GOLDMARK

MIKEDODD

2 Price£10

They have, like their maker, a continual

sense of enquiry, a depth that epitomises,

so eloquently, that ‘universal mystery’

about which he speaks.

David Whiting 2011

MIKE DODD

This online catalogue is available as a printed hard copy, price£10 + p&p. A free documentary dvd is also included.

To view more of Mike Dodd’s work and our documentaryplease visit modernpots.com

MIKE DODD

Essay by David Whiting

GOLDMARK2011

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Mike Dodd always directs the conversation away from himself – not

out of modesty – but because there are more important issues to

discuss. Not only pots and pottery, but matters of their context –

the environment, science, society, education. In this way you learn

something about the man. He is a deep thinker, but not

introspective. It is what is out there that counts. There is a sense

of open engagement that makes him talk passionately about the

processes of pottery, the properties of the clays and glazes he

uses (his interest in the sciences goes back to his schooldays and

his time reading medicine at Cambridge), and in a manner that

clearly relates to his awareness of the whole landscape as a living,

changing organism. He is no nostalgic or escapist maker, but a

searing realist, one acutely aware of his place in the problematic

modern world. He is persuasive about our need to reconnect with

our environment, to take responsibility for the damage we are

inflicting. His interest in food chains, astrophysics, geology,

philosophy, history and other related subjects feeds a naturally

interrogative mind. It is this quiet investigation that he brings to the

art of pottery too.

A new exhibition. A new – and large – group of pots, many from

what he regards as his best ever firing. On tables in the kiln room

are tall bottles, faceted bowls, lidded jars and boxes, runs of

teapots and jugs and some quite new forms, including a group of

press-moulded bottles of ‘pilgrim’ type. Some vases are gently

beaten into squarish shapes, other more cylindrical ones may be

Mike Dodd The Perceptive Spirit

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fluted or ribbed. Occasional small lugs add character. Some

surfaces are glazed more simply, others combine a depth of glaze

and slip, perhaps further elaborated with incising or trailing. Dodd’s

broken slips have real richness, as do those now signature textured

pots, where a dry broken clay combines with the almost liquid

iridescence of a covering ash. There are a range of different sized

bowls. The smaller more cylindrical shapes he avoids calling

teabowls, because he feels he doesn’t know enough about their

Japanese culture to do so. He is not one to use terms loosely,

though I notice he has succumbed to ‘yunomi’. ‘Guinomi’ is

another matter though, and Dodd has instead nicknamed a run of

ash glazed little fluted cups ‘Stanleys’, in honour of a recent

grandson. I quiz him about the increasing co-option of Japanese

ceramic terms into British pottery. He is cautious about it, though

concedes that it at least acknowledges the Far Eastern influence on

what many potters do.

Mike Dodd has a preference for working with a modest handful of

materials and stretching them – of deepening his understanding of a

corpus of ashes, irons, granites, slips and so on. The results are

actually remarkably varied in colour and texture and the way each

synthesis enhances form. But Dodd the empirical scientist is all too

aware of how elusive many of the best results are, and of course

the unfathomable aspects of pottery – and of firing – is part of the

draw. He is adamant about one thing – that ceramics, like creativity

of all kind, is about form. ‘It is through form that we communicate’,

whether it be in music, art, literature, film or whatever other

language – and there is certainly a power in his words too when he

discusses our common physical origin – of objects that, like us, are

made of matter first created in the Big Bang. Dodd is fascinated by

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evolutions, but he brings to his arguments a poetic insight too –

and it is this we find in the pots. They are alive because Dodd’s

own sense of wonder, tempered by the critical discipline of his long

experience as a craftsman, only deepens as the years pass by.

He remains touchingly (and reassuringly) committed to domestic

everyday pots; to jugs, mugs, casseroles, mixing bowls, pourers

and so forth. Like Richard Batterham, he makes no distinction of

value between one type of pot and another, and although Dodd has

become, like most functional makers, more of an exhibition artist,

he recognises the great value of repetition throwing, of how it feeds

the vitality of his work as a whole. His tableware has this personal

significance, but at a time when, he concedes, functional sales

have dramatically declined. It is well designed and generous, as

many potter and collector friends, not all easily pleased, have

frequently confirmed. Dodd doesn’t just go through the motions of

making. It is about picking up a pot with just the right weight,

individual feel and texture that makes it different, makes one want to

use it everyday.

