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Vase of Settlement, Sowing and Old Ways

Jo Sweeting
Vase of Settlement, Sowing and Old Ways

Polyphant Cornish stone 32 x 17 x 17 cm

£4525

Jo Sweeting CRUCIBLE VASES

A vase. A vessel.

A form made to hold something, or purely a surface made for decoration.

Part of an ancient tradition of making forms which m ay be carinate, bulbous or cylindrical.Vases may hold flowers, be grave marker’s, carriers of wine, water or be vessels that only air invades.

Made of materials as diverse as glass, clay, bronze or stone. Vessels far more solid than the fleeting and delicate flowers they hold. Once the flowers fade the vase may be left to gather dust on its shoulders or put away in a cupboard.

Vases have been tracked back to the Bronze Age (3300BCE – 1200BCE)

Used to hold grain or transport oil.

The oldest known vase is the Warka Vase, carved in alabaster stone, found in a temple complex in Uruk, Southern Iran.

Carved with relief forms around its body, depicting animal and human life, fruits and grain.

It is of its time and celebrates the narrative of place.

What of our time? Of our place in history? These are dark times.

We are in the midst of profound global change. We will find new ways to live, in more equable times, where celebration and respect for place and nature will drive us on together as a species, united.

In response to the brief, to make three vases,I have considered the times we live in. These pieces will not hold flowers, nor water.

These are a series called ‘Crucible Vases’.

A ‘crucible’ is a vessel which allows minerals and other materials to mix, melt and meld, under huge temperature changes and enormous force, in bronze foundries.

It may be said that we are living in ‘crucible times’. A time of severe trials, where differing elements interact, leading to the creation of something new.

The stone itself, polyphant stone from Cornwall, was once formed under enormous pressure, under the auspices of deep geological time. My totemic vases depict universal concepts such a settlement, connection and love. Concepts as old as the Warka Vase.

Cornwall Contemporary

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