OUT OF CHINA: MONUMENTAL PORCELAIN

Monumental ceramics made in China by Felicity Aylieff

1 May to 15 June 2008

These large, porcelain structures are experimental, vital, and bold.
Up to three metres in height they are also truly impressive.

It was during a sabbatical from teaching at the Royal College of Art, that Aylieff took up residence from August to December 2007 at the Pottery Workshop Experimental Factory in Jingdezhen, China. There she began working with a family business specialising in making ‘Big Ware’, enormous traditionally-formed and decorated porcelain vases.

Aylieff used traditional techniques of building and decorating, but moved away from Chinese form and surface pattern. Both she, and the Chinese technicians that helped and advised her, worked together in finding new ways to make shapes that were different from their tried and tested vases. Aylieff worked innovatively with traditional pigments in expressive surface painting. She carved into the surface of some

works, which, together with over-painting using Chinese calligraphy brushes, extended her practice of layering colours to gain great depth of surface.

Felicity Aylieff

Born in 1954, Felicity Aylieff studied ceramics and textiles at Bath Academy of Art (1972-78). She went on to study education at Goldsmiths College, University of London (1978-79), and then joined the Royal College of Art, London, as an M Phil Post Graduate Researcher (1993-96). Aylieff has taught extensively throughout her career, and is currently Senior Tutor at the Royal College of Art and Visiting Professor at Bath Spa University College.

Aylieff has exhibited widely. Her work is intensely focused on surface quality, carried by simply shaped vessels and sculptural forms. She has for many years been an advocate for blurring the boundaries between art and craft. Her work has been written about extensively, and her own articles have been included in magazines such as Ceramic Review.

In autumn 2002 Aylieff’s ceramics were shown in the Sculpture in the Workplace series of exhibitions in the Lobby of One Canada Square. It was during this time that The Royal College of Art awarded her a sabbatical to take up an artist’s residency at the Pottery Workshop Experimental factory, working in Mr.Yu’s Big Ware Factory in Jingdezhen. Part of her contract was that the works should be brought back to Britain and exhibited.

The exhibition is supported by the Arts Council.