Dodd’s teapots express this quality. They have something of

Hamada’s solidity. Yet Dodd’s crisp cutting, faceting and fluid use

of ash are very much his own. They possess a balance of design

and a tactility that makes them amongst the best you will find. With

their thick overhead handles and chunky spouts, they are now a

familiar part of Dodd’s output. Other pots, his bottles and vases for

example, allow more room for quiet invention, for experimentation in

details of shape and decoration, reassessing proportional

relationships, and new types of surface making. Then there is his

free spirited drawing – generally resist brushwork and incising –

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which is amongst the most accomplished by any British potter.

Who cannot be moved by his beautiful abstracted foliate designs

which give such unity and motion?

Mike Dodd’s work is refreshingly selfless in an age obsessed with

self. His energy is directed instead into an art that is profoundly

intelligent, but is born of ‘perception rather than conception’ to

borrow one of his key phrases. His work, fresh and direct, is

unencumbered by the conceptual preoccupations of much ceramic

practice today, where idea takes priority over object and more

immediate expression. From his earliest days as a potter when he

began sourcing and processing his own materials, there has been

a strong sense of connection, from Dodd’s appreciation of the

smallest constituents of his clays and glazes, to the place of pots in

that broader field of perception. They have, like their maker, a

continual sense of enquiry, a depth that epitomises, so eloquently,

that ‘universal mystery’ about which he speaks.

David Whiting

October 2011

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Pots are not just functional or non-functional,

that’s too simplistic. For me, at any rate,

their function is firstly to enrich, to keep alive

a sense of beauty, to touch feeling as a

counter or balance to reason. Secondly, as

probably the most tactile of all the crafts, not

to be usable would deny the initmacy

necessary for ‘presence’ to emerge in

everyday use.

Mike Dodd

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It is this aliveness, encapsulated in form

that communicates to the onlooker. Form

is all we know. And it is through form that

we can pass onto another something of

that immense, mysterious, immeasurable

and complex vitality of which we ourselves

are an expression −Life.

Mike Dodd

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I want qualities which pierce deep into feeling

and evoke a sense of interconnectedness

and love, telling the same story in many

different ways.

Mike Dodd

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Biographical Notes

Born 1943 in Sutton, Surrey.

Training

1957-1961 Bryanston School, Dorset. Studied pottery under Donald Potter (a

student of Eric Gill).

1962-1965 Cambridge University. Studied Natural Sciences Tripos (Medicine).

Honours Degree.

1966-1967 Hammersmith College of Art, London. One year post-graduate

course in Ceramics.

Potteries

1968 Started first pottery in Edburton, Sussex. Two chambered wood and

oil fired kiln. Ash glazed stoneware and porcelain.

1971 Moved pottery to larger premises at Woods Place Farmhouse,

Whatlington, Battle, Sussex.

1975 Moved pottery to Cornwall. Built a wood-fired Korean climbing kiln.

Used only local materials for the bricks. Started making glazes from

local granites, clays, wood ashes, irons, ochres etc.

1979 Asked by Survival International and Oxfam to build a large climbing

Korean kiln, similar to the one built in Cornwall, in the central jungles

of Peru for the "Amuesha Indian Project" - a project aimed at keeping

the indigenous people in their natural home. Spent 6 months there

under the guidance of the American project leader, Connie Talbot.

1986 Moved pottery to Cumbria, concentrating on using local materials,

granites, hornfels, andesites, irons, ashes etc. in the making of

glazes.

1994 Pottery at Manor Farm, Cheddington, Beaminster, Dorset.

1999 Moved to present pottery at Dove Workshops, Somerset.

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Teaching

Full-time 1981-1986

1981 Senior lecturer (Vocational Pottery Course) at Cumbria College of Art,

Carlisle, Cumbria.

1982-86 Department Head (Vocational Pottery Course) at Cumbria College of

Art, Carlisle, Cumbria.

Part-time Assignments

1972 Farnham College of Art, Surrey.

1972-74 Medway College of Art, Kent.

1974 Harrow College of Art, Middlesex.

1977-78 Royal College of Art, London.

1980 Derby College of Art, Derbyshire.

1986 Dundee College of Art, Dundee, Scotland.

1987 Manchester Polytechnic, Manchester.

1990 Preston Polytechnic, Preston, Lancashire.

1991 Addressed International Potters Camp at Aberystwyth, Wales -

lecture entitled Selling Water by the River.

1997 Bolton Museum, main speaker at Landshut Functional Pottery

Conference.

