raycavill.com

Artist's Statement

Our world is rich with visual, tactile, auditory, olfactory and taste sensations. From the feel of the upholstery in your car to the colour of your shoes, there is more than only function. We recognize and express this through our choices of the paraphernalia we acquire and display - from clothing, cars and houses to the objects that fill these larger functioning sculptures. We make choices about which items we keep and which we use, sometimes subconsciously. If any object can be seen as sculpture, then 'art is all around us' and we are the curators. So despite the cultural need to classify and separate art is integral to our existence. The influence of objects that surround us maybe subtle to substantial, but it's always there.

I would like to create work that has a positive questioning influence, objects of aesthetic and functional value, from drinking containers to sculptural pieces, pieces with strength of form, complexity of surface and longevity of interest. To do this I need to develop some specialisation, a limitation of style to allow development within a chosen media or technique. I enjoy the media of clay and the technique of woodfiring, but clay and woodfiring have aesthetic implications that are more important than the loyalty to media or technique. These implications are surface texture, colour and variation. The medium has the ability to record and display the methods of forming and capturing the emotion of the artist whilst demanding attention to all facets of process. With these tools on board it is easier to avoid the predictable sameness of the machine aesthetic. Simple methods working towards complex pieces that aim at subverting the dominate paradigm of mass produced consumerism, where the lowest common dominator of low price equals minimal quality and even less aesthetic content.

Ultimately I make pots (read clay work of any kind) because I enjoy it, and I enjoy it because it's a constant challenge. Like a Holy Grail, the next pot is the best pot. Often the far out ones, the ones beyond my aesthetic (and almost everyone else's too) tempt a variation in direction, a challenge to preconceived notions of what's acceptable and what's not. Another challenge; another question; another problem to solve.