February 20th – June 5th 2016
Opening hours: Monday–Saturday,10am–8pm. Sunday, 1pm–5pm
The exhibition is based on the theme of broken and mended pottery, its stories and its associations. It aims to explore our relationship with the state of a pot. How do we feel if it is broken, chipped or dirty? Can these things inform us about its life, where it has been and how it has been used? What is its value and who has cared enough to have it mended or restored? The exhibition also shows work by ceramic artists who make a play on these ideas: Bouke de Vries, Paul Scott, Melanie Brown and David Cushway.
The starting point of the display is the recent donation in 2014 of the Ann Carr Collection of pottery from Wenford Bridge by Michael Cardew and his associates. Aberystwyth accepted a large number of pieces – 340 pieces – many of which had been regularly used for cooking and serving food. There are pieces that have become cracked or chipped and also a number that show evidence of mending. Ann Carr’s house, Fellover Hall, was just a mile or two from Wenford Bridge and she had a close personal association with the potters and the pottery, even at times assisting with the long firings of the wood kiln. The pottery represented a shared passion with a close circle of friends in the area.
Wood kilns are temperamental beasts and can produce wonderful surprises, deep disappointments and lots of ‘seconds’ with cracks, chips or surface defects. Ann Carr probably often gave a home to the last as well as having first choice at the kiln openings – always a big occasion.
