Opens 5:30pm Saturday 16 March closes 19 April

Scott Brough — Still Spinning

Red clay and a coating of white clay slip, with or without

decoration with iron pigments and some form of clear glaze

is one of the enduring combinations in the history of pottery.

Potters around the world and across time have used this

palette of commonplace materials. To me it is like the flour

salt and water of bread dough, or the guitar bass drums and

vocals of rock and roll. It is everything you need and nothing

you don’t; with limitless scope for variation and expression.

One such tradition, the pottery of 15 th century Korea known

as Buncheong, I am particularly drawn to and inspired by. Its

playful and spirited handling of materials and decoration,

with freely applied glaze made primarily from wood ashes,

clay and feldspar is in many ways a blueprint for the work

this work and the way I approach pottery at large.

The title of the show Still Spinning is taken from the song

While Digging Through The Snow, by the transcendent

Canadian band Whitney K. To make pottery is to walk a

series of revolving steps. Forming an object from soft clay is

neither the first or the last in this sequence of repetitive and

occasionally mundane tasks. Once you have reached the

end it is time to start the process again. The pottery that I

make rarely requires the input of new ideas into this mix,

usually ideas (or shapes, patterns) are recycled, gradually

changing and evolving. Each step in the process is not an

opportunity to refine and make smoothe the work done

previously, rather I aim to leave another remnant mark, to

add to the trail of breadcrumbs rather than cover tracks.