The ceramist

What did the ceramist say to the baker?

In English Bread a Yeast Cookery, Elizabeth David writes that bakers have traditionally resented potters: though they were necessary to build ovens and make special moulds, all too often they lived in a world of their own unable to respond quickly to requests. She writes, `Potters do what they please, and when, and what suits their kilns and their firing routine.' Undercutting this history of conflict is the evidence of shared experience working a plastic material that must undergo the ordeal of fire before it is ready to venture out into the world.

A Lebanese woman making mountain bread in a Melbourne bakery.

Neville Assad (Furren-El-Shibbeck: Observations to an internal space) draws on the juxtaposition of kiln and oven in the Middle Eastern village to offer testament to the hands that serve both. His clay pieces represent the three elements shared by pottery and breadmaking: earth, water, and fire.

Rod Bamford (Dividing line) provides a more conceptual visual grammar for linking craft and trade. The front row contains pieces showing the developing of a clay form using the Ram's Head technique. The middle row consists of terracotta strips with DNA codes stamped on them. The back row shows clay forms with negative impression of final objects: croissant, tea cup, loaf of bread, etc.

Now let's hear from the other side