ABOUT
JACK DOHERTY
Born in Co Derry, Jack Doherty studied at the Ulster College of Art and Design in Belfast wanting to be a painter, but after a visit to Lucie Rie's studio he decided he wanted to make pots for a living. On graduating he worked at Kilkenny Design Workshops before establishing his first studio in Co Armagh and then relocated to Herefordshire. From 2008 - 2013 Jack was the first Lead Potter and Creative Director at the refurbished Leach Pottery in St Ives, Cornwall where he established the production studio and designed a contemporary domestic range of soda-fired tableware.
Designing and making have shaped his life. As a potter and ceramic artist he has gained an international reputation exhibiting extensively in the UK and abroad. Jack works with one clay body, one mineral and one single firing technique. Through this singleness of process he is able to obtain a complex, multi-layering of surface texture and colour, whilst remaining true to the form. His ceramic vessels are represented in many public collections including the Irish Contemporary Ceramics Collection at the Hunt Museum, Limerick, the National Museum of Ireland and the Ulster Museum. In 2016 he received the Janet Mansfield Memorial Award in recognition of his work with soda-fired porcelain. He currently works independently from his studio at Trinity House in Penzance, Cornwall.
“I make soda-fired porcelain forms that contain the qualities of art and utensil. Archetypal forms are touchstones in my practice; vessels made for a contemporary context can be solitary and contemplative or ceremonial, for everyday or a special occasion. I question the functional nature of objects.”
— Jack Doherty
ARTIST STATEMENT
My work is concerned with function but not necessarily utility. I am intrigued and inspired by the potency of archetypal vessel forms. Anonymous and uncomplicated pots from pre-history used for storing, cooking and keeping people safe through winters and giving protection in the everyday world can also function in other ways. I see them as figurative objects. As guardians of emotion and connectors with the spiritual, I want my work to inhabit our domestic spaces in the light, shadow and darkness with qualities that neither painting or abstract sculpture can.
I live with ceramic vessels. Their forms and volume, edges and textures spill from the studio into every room. In these intimate living spaces the pots speak for themselves, displayed on ledges windowsills and mantelpieces, made in direct response to the architectural spaces of my home and studio.
My recent projects such as Place in the World, Waypoint and Living Space ask questions about the place of contemporary ceramics in our changing world.
Jack describes himself as being interested in the 'particular usefulness of things', the sense of an object as being something which has a function in the world. Challenging the rules of refinement and containment through the fluidity and energy of his work Jack's soda-fired vessels are embedded with ancient stories and contemporary narratives. They create an intervention with domestic space and daily life. No longer purely utilitarian, these abstract vessels do not conform to conventional use questioning their place in the world.
“For our house is our corner of the world. As has often been said it is our first experience of the universe, a real cosmos in every sense of the word.”
— Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space
Jack's professional experience has led to his involvement in promoting and raising the profile of contemporary ceramics on many levels including lecturing, writing, curating exhibitions and organising conferences. He is a fellow and former Chair of the Craft Potters Association of Great Britain and was a founder member and Chair of the organising committee of Ceramic Art London for twelve years. He has been guest editor and a consultant to Ceramic Review magazine. His book, Porcelain, was published in 2002 by A&C Black. Most recently Jack has enjoyed travelling to Japan, China and Taiwan invited as artist in residence and to showcase his work at the Mashiko Museum of Ceramic Art and Fuping Pottery Village, Xian. He is honoured to be invited as the guest director for the first international soda-firing festival in September 2019.
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