some interesting concepts. One area that particularly caught my interest is the burial or deposit of objects within the landscape by the people of the Neolithic. Human bones, animal bones, tools and even pottery were deliberately placed in locations that had significance to those people at that point in prehistory. Many of the locations appear to be determined by landscape features almost an exploration of their relationship to nature and the land. These structured deposits are partly about the objects but also about a place. Most “votive deposits” are in well used locations, tombs or settlements, some however are in wild places.
Part of my work is about an exploration of our relationship to nature and the land. I have therefore made a series of tiny Jars about 15mm high to deposit in the landscape at places that I draw on for my work. I have been out a lot recently collecting new materials and exploring the local landscape as part of my research. I have left a few Votive Jars.
My brother, photojournalist Greg Rodland Buick, has completed the final edit of a short documentary about my work. I’m really pleased with how it’s turned out. The discipline of having to portray what my work is about in five or six minutes was a very insightful process. I hope you enjoy it.
My brother Greg Rodland Buick lives and works in Norway as a photojournalist specialising in editorial picture stories and reportage. He was visiting us in Wales last week and we made a documentary film about my work. The editing is not finished yet but this is just a little taster of what we got up to.
It is great having a brother with such photographic skills. Have a look at his website to see some striking photographs from Africa and around the world.
I am very excited that I have been awarded a Research Grant by the Arts Council of Wales. It means that I can go to the top of hills to think about my understanding of landscape and how my work fits into it.
Here is what I proposed:
Continuing with the pure jar form that has become my canvas and my study of the human experience of landscape, I wish to explore more deeply my local landscape and how we experience it, in two ways.
Firstly, using the rich geology of Pembrokeshire as a resource for raw materials to be used in the development of new glazes and surfaces for my work.
Secondly, I wish to carry out a series of land art projects using local clays, and resources as pieces of artwork in their own right. By doing time-dependant site-specific projects within the landscape, which demand regular documentation, I have a reason to go out into the surroundings and look in a meaningful way. This discipline is about adding meaning to the themes that underpin my work and drawing on that experience to inspire a new aesthetic.
In researching these two aspects of the landscape, as a physical resource and as a philosophical inspiration I hope to come to a new and more considered body of work with a clear message about my inspirations.
I will be posting much of what I get up to here so do have a look from time to time. I hope it goes well.
We went for a walk down to a nearby cove at the weekend. Sitting at the base of the cliff I noticed a trickle of water running out over the bed rock. On closer inspection the rock seemed to be decomposing. It looked like clay.
Clay is decomposed rock particularly associated with granite, there are two main types, primary and secondary clay. Secondary clay is by far the most common and usually has a low firing temperature. Primary clay is more pure, found at the source of decomposition and more resilient to heat. Could this be a primary clay? It would be exciting if it is as primary clays are very useful if you work with stoneware. Tests will tell.
I made a little pinch pot to test the plasticity and took a sample back to the studio encased between two limpet shells.
