Alison Britton Lecture. City Lit

Alison Britton Lecture.

The City Lit in Covent Garden on Friday 16th October was buzzing. A number of us from the Ceramics Diploma course went to a lecture given by Alison Britton and organised by Heloise Park.

An internationally renowned potter Alinson spoke about her life's work in it's diverse forms as an artist, writer, curator and teacher at The Royal College of Art.

We saw some wonderful images and series of her works on exhibit with the British Council and the Craft's council shop at the V & A Museum run by Tatiana Marsden ( of Marsden Woo ) who in the 1980's was curator at the time. Alison described these years in the 1980's-1990's as expansive and hugely exciting. There were many opportunities, museums purchases, travelling exhibitions and a lot of attention for groups of Artist's that included her Royal College of Art colleagues along with other's more firmly established. She says of that time; "we were a lucky generation".

Alison described her way of working as a process of fluidity. Her sheets of clay are flat and painted on with slip and under glazes working freely. The pieces of clay are cut, painted again and lashed together awkwardly, all the while keeping the vessel firmly as a theme and core structure. The forms evolve and present themselves; forms that could be leaning, lurching, stacked, awkwardly conjoined chambers or groups of associated vessels or jugs or square dishes and double pots.

Her interest is not in enclosing a form and keeping it in it's place. Her vessels are open objects where disjunction is strong. The forms that are expressed in clay have circled and "re-entered her imagination, time and time again".

Many of Alison Britton's concepts arise through the rich and varied threads that have been woven into her daily life as a potter. It is her dynamic intellectual abilities as a contemporary writer on Art and Craft that has informed her making, curating and teaching. This will continue to be an immense source of inspiration to us all.