Jasper Thims
Bognor based Jasper Thims is a highly skilled ceramicist, for this exhibition he presents a collection of uniquely hand built porcelain vessels.
We Caught up with Jasper in the lead up to our Mothshell Ambit exhibition!
Weald- Tell us about your relationship with ceramics and the inherent qualities you most value
Jasper - I think some of the most interesting qualities of clay lie in the experimental. I started quite young but what stuck with me was how clay can be influenced and changed to take on so many other properties, because in essence clay is a special blend of mud. The opportunities are endless, clay can easily exist from a liquid to a solid, you can play with its material qualities in any of those states and manipulate it in any way you see fit; as long as it comes out of the kiln at the end and doesn't explode (and or damage the kiln) you’re fine. From the material to the theoretical you have a rich tapestry of meanings and histories to play with, from ancient Jōmon ceramics to contemporary experimental forms and you don't even need to touch the history of ceramics if you don't want to. Through process and thought I feel I am bringing into being work that ever reaches towards fundamental meanings to me.
Weald - How much importance do you give to the light where you work?
Jasper - Personally I think the interplay between light and form is one of the most important tools I use when making. The meaning of the light isn't really important to me but how it can camouflage and obfuscate texture, shape, pattern or meaning is something I'm always considering when I'm making. Light is a tool, but there is a kind of uncertainty in the making process, in ceramics you know how the glaze might affect the texture or scale of a vessels surface but not necessarily how it will affect the object, similarly to how the form will shrink in firing, until it comes out of the kiln there's a kind of uncertainty I have to deal with.
Weald - What is your relationship to objects?
I think I'm a bit opinionated when it comes to objects we value, I’m not adverse to throwing away a lot of things and I rarely regret it, but I think there is a balance between significant objects and everything else. I don't like clutter and I'd hate to be utilitarian about the value of objects, I’ve learnt that objects should be authentic in some way to who you think you are. You don't need lots of things but the things you have should hold significance, they do not necessarily need to be positive, it could even be visceral negative in some way.
Weald - Do you create reference materials for yourself, photos, drawings etc or collect objects?
Jasper - When I'm out and about I'm often struck by spaces that are undergoing some form of liminality, something that exists in those spaces that are undergoing a kind of change, I end up taking photographs and collecting them for research. Rubble, rubbish, overgrowth, overuse or misuse, there is something in those photos that touch on the greater meaning I know I'm talking about.
I then take these images and translate them into drawings, the essential shapes, patterns, textures into monochrome drawings. From there I use them in the forms, though they are never used directly, they help draft an initial starting point and explore potential patterns and marks.
Alongside this I mainly collect tools to mark make on my forms, not for any solid meaning but when it comes to finding objects you look at things differently and consider how they'd mark when put into clay. I don't find inherent meaning in the tools I collect but by the very nature of the tools I am combining marks from disparate contexts and when combined onto the form they blur their meaning or origin. I think that it gives meaning to the tools paradoxically.
Weald - Do you have an idea of what you’d like to explore next?
Jasper - Recently I’m excited at the prospect of experimentation into additions of glaze material in clay bodies and then using said clayzeTM in the building of the forms to allow the material to embody a hands off kind of change. I want to allow the materials to have a kind of controlled yet uncontrolled chaos that only will be known to exist after the firings. Alongside this I am also looking into extrusions, making my own clay body and more kinds of mark making.
Weald - Do you prefer silence when you are working or do you listen to something?
Jasper - I love music but when I'm making work it can be very hit or miss, sometimes a bit intense. I can get a bit caught up in what it's saying and it distracts from what I'm trying to say. In the studio I often jump between Spotify and BBC Radio 6.
5 song studio soundtrack:
Saudade - Ana Frango Eléctrico
Dazies - Yuele
Playboy/Positions - Shygirl
Cyberia Lyr2 -Sewerslvt
Hyper-ballad - Bjork (Orchestral)