Vessel

Jennifer Lee is a significant figure within the field of British studio ceramics that emerged during the 1980s and 1990s. Her work continues a trajectory of modernist ceramics imbued with a distinctive sculptural language—one pioneered by twentieth-century potters such as Lucie Rie and Hans Coper. Although at first glance her vessels might appear to be thrown on a potter’s wheel, Lee’s ceramics are meticulously hand-built using a process of coiling and pinching several layers of clay, resulting in distinctive, often asymmetrical and subtly faceted forms. Lee avoids the use of ceramic glazes, and instead allows the clay to express itself in a more raw, unfiltered manner. Drawing upon an archive of colored clays gathered over decades, she layers these clays together to create delicate striations and subtle halos of color that permeate the surface. Metallic oxides added into her clay mix further heighten these textures, and, after the firing process, produce dramatic areas of darkened patches and earthy speckles throughout the clay body.

The bands of colors and vivid textures seem to blend so freely and organically that they recall geological cross-sections, or rugged landscape forms. Going further than simply evoking the natural world, Lee’s techniques—and final vessels—reassert the status of clay’s raw materiality, reminding us of its equivalency with these natural elements and processes, and conjuring the essence of sand, stone, silt, and sedimentation.