“I started my clay journey many years ago. I was working as a journalist in London and would attend weekly pottery classes after work. Then I moved to East Africa with a young family. It was in Kenya that I decided to focus on ceramics more and more, ending up with my first studio, a round mud walled African hut in the garden, where I employed local potters to teach a small group, including me, African hand building and firing techniques.
But my exposure to ceramics started much earlier. I grew up in Cyprus, an island with an incredible tradition in pottery. Early Bronze Age Cypriot pots are considered some of the best in the world throughout the ages. Today, sadly, Cyprus is still politically divided but I have personally experienced how our ancient art serves to bring all Cypriots together as a big part of our common heritage.
I spent many years in Dubai and worked on building up the clay community there, at Mall of the Emirates Art Centre, bringing together people from many different countries, ceramics providing the perfect antidote to living in the fastest growing city at that time.
I have lived on three continents and travelled widely. Today I divide my time between Cyprus and UK and feel totally at home in both places. My work has developed from a deep appreciation of history and culture yet my forms are purposefully simple to eliminate any idea of belonging to a specific culture or continent.
But the influences are obvious. There is sgraffito borrowed from ancient Cypriot pots, the remembered coiling technique learnt in Kenya that leaves its physical presence on my vessel forms, an affinity to the geometry of Native American pots, and, although I have yet to visit Japan, the philosophy of wabi sabi, which celebrates nature and its “imperfections”, is also incorporated in my making practice.
I love the way the art of ceramics expresses our global humanity and connects us through time and space. My aim is to express this ancient art with a contemporary twist and to give a sense of presence to my work that is timeless.” Celia Macpherson
