• Introduction • Tableware and other Functional Forms • Playing on Function • Vessel Forms • Sculptural Forms • Abstract Sculptural Forms • Different Ways of Working

Discussing the works in the Ceramic Contemporaries 4 exhibition Knowledge and Understanding: Sculptural forms: figures, creatures and other subjects from the ‘real’ world   Eileen Newell John Blackwell Natasha Mayo Carole Windham       Mike Amorelli Terence Casey Nicola Fowler           Akira Koike Curtis Ed Silverton       The word ‘sculpture’ is used to describe three-dimensional works of art. But whether or not we ‘read’ an object as sculpture often depends on where we encounter it. It might be argued that all the works on show in Ceramic Contemporaries 4 can be regarded as sculpture simply by virtue of being displayed in an art gallery. A pot on a plinth is viewed differently to a pot on a kitchen table. The gallery setting calls for a particular kind of attention. The human figure The human figure has always been a principal subject for art, and the figurative works in Ceramic Contemporaries 4 show a range of different approaches. Sculptures and ornaments What is the difference between a sculpture and an ornament? Questions of social and cultural status are raised. Ornaments may be three dimensional, but they are usually associated with the ‘private’ domestic interior, and because of this they are not seen as capable of addressing significant ‘public’ ideas.