2000 Germany. Workshop at Landshut College for Ceramics.

2000 India. Workshop at Golden Bridge Pottery in Pondicherry.

2008 Guest demonstrator, Irish Ceramics Festival, Kilkenny.

Selected Exhibitions

1972 Group exhibition, Craft Potters Shop, London.

1973 Group exhibition, Amalgam, London.

1978 Solo exhibition, Camelford Museum, Cornwall.

1979 Wood Fired Pottery by Mike Dodd, Craftworks, Guildford.

1987 The Leach Tradition - A Creative Force, Craft Potters Shop, London.

1988 Nine Potters, Paul Rice Gallery, London.

Mike Dodd, Amalgam, London (solo).

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1989 Out of the Earth, Craft Potters Shop, London.

1990 Mike Dodd, Amalgam, London (solo).

1991 Mike Dodd and Ken Allen, Woodsplace Farmhouse, Battle.

1992 Mike Dodd and John Jelfs, Chestnut Gallery, Bourton-on-the-water.

1993 Group exhibition, Espace La Main, Brussels.

Solo exhibition, Beaux Arts, Bath.

Form & Function, Contemporary Applied Arts, London.

1994 Mike Dodd - Ash-glazed Pots, Vincent Gallery, Exeter.

Mike Dodd - New Work, Woodsplace Farmhouse, Battle.

Mike Dodd - New Pots, Amalgam, London (solo).

1995 New Ceramics - Mike Dodd and Phil Rogers, Oxford Gallery, Oxford.

1996 Bettles Gallery, Ringwood.

On-Line Gallery, Southampton.

1997 Mike Dodd - Recent Pots, Amalgam, London.

Bough and Line Gallery, Bath.

1998 Bettles Gallery, Ringwood.

On-Line Gallery, Southampton.

1999 Ombersley Gallery, Ombersley.

Alpha House Gallery, Sherborne, Dorset.

2001 Bettles Gallery, Ringwood.

2002 Paddon & Paddon, East Sussex.

Alpha House Gallery, Sherborne, Dorset.

2003 Harlequin Gallery, London.

Oakwood Gallery, Nottinghamshire.

2004 Dove Workshops, Somerset.

2005 Bettles Gallery, Ringwood.

Alpha House Gallery, Sherborne, Dorset.

2006 Paddon & Paddon, East Sussex.

2007 Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham, Rutland.

2007 Harlequin Gallery, London.

2008 Alpha House Gallery, Sherborne, Dorset.

2008 Oakwood Gallery, Nottinghamshire.

2009 Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham, Rutland

2011 Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham, Rutland

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Collections

Victoria and Albert Museum, London

British Crafts Council Collection, London

Bath Study Centre, Bath

Cleveland Craft Collection

Ulster Museum, Belfast

Articles

Articles by Mike Dodd:

In Deference of Tradition, Pottery Quarterly, 1974 (invited to a

discussion with Bernard Leach in St. Ives, on the strength of this

article) Vol. 11, No. 41.

Confused Ramblings, Artist's Newsletter, 1982.

Letter from Peru, Oxapampa Project, Ceramic Review, 1983.

Makers or Breakers, Artist's Newsletter, March 1984.

Running a Vocational Course, Real Pottery (formerly Pottery Quarterly)

1986.

Healthy Roots, Artist's Newsletter, June 1987.

An American Experience, Artist's Newsletter, January 1993.

Function and Dysfunction, Ceramics: Art and Perception, 1998.

Trembling on the Edge, article on Patrick Sargent, Ceramic Review,

May/June 1999.

Other Articles:

Tim Proud article on Mike Dodd - Unambiguous Potter, Ceramic

Review, Sept/Oct 1987.

Mike Dodd by Tanya Harrod in Ceramics Monthly, January 1991.

Eileen Lewenstein, Review of China Clay: The Eastern Tradition in

British Studio Pottery, Crafts, Sept/Oct 1991.

An Interview with Mike Dodd, Studio Pottery, April/May 1994.

My Time at Cambridge, CAM, 1997.

