Pierre le Riche learnt the basics of ceramics, a medium rooted in wet exploration but transformed into brittle robustness by heat, during his sculpture studies. “I loved ceramics so much that I felt I needed to continue with it,” says the artist. It helps to know that Le Riche’s studies were framed by his investigation of the history and output of “absent craftsman”, notably South African woodworkers. For his second solo exhibition with THK Gallery, Urns for the Ashes of My Lost Lovers Part II, Le Riche has reprised his interest in adapting the forms generated by anonymous artisans, here potters, to create a series of enigmatic ceramic vessels.
Form, method and colour are integral to appreciation of Le Riche’s mostly coiled pots, some with radically tapered bases like Grecian amphorae. Unlike his student body of work, for which Le Riche learnt traditional woodturning, his vessels are imaginative translations of forms derived from ritual objects and functional vessels. One particular form recurs in this vivid miscellany: the lidded funerary urn. For Le Riche, urns are powerful repositories of memories, thoughts and emotions.
He utilised traditional raku, wood and salt firing methods to harden his pieces. Their exterior surfaces feature lavish colour treatments, tart inscriptions and – in a series of terracotta works – archetypal figures drawn from earlier textile works. Le Riche spent a great deal of time refining his glazing technique. “Glazing is alchemy,” he says. “You throw minerals together and hope they’ll come out beautiful.” He keeps a box of glazing samples in his studio. They are material references of refusal and transformation.
Similar to his student research into settler and slave traditions of woodworking, Le Riche is cognisant of the loaded socio-political history of ceramics. This invisible surplus contributes to the engaging vitality of the medium, he says. For his presentation at THK Gallery, Le Riche has opted to bring elements of his messy studio practice into the public realm. “I want to mimic the crazy of the studio. These objects are conceived in the chaos. It is important that they are seen and appreciated in chaos too.”
- Sean O’Toole
