TOM NORRIS
The vase for me bridges the world of Fine art and the world of Applied art. There is a natural mixing of the two, in a humble and formal way. The idea that each area supports the other is really where my work has traction.
“I think of the surfaces much like the space found in painting. My work takes on several manifestations before becoming ‘fixed’. There is an open and continuous mode between painting, assemblage and collage.”
Clay is a democratic material in that anybody can approach it. I didn’t like my art education as a teenager at school. We didn’t really do anything. I turned to clay as it is about the doing. I’ve been making things from clay since then. The material has a literal transformation or metamorphosis; changing from clay to ceramic in the kiln. This for me is important toward finding new meaning or subjects in the world. Vessels for me have the capacity to hold metaphor as closely as poetry would. The combination of domestic or agrarian ideas that exist within the work are inherent within the type of object it is. What I mean by this is the material lends itself to containing something or holding something like nature. This is a material idea I work with.
The vessels are made on a pottery wheel. I take some time looking at the form once it has been thrown to begin the process of mapping the surface. I prime the surface with coloured clays and carve lightly into them to give direction and energy to the work. The pieces are rarely designed but instead practised or led by intuition. The work is then fired in the kiln. This is called a biscuit firing and goes up to about 1000C. After this I usually work with more colour, this stage is guided by my initial marks from before it was fired. I then apply a simple glaze often at earthenware temperature. The glaze covers the inside and outside of the vessel so it can be used to contain liquid.
The multiple arrangement and possibility of collage act as a counterweight to the fixed and permanent aspects of the ceramic end of my practice. I feel like this is a positive and optimistic way of working with the materials I use. How they fit within a space is part of the process also. There is a give and take with the form of the piece and the space around it.
Tom Norris lives and works in London. He is an artist and an arts educator. He has a master’s degree in fine art and bachelor’s degree in three-dimensional design. Over the last two years, he has exhibited at the Stanley Picker Gallery, The Saatchi Gallery, The London Art Fair and at JGM Gallery, a recent highlight being ‘Studio Response [#2]’ at the Saatchi Gallery.
