Containing Time connects up the different strands of my practise as ceramic artist, photographer, writer and film maker together with a sound collaboration. Soundscape Kevin Flanagan / Curated by Linda Theophilus
‘Bringing all these forms of expression together Jane Perryman has created a new body of work that has transformed the vessel to become a record of time and place’ Phillip Hughes Director, Ruthin Craft Centre
‘In Containing Time each group is a still life – a synthesis of nature and culture, process and product, where the burnished bowls encapsulate a timeless essence distilled from an ephemeral moment. The project wonderfully gathers together four decades of work and experience.’ Professor Moira Vincentelli
Containing Time About
Spanning a year in the form of a weekly diary, Containing Time examines interlocking themes of materials, environment, time and journeys through an exploration of a spontaneously and randomly found material. Read More
The material could be organic or man made and presents itself to me as life unfolds. It could be in my home and garden environment, during a walk, or while travelling for work or pleasure. Many, but not all of the materials have been collected from my locale in rural Suffolk. For example rose hips were found during a walk, olive stones were saved from the kitchen, limestone shingle was collected from a beach in Sweden whilst on holiday.
I use the senses of sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch to describe with text and poetry the moment and experience of finding. This act of stopping, engaging the senses and selecting an everyday object gives it fresh significance. Initial engagement with the material develops further as I separate it from its context and use it as a vehicle for creative expression through frottage, photography, ceramic and soundscape in collaboration with composer Kevin Flanagan. The ceramic bowl is pivotal to the concept, it symbolises my change of approach from exploring the vessel purely as abstract form to becoming a vehicle for different meanings. It contains objective themes of time, place and material as well as a subjective expression of poetry, drawing, photography and sound.
Today the sky is overcast with a low blanket of dull grey. We have had rain and cold for several days. The fresh greens of spring have turned into a dense uniform of bottle green… It has been five weeks since I walked through the field of rapeseed. Now it is overgrown, leaning across the path from both sides. The stems which supported a sea of yellow flowers have grown to eye level and display a vast sheet of seed pods, their spikes projecting against the skyline. Stems and seed pods are covered with millions of silvery white raindrops. I reach the top of the hill and look back; the valley has become obscured by cloud.
Today the field of rapeseed A vast sheet of seed pods Spikes against the dull sky A million silver raindrops
Pine Cones & Needles, Goteborg, Sweden 20 October
We are staying in Gothenburg with friends Elspeth and Lennart for the opening of my exhibition. Their Japanese inspired house is surrounded by a formal garden planted with trees, rocks and water. It’s early morning, just getting light and I’ve come outside before the house has awoken. Here autumn leaves are already turning orange, yellow and lime. Trees are dripping, the ground saturated with continual rain of the last few days. Beside me is a mound of pine needles and cones. As I collect them a wood louse crawls away and buries itself deep into the heap. Inside the house a door slams
A Japanese garden in Gothenburg A wood louse emerges From a pile of pine cones Saturated by heavy rain
Containing Time Touring Venues
Containing Time at Fen Ditton Cambridge 2019 Read More
Containing Time at Indian Ceramic Triennale Jaipur 2018
ACE tour Containing Time National Centre for Craft and Design Sleaford, Ruthin Centre for Applied Arts Wales, Gracefield Art Centre Dumfries
Containing Time at Korsbarsgarden Sweden 2016 Containing Time at Vessels Gallery Boston US 2015
