Totems

Ceramic totems are my signature large format pieces and can be up to 240cm tall. They are easy to freight and assemble. I generally make them to order, so it is possible to influence the final look and feel to suit your specific project.

The totems explores a monumentality possible in clay, which is generally regarded as a fragile medium. The works are taller than human scale – and wider – so they become a very strong presence in the environment. It invites touch, and invites the viewer to interact with it from afar and also closer up, with the texture and colour nuances.

The totems are hand coiled, using terracotta earthenware clay. They are built in layers from the ground up in sections, which slot into one another. The tricky part of building these forms is that you cannot check the fit of the different pieces until after the bisque firing, when you can finally put the pieces together. In my kiln the firing of one totem takes 30 days of kiln time. The total production time of each completed object, which includes building, surface work and firing, is about 80 days.