Meet our new features writer, Dr. Terry Davies:
A lecturer for over forty years in various institutions across Australia, Dr. Davies looks to observe the natural world and all of the flora, fauna, people, myths and legends to exist within it, through the use of ceramics.
At the heart of my art endeavours, is a perennial relationship with a coastal area in West Wales centred around the village of Borth in Ceredigion. Its influence has been unwavering, despite decades lecturing and art making in Australia, interspersed with frequent visits home whereI now live permanently. The area includes sand dunes, a large beach, cliffs and rock shelves flanked by fenland, farmland and wooded high ground. It is approximately 20 square miles that has been long established folklorically and historically as a region, or Bro in Welsh. Being born and raised in Borth, with antecedents going back four centuries, cemented my attachment to place.
Historically for centuries Borth's sustenance was provided by the sea's piscatorial bounty,..primarily the herring.This atavistic dependence permeated its way into my consciousness and is made manifest in my artworks which promote such timeless truths concerning human-kinds’ relationship with the natural world. My recurring images
of fish and crustacea refer to nature supplying food for human survival for eons in my locality.
This is one of the most potent aspects absorbed during my early years andis a never-ending source of ideas. In my youth the oral history was vanishing rapidly with the last remnants ofthe native-born generations who had a long connection to Borth’s past. I was privileged to hear their stories in Welsh because the language has an unsurpassed descriptive beauty. These included the legendary tales of Cantre’r Gwaelod, a legendary land in West Wales and also the bard Taliesin being found as a baby, like Moses, in a fish trap at nearby Wallog. The menfolk had a myriad of seafaring tales to tell and the women who were vital to the survival of Borth revealed an astounding stoicism as their lives were often blighted by tragedy. These people were an indelible part of the fabric of my experience. One did not have to read these classics to know the human condition as it was revealed whilst growing up in this sea girt village which indelibly affected my adult aesthetic sensibilities.
I have vivid memories as a child visiting homes full of nautical instruments, sailing ship paintings and photographs of the families’ mariners past and present, ships in bottles, scrimshaw and exotic bric-a-brac from faraway lands. Here one listened to stories of fabled fish catches, triumphs and tragedies, shipwrecks and lost lives. As well as the maritime memorabilia viewed there were biblical prints, a panoply of Methodist “hero” portraits and natural history illustrations by the likes of Thorburn, Tunnicliffe and Lydon showcasing some of the creatures from my locality.
The latter Zoomorphic art, despite being ridiculed and marginalised, was the vehicle transporting me on my maiden voyage into the world of art. John James Audubon was, and still is, unsurpassed and a particular hero of mine. Under this influence I celebrate the natural world and its denizens in my drawings as they provided the elements that give life and shelter to us all. Even the folkloric beginnings of the village are magical and inspiring. Sion Dafydd and his wife Sian were apparently the first couple at Borth, a kind of Adam and Eve, and they lived from the fruits of the hinterland and the fish from the sea. Adding to their mystique is the notion that they were outcasts starting a new life...very Biblical. In the religious fervour of Methodism in the 18th century, some of the herring fishers embarking from their storm beach thought that they were on the Galilee with the Great Fisherman himself watching over them.
In my youth I constantly interacted with the natural world as I traversed the ground in a hunter/fisher/gatherer role. This welded a relationship with the home region that included an acceptance of its seasonal patterns and the limitations of its natural bounty, forging a duty of care toward the habitat and wildlife so as to maintain ecological balance and fecundity. All this was underpinned by a love of place, “brogarwch” in Welsh. The feel of a place and the memories it evokes, are important. In my mind’s eye, when a region’s people and creatures are seemingly in harmony it is inspiring and makes the site more powerful and significant. In whatever circumstances whilst travelling over the terrain, there is a continuous filmic process occurring where the snapshot stored images can later be developed into art. This bank of images provides a rich trove of ideas and inspiration. This mimics earlier hunting forays which are now undertaken to access an art bounty.
When celebrating natures’ fecundity I extol the environmental positive as opposed to protesting the environmentally destructive. Swirling marine life forms crowd the surfaces of my ceramic works and appear on figural pieces which are more to do with symbolism, signs and portents than illustrative or decorative wonderment. This affirms the appropriateness of humankind interacting harmoniously with nature. My optimism focuses on how it should and can still be. This also encompasses the affinity and empathy I have with minority and marginalised native peoples worldwide. The latter and countless generations of rural dwellers in Britain were bioregionalists, long before that term was coined by the American, Father Thomas Berry.
My ceramics, whether functional, decorative, figural or architectonic, are vehicles to expand these themes. I work on varying scales according to whim or the dictates of process. From the beginning, I have not perceived ceramics to be manacled to utilitarianism; nor do I conceive clay as being a material to be solely confined culturally to the crafts. I oscillate from pot making to sculpture seamlessly as I approach both from the same viewpoint; that of being vehicles for ideas. Drawing onto clay is a process where hesitancy is anathema as the material is unforgiving, and unlike paper, one cannot erase unwanted markings or clumsy passages. A paper sheet is easily replaced but it takes time to remake a ceramic object, especially to work up a suitable surface which even when achieved leaves the maker a short time in which the drawing can be executed. During these procedures I reacquaint myself, via zoomorphic imagery, with a familiar, meaningful reality whilst recapturing a magical kingdom enjoyed since childhood. I interpret the visual messages in a joyful making ceremony where past and present ideas forgather from hidden and known sources to charge with emotion a set of beloved themes. The “shape shifted” world of my art imaginings that I “will” into existence, is, as artist Clive Hicks-Jenkins says of his painted scenarios, “more real than the corporeal one”. This fictive romanticised and optimistic element I also construe as Pastoral...in my case Coastal Pastoral.
