If these fragments could be read...

These works are part of an ongoing series of ceramic relief works framed within shelves, box frames, and containers. I’ve come to see these works as documentation — records of presence shaped by a personal symbolic language. This evolving vocabulary is a structured way of registering and making sense of a moment in time. Each work gathers fragments, pieces that are incomplete and sensed rather than fully understood. Like remnants of a dream, only traces remain, imprinted somewhere deeper and beyond conscious reach. Collecting and framing them holds the pieces together, binding them into something whole. 

These works engage with thresholds and transitions — the frames we pass through as we move from one stage to the next. I’m particularly drawn to the liminal spaces between; between the known and the unknown, the visible and the invisible. I work with natural rhythms, symbol, material, and colour to give form to what resists definition. These are phenomena felt rather than known, shifting and fluid, like time or shadows. The making process is a conversation between intention and intuition. Marks and forms emerge in response to what comes before, each decision shaping the next. I begin with a large clay slab, divided into a grid of smaller blocks. Working left to right, top to bottom — much like writing — I cut and shape without pre-planning. Unlike conventional writing however, these forms resist translation. They can’t be deciphered, repeated, or reconstructed. What is captured is subject to and shaped by the conditions of its making, shifting from one work to the next. 

Working with a symbolic language allows me to hold onto these fleeting fragments just long enough to give them form. Symbols carry meaning beyond themselves. It’s a language that is fluid, shifting in meaning and interpretation. Several recent works introduce symbols that function more directly as signifiers, establishing a deeper dialogue between viewer, material, and idea. Compositions explore spatial relationships — drawing from references like thresholds, grids, and stair-like increments. These structures imply movement, transition, or passage. And while some forms suggest recognisable elements, their meanings remain open. 

Colour plays multiple roles. In some works, it’s inherent to the clay itself — emerging through selection, mixing, firing, and finishing. In others, it’s added as an engobe, establishing a bonded yet distinct surface. This applied layer responds to temperature, absorption, and the material’s own chemistry, creating a dynamic relationship between surface and structure. During firing, both transform together, shifting subtly in response to the process. The timber frames interact in a similar way — the natural tone of the timber influencing the semi-transparent paint finish, built up in layers to harmonise with the ceramic reliefs. Each frame is carefully calibrated to its ceramic counterpart, aligning in colour, scale, and depth. 

The relationship between collection, containment and connection is deliberate. The individual fragments are gathered into a unified whole, where adjacencies, alignments and the spaces between elements hold as much weight as the forms themselves. 

Bruce Rowe 2025