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1. Large Dimpled Vase. Two ash glazes 55.0 x 29.0

26. Rounded Vase. Granite ash glaze 20.0 x 18.5

27. Faceted Vase. Peat clay & ash glaze 16.0 x 12.0

39. Tall Fluted Vase. High silica ash glaze 60.0 x 27.0

45. Bin. Ribbed. Ash glaze over dark slip 30.0 x 21.0

47. Large Bowl. Ash and basalt black glazes 10.0 x 37.5

59. Vase. Granite & Penlee stone glaze 23.5 x 15.0

62. Tall Vase. Dimpled. Ash glaze over local clay slip 55.0 x 29.0

63. Tall Vase. Ribbed & impressed. Porphyry ash glaze 57.0 x 29.5

65. Jug. Ash & local clay slip 38.5 x 19.0

67. Large Faceted Teapot. Porphyry ash glaze 26.0 x 20.0

75. Oval Bottle Vase. Faceted. Basalt black glaze 17.0 x 18.0

78. Oval Vase. Two ash glazes over broken slip 17.5 x 19.5

Illustrated Pots All sizes in cm

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80. Waisted Vase. Ash glaze over broken slip 16.5 x 12.0

85. Ribbed Bottle Vase. Incised, two ash glazes 16.5 x 12.0

87. Jug. Basalt black & high silica ash glazes 28.0 x 14.5

88. Textured Vase. Incised. Two ash glazes 24.5 x 21.5

91. Pedestal Bottle. Ash glaze with oak leaf pattern 25.5 x 18.5

107. Round Vase. Incised. Granite & ash glaze & over glaze 16.0 x 16.0

108. One Handled Flattened Vase. 18.0 x 14.0

110. Jug. Basalt black glaze 21 x 12.5

126. Bowl. Ash glaze over broken slip 9.0 x 12.0

138. Yunomi. Ash glaze over broken slip 10.0 x 8.0

140. Yunomi. Ash glaze over broken slip 8.5 x 7.0

184. Banded Bottle Vase. Ash glaze over dark slip 53.0 x 27.0

188. Ribbed Vase. Porphyry ash glaze 46.0 x 23.0

189. Dimpled Vase. Granite & basalt glazes 44.0 x 23.0

190. Box. Wax pattern, Penlee stone glaze 8.0 x 12.0

193. One Handled Flattened vase. Wax pattern, Penlee glaze 32.0 x 20.0

196. Faceted Bottle Vase. Wax pattern, Penlee stone glaze 24.5 x 15.5

199. Large Squared Bowl. Wax pattern, Penlee stone glaze 9.0 x 35.5

202. Faceted Bottle Vase. Basalt black glaze 23.5 x 17.0

203. Waisted Vase. Broken slip, cobalt glaze to shoulders 23.0 x 16.0

205. One Handled Flattened Bottle. Broken slip, peat clay glaze 21.5 x 15.5

207. One Handled Flattened Bottle. River iron on granite glaze 21.0 x 16.0

208. Pedestal Bottle. Incised grass pattern, two ash glazes 25.5 x 18.5

211. Teapot. Wax pattern, Penlee stone glaze 12.0 x 12.0

219. Squared Plate. Ash glaze over broken slip 4.5 x 22.0

Mike Dodd’s series of pedestal bottles

are made exclusively for Goldmark

www.modernpots.com

Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham, Rutland, LE15 9SQ

01572 821424

Text: © David Whiting 2011

Photographs: © Jay Goldmark / Vicki Uttley

Design: Porter / Goldmark

Our thanks to the bat

ISBN 978-1-870507-87-5

2011

1 Phil RogersNew Pots 2005

2 Clive BowenNew Pots 2006

3 Lisa HammondNew Pots 2006

4 Mike DoddRecent Pots 2007

5 Ken Matsuzaki (2007)Thirty Years of a Living Tradition

6 Svend Bayer (2007)New Pots

7 Jim Malone (2008)The Pursuit of Beauty

8 Phil Rogers (2008)A Potter of our Time

9 Lisa Hammond (2009)Unconscious Revelation

10 Ken MatsuzakiNew Pots 2009

11 Mike DoddNew Pots 2009

12 Clive BowenNew Pots 2009

13 Svend BayerNew Pots 2010

14 Nic CollinsNew Pots 2011

15 Ken MatsuzakiNew Pots 2011

16 Jim MaloneNew Pots 2011

17 Mike Dodd (2011)The Perceptive Spirit

1 Phil Rogers - A Passion For Pots2 Ken Matsuzaki - Elemental3 Svend Bayer4 Nic Collins5 Jim Malone6 Mike Dodd

GOLDMARK CERAMICS MONOGRAPHS

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For further details or to order:visit www.modernpots.com or phone 01572 821424

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Goldmark Uppingham Rutland LE15 9SQ England www.modernpots.com

Goldmark Uppingham Rutland

LE15 9SQ Englandwww.modernpots.com

His work, fresh and direct, is

unencumbered by the conceptual

preoccupations of much ceramic

practice today, where idea takes

priority over object and more

immediate expression.

David Whiting 2011