Jean François Thiérion

The simple, archetypal pieces are sufficiently large to be richly, generously decorated, and they provide an invitation for the artist to scarify the flesh of the ceramic and punctuate its surface with different visual expressions.

Slip becomes a material/colour that makes everything possible —liquid, thick— in the service of a range of signs and textures with a main theme of the geography of the undefined, the unfinished and the less visible.

In recent work, thrown pieces are celebrated, with the cylindrical form remaining the ultimate expression, while at the same time moving away from the world of everyday objects. Some pieces are distorted, taking advantage of the material’s wonderful plasticity, which firing then sets in its final form.

Unlike in previous pieces, thick slips are applied here in a systematic, repetitive way, without sacrificing the complexity of the textures in any way.