For one series of ceramics I chose a black and white palette which showcased the drawing composition and subject matter on thirty large pots, some up to 140 cm high; partly inspired by Minoan palace wares that bore the images of sea creatures around Crete which were emblematic of that culture. This was a move away from previous works which used colourful glazes and intermittent ventures into wood firing. Like most of my ceramics, the black and white pots were once fired to save time and energy. Whilst the forms were still slightly damp they were sprayed with a mixture of glaze and a porcelain body and immediately drawn into using a small kitchen knife to outline the imagery without piercing the thin pot walls. The work would be left to dry and then using the palm of my hand I would gently rub the surface to ensure there were no burrs remaining. When the surfaces were totally dry I would fill in the outlined images with a black pigment and the piece would then be carefully placed in the kiln whilst avoiding any smudging.
Figural porcelain works are drawn into and have small pellets of clay embedded into their surfaces to form figures and textural passages with a black stain applied for emphasis. When dry they are polished and fired to a high temperature. The result simulates marble which is appropriate for “memorials” to the people of Borth. Using the same technique another series “Oar heads” included “pole” like features based on the old sea defence groynes guarding Borth which were made up of rows of natural tree trunks that I likened to the palings of ancient fish traps “goredi”. Bowls of varying sizes had edges and rims manipulated to simulate the movement of fish or crustacea carapaces whilst other white glazed porcelain bowls were based on seashells.
I long realised that my artworks were subliminally created to be cultural artefacts specific to Borth as few existed alongside the remnants of an oral history which could be easily overlooked or forgotten. I intended my work to “document” the villagers history. To achieve this I time travelled into the past to commemorate their endeavours. Into this mix is added a personal sense of guardianship of the environment which is part of bioregional philosophy and “brogarwch”. This is strengthened in the art context by the notion of Custodial Aesthetics expounded by Welsh painter Iwan Bala. He discerns custodial sensibilities in contemporary Welsh art as having a need to salvage a degree of authenticity to preserve a sense of identity which will remain intact and undisguised...essentially having specificity to Wales.
Phenomenology has come into play as childhood recollections, overlaid by subsequent memories, have amalgamated self and place. Progressively, over time, the accretions of memory have become embellished, resulting in personal myth making.
One of phenomenology’s proponents, philosopher Gaston Bachelard, is of interestas he moved from the world of science and reason to that of the imagination and poetry. He has given voice to my personal feelings about the past containing a power and beauty. Personal intuitions have been encouraged and expanded by absorbing the theories and ideas of many commentators such as Ellen Dissanyaki, Suzi Gablik, Anna Voigt, Jacques Barzun, Herbert Benoit and Jay Appleton. In particular I respond to Dissenyaki’s haunting arguments that expand the raison d’etre of art beyond elitist notions, when she argues that arts existence owes more to bio- behavioural practices to do with love and connectedness, than any elitist imposts.
Many Welsh artists are attached to place and celebrate it in their art. Amongst those whose work I can relate to are Clive Hicks-Jenkins who painted a series of emotionally loaded and evocative coastal images at Aberporth. James Campbell’s ceramics and paintings centred around Manorbir. Anthony Goble and his affinity with Carno. The late Muriel Delahaye’s paintings of Borth past and present. Christine Kinsey depicts strong females that are tributes to the unsung female sacrifice that underpinned the South Wales industrial saga. Angela Spillane’s tribute to Milford Haven’s fishing past and the town’s history. Meinir Mathias who is based in Ceredigion has created spectacular portraits of Welsh people, her artwork relates to cultural memory, history, land and people. Lucy Burns states that she is heavily influenced by folklore, mythology and nature, centred on a strong sense of place, rooted in the countryside of West Wales. Peter Prendergast’s paintings and David Nash’s sculptures pay homage to the environs of Blaenau Ffestiniog. Eleri Mills states that people and animals make the land itself more powerful and significant which is manifest in her work based on her long association with Montgomeryshire. Her sentiments echo Simon Shama’s who wrote that “Before it can ever be a repose for the senses, landscape is the work of the mind. Its scenery is built up as much from the strata of memory as from the layers of rock”.
Pro-environmental perspectives in the visual arts are increasing, which help break the inertia of current self- imposed eco-cultural malaise. There has been a certain hostility to the natural world, especially to its nurturing aspect. This has all been exacerbated by the hyper inventive and pervasive promotion of increasingly frivolous and inappropriate technologies. Perhaps we must forgo the constraints of centralist narratives of identity, which concoct chimeras of heterogeneity. What a dehumanising prospect “sameness” would be.
I intend my work to be viewed as celebratory and panaceaic, and as visual conclusions that amalgamate terrain, fauna and people. I utilise the past, eliding mawkishness, as a vehicle for present and future creations. I believe my “bro” can provide art inspiration for eons as it has a timeless potency for me. Perhaps some consider this esoteric, archaic or even the Luddite outlook of a neo primitive...so be it.I wish to express a belief originally espoused by Roger Caldwell, that in this age of science and technology, it is imperative to tell stories about what it is to be human. My creations attempt to do that.
To commemorate the astounding history and achievements of Borth’s people I have written 2 books on the subject and created a maritime website.
Borth a Seaborn Village
Borth a Maritime History
Find out more about Dr. Davies on his website today:
Copyedits made by the Editor.
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