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'Trust me, he whispered' by Matt J Smith

Matt J Smith

Sat 01 Mar 2008 - Sat 31 May 2008

There is a need to collect, to collate and to curate. Collections attempt to impose order on the world – to define, catalogue and differentiate. Museums are complicit – deciding what society deems valuable enough to preserve, which objects should explain our lives to future generations.

Now and again it is refreshing to stop trying to impose order and let random chance take over – letting fleeting ideas and day dreams collide. The objects I make are mementoes of these random coincidences, pinned down like butterflies or photographs and preserving their memories. They are curated without care for others’ definitions. They are modern day reliquaries holding fragments of the current, soon to be the past.

How the pieces are made

Wall pieces start with clay being rolled out into flat sheets. They are left to dry a little and then screenprinted using either coloured slip (liquid clay) or underglaze colours.

The clay is then cut into shape and the sides attached. Additional elements are made using slip moulds (liquid clay is poured into plaster of paris moulds which suck out the water and produce casts) or press moulds (when damp clay is pressed into moulds). Most of the moulds are made in the studio from found objects.

These additional elements are then attached to the flat pieces. They are then left to dry very slowly for about 6 weeks to avoid the clay warping.

Once they are completely dry, the pieces are then fired for the first time to 1100oC. This is the bisque firing.

The pieces are then hand painted with underglaze colours. Glaze is sprayed on to pieces and the pieces are refired to 1060oC. The glaze melts and turns from a powder into the glassy surface finish.

Additional colour is applied following this firing – either as onglaze colour, lustre (shiny golds and mother of pearl) and decals (photographic images which are both custom made and also sourced from factories in Staffordshire).

It is unusual to have so many layers of imagery and additions on a ceramic vessel and I like the depth of subjects and messages that can be built up.

The pieces are then fired for a final time to 800oC.

Vessels and lids are hand thrown on a wheel. They are left to dry for a couple of days and then placed upside down on the wheel and the bases are “turned”. This allows excess clay to be removed, neatens the bases and allows the vessels to sit well on a level surface.

Slip cast and press moulded additions are added to vessels which then follow the same process as the wall pieces.

Matt Smith

Matt is an artist whose work takes the traditional craft skills of ceramics and turns them on their head.

Drawing on a background in museums, the pieces explore what happens when diverse ideas and objects are brought together in one place. Each piece is made by hand –either handbuilt or thrown on a wheel, before the surface is drawn onto and screen printed. Layers of imagery are built up during the making process and the pieces refired a number of times to produce the finish surfaces.

These playful and surreal combinations have drawn a strong audience and the work has been exhibited widely.

Matt Smith Biography

I came to ceramics after working in Museums for a number of years. The themes of collecting and preserving reoccur in my work and I regularly refer back to historical ceramics and museum collections.

Exhibitions
2008 Creative Christmas, Hove Museum and Art Gallery
2008 Affordable Art Fair, London, showing with Mauger Modern Art
2007 Crafts Council Showcase at the V&A, London
2007 Brighton Art Fair, Brighton
2007 One Year On at New Designers, London
2007 First Sight, Hove Museum and Art Gallery
2006 Sarah Wiseman Gallery, Oxford
2006 New Designers, London

Education
2005-06 BA Hons in Ceramics, Westminster University
2003-05 Dip HE in Fine and Applied Arts, Ceramics, City Lit
2002-03 City and Guilds in Ceramics, City Lit
1996-98 MA in Museum Studies, Leicester University
1989-93 B.Sc. Hons in Business Studies, Aston University

Professional experience
2001-03 Head of Exhibitions, British Film Institute
(Museum of the Moving Image)
1999-01 Project Manager, National Collections Centre, Science Museum
1989-99 Project Manager, New Galleries, Science Museum
1997-89 Wellcome Wing Project Administrator, Science Museum
1995-97 Senior Administrator, Conservation Department, V&A