Bloc

This ceramic form appears as a chunk of rock that has been cleaved, carved and eroded by time. An earthy palette of ridges, strata and fissures meditatively mirror fragments of landscape and geology. Claudi Casanovas says his work is similar to, ‘…things we find, like stones on the road, like wood on the beach or pieces of machinery in a scrap yard’. [1] This work is from Casanovas’s Twenty Blocks series. He describes each form in the series as a ‘silence’ and is fascinated by the innate presence and energy of found objects. [2]

Casanovas’s manipulation of clay is daring and experimental. Clay is frozen then shattered into shapes, from which he builds composite forms. He sculpts the clay further using a chisel and surfaces are further manipulated by wood-firing. His approach to material has similarities to the work of Peter Voulkos. Casanovas’s practice also encompasses works on a monumental scale. Tony Birks collected this work and described Casanovas as his favourite ceramic artist – ‘fearless and endlessly inventive’. [3]

Sim Panaser, August 2020

[1] Lewenstein, Eileen, ‘Claudi Casanovas Individual Potter: Ingenious Engineer’, Ceramic Review, 132 (November/December 1991), 29-31 (p. 31).

[2] Exhibition: Twenty Blocks, (2001) http://www.galeriebesson.co.uk/cas2exhib.html [accessed 20 August 2020].

[3] Tony Birks, ‘Goodbye Besson’, Ceramics: Art and Perception, 87 (2012), pp. 48-51, (p. 49).