Exhibition: Water-Shed, Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Museum, Leamington Spa, January 22 – April 11 2010
Pottery from one of England's leading ceramicists, Edmund de Waal, will go on show at a new exhibition at Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Museum next month.
Inspired by the museum's medical collection, and the history of its Royal Pump Room which was used in the past for medical treatment, De Waal has created Water-Shed – a show looking at how vessels are used in medicine. It features a specially commissioned work of the same title.
Water-Shed considers how vessels are used in medicine
As a potter, writer, curator and Professor of Ceramics at the University of Westminster, De Waal has been involved with many galleries and exhibitions, and has been celebrated in the press – The Times credited him with "reshaping our sense of the history of modern ceramics and the possibilities of the form".
His works concentrate on cylindrical, circular shapes that have a smooth sheen.
"When you're making a vessel, and I really actually am only interested in vessels, every single touch of your hands after you've thrown the basic cylinder actually changes the interiority and the sense of internal space completely," he has said.
"You can make 20 pots in a row, and by just moving them ever so slightly each of them has a very different resonance – a very different sort of pitch."
De Waal throws circular, smooth shapes
De Waal's pottery has been on display in galleries including Tate Britain, Cheltenham Spa Art Gallery and Museum and the National Museum Wales.
He recently created a site-specific installation for the newly redisplayed ceramics galleries at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
All images © Edmund de Waal
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