up to and including 03 December 2017
Isabel Ferrand - The memory of the Hands
The 'memory' of the hands is central to the two works of Isabel Ferrand show in gallery 40. Craftspeople become proficient through hundreds of hours of practice and repetition of the same movements. Whoever learns to throw clay on a potter's wheel goes through the same process.
Just how gradually the skill is acquired becomes clear when you cut the test vases vertically, mercilessy revealing every irregularity. But gradually the vases get increasingly better. Eventually the skill is so anchored in the memory that the pottter's hands are able to make a vase without clay.
In the other work from this series Ferrand attempts te make a typical Korean moon jar while wearing a blindfold. This is a ceramic form that she admires greatly but the technical skill required to make it does niet reside in her hands' memory. In these installations, the artist contributes to the current discussion about ceramics as art and the borders between art en craft.
The presentation 'Isabel Ferrand - The memory of the Hands' is on show until half November.
