Jane’s ceramic sculptures combine opposites of form, texture and colour as metaphors for perfection and control versus imperfection and chaos. She is interested in the contemporary obsession with seeking control and perfection in all aspects of life, and fascinated by the tendency, prevalent on social media, of masking the chaos of real life through the presentation of curated and carefully managed idealised identities, which generally only highlight success or positive news. She explore these ideas through the physical characteristics of her sculptures.
In her work, Jane aims for a sculptural tension between states of messiness and the uncontrolled with the tidy and ordered, the two states co-existing dynamically in each object. She doesn’t set out to make completely planned objects, rather, objects emerge from new ways of combining these opposing states, which are in themselves the results of different, more or less controlled processes. Clay can be a precise or messy material when worked in distinct ways and Jane combines different methods within each piece – careful construction with looser handling. Surface treatments include sticky-looking or collapsing dark glazes with neatly applied vivid acrylic.
Drawing is integral to Jane’s work. New ideas are explored through drawing, in a process of call and response with making.
Technical information
Jane’s sculptures are hand-built or thrown and altered (sometimes both) from white earthenware clay. Pieces are biscuit-fired to 1100 degrees in an electric kiln. Muted earthenware glazes, coloured with oxides or commercial stains, are applied by pouring or spraying and the pieces are fired again, to 1080 degrees. Vivid acrylic colours are applied at the final stage of making.
All ceramic work, text and site pages © Jane King