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| Nicholas Wright Ceramic Wall Pieces (early 1900s -present) |
The prolifically produced and charming animal-influenced
ceramics of Birmingham born artist, Nicholas Wright [1956- ] have been a staple viewing of my visits to
Spike Island studios ever since I can remember. I learnt recently that he has
been at the studios in Bristol from the very start in the 80s when a community
of artists worked together on site. It is therefore really quite surprising that
the current exhibition showcasing over a hundred of his works (produced over
the last thirty years) is the first time his work has been shown on this scale
in the UK.
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| Nicholas Wright Ceramic Wall Pieces [detail] |
‘A Chance to Look at Chicken’ is just that; chicken,
birds, cats, mice and cows are the subjects of this unusual menagerie of animal
representations in ceramic. Each one unique and situated within a crafted border
of fauna. Influenced by religious iconography and pierced forms from ancient bronze-age
metal work, these individual pieces have been designed in a dome-like shape mimicking
a boss, which one learns, is a ‘decorative keystone used in the vaulting of
medieval architecture’. They have a simple-looking nativity, imaginative or
folk-like appearance which gives these pieces their individual character and,
like most things of this nature, is deceptive of the skill and craft involved
in producing them. In their perceived simplicity they reminded me of Picasso’s
animal ceramics, specifically his birds of which I caught by circumstance at
the Louisiana gallery in Copenhagen last year. It had me thinking that there
seems to be a quiet joy and elegance in sculpting
something from imagination and in its simplest of forms, which is pleasing to
the eye and more reminiscent of the actual feeling of happiness or feeling of ‘lightness’
on the glimpse of fleeting moment of seeing a bird than the laboured, detailed representations
I tend to render in my own work. One is an intent on capturing the nature/character
of the animal being represented, the other a more intense study of what it
looks like. Despite Wright’s representations
being created in heavy fixed ceramic there is a transience in their depiction
that is perhaps more lifelike than the static observational nature of my own. It
is an interesting variation that makes me question what I am looking to convey
or achieve in my own work.
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| Picasso Bird (Dove) 1953 |
Displayed together as a huge set, one can really appreciate
the earthy colours of the glazes, mark-making and pierced-out shapes, defined
and distinguishable like stencils or silhouettes against the white walls of
Spike’s gallery space. Like Noah’s ark, some great animal archive or shrine
they work well together as one big piece even if they were perhaps never
intended to be shown in this way. Elsewhere a large ceramic chicken, from which
the show derives its name, is displayed on a plinth alongside some of Wright’s
drawings which are a useful addition revealing some of how he thinks about the web-like botanical fauna and mark-making present in the ceramic pieces.
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| Nicholas Wright Chicken Drawings (2018) |
The pierced forms within the ceramics is echoed in an
early work made by Wright (not shown here) when he noticed mice eating his paper in the studio.
Wright used soup to paint onto the paper, the resulting work made from where
the mice had nibbled at the soupy areas to create a stencil of sorts almost
acts as an accidental precursor to the pierced forms of the ceramic work to
come. The element of play and humour also present in the later works. I hope that Wright continues to use Spike as a studio for many years to come,
but it is worth having the opportunity to see his work with the space it
deserves outside the clutter of the studio. Visitors should seize the chance to
look at chicken whilst they still can!
Nicholas Wright’s
A Chance to Look at Chicken is on at Spike Island until 16th June
2019
