Vessel

Charles Bound’s ceramics are gestural, rugged and loose. Here, bold impressed finger markings evoke the physicality of the maker, lumpen forms encrust the neck of the vessel and cracks and crevices appear across the thick volcanic pitted surface. The washes of white and blue slip give it a lightness and painterly quality.

The uniqueness of Bound’s vessels comes from anagama wood-firing (see also 50726 and 50727). He describes his tunnel kiln as a ‘river of flame’, [1] and this alchemical tool is an active participant in his practice, he says, ‘the kiln offers things I would never have seen or considered had I greater technical expertise and control of the process and outcomes.’ [2]

Bound draws on the scorched language of Japanese Bizen and Iga ware and strives to create work which ‘equally refers to being man-made and the materials it came from’. [3] Bound first studied ceramics in 1983, setting up a studio whilst working as a college technician. In 1994 he built his first wood-fired kiln and has been using this process since.

Sim Panaser, August 2020

[1] Charles Bound, ‘Fired Earth’, Ceramic Review, 224 (March/April 2007), 32-35, p. 33.

[2] Ibid., p. 34.

[3] Ibid.