‘Salt Fired Sculpture’
Image courtesy of Ceramic Study Group
Barry Brickell’s extensive collection of works contain two families of pot wear. Those more conventional, simple spun forms direct from the wheel that are often adorned with floral ornamentation, either impressed onto the clay or applied as glaze; the other, perhaps more technically complex but most definitely visually striking works, his hand coiled series.
“...once I grasped coiled pots I could not stop...I graduated from fully symmetrical forms, to the wildest sculptural forms I could ever think of...”
-Barry Brickell: A Form of Communication
Through this post symmetrical context, Brickell’s more contemporary series were born. During ‘His Own Steam: A Barry Brickell Survey’ curated to represent his body of work, alluring edges and vivacious curves consumed a large portion of the 2013 exhibition. Though the works may startle in silhouette they are still recognised immediately as ceramic vessels.
Brickell maintains a balance between the curved naturalistic elements across the journey of the vessel, and the more conventional end conditions. Through this balance he best demonstrated the strength of is hand coiled works, the seamless negotiation between provocative motifs and traditional pot making.