RITISH
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Originally, Pigott planned to work only
with ceramics, but time spent mulling over
the online catalogue convinced her to cast her
net wider. The cases include such interesting
non-ceramic items as tapa cloth from Samoa,
paper and bamboo fans from Japan and
spruce root baskets from West Coast First
Nations cultures. The only caveat placed on
the artist was that she not include objects
by the

communities whose objects they were. This

considered “culturally sensitive”
restriction removes whatever qualms viewers
might have that decontextualizing objects
compromises sacred or cultural values, and
it enables to museum to fulfill its mission of
“inspiring understanding of and respect for
world art and cultures.” That the objects are
not culturally sensitive does not mean they are
not culturally significant; indeed all of them
speak deeply to their role in creating culture
and meaning within a specific community.
However, removed from these specificities and
co-mingled with related objects from other
communities, the objects engage in lively
conversations that suggest commonalities
between people the world over.

Cases displaying Pigott’s works are spaced
throughout the exhibit, and they hold
particular charm. Regarding the elegant,
beautifully thrown and subtly glazed bottles,
bowls, cups and beakers, one sees the artist’s
sensibility at work in her own production.
Lines proliferate in the taut edges, refined
profiles and considered spaces between the
individual forms that make up the “clusters.”
In Soft Shadow, edges where an interior
cream-yellow meets an exterior pale grey, or
where a view through two bluish forms reveals
the soft glow of a bowl beyond exude palpable
energy. Subtlety and radical simplification
of form are held in dramatic tension by the
restless curves of rims and feet. Another case
(O) holds a series of small bowls thrown from
feldspar-laced Shigaraki clay. These differ
dramatically from Pigott’s porcelain works,
yet they share unselfconscious directness and
sensitive edges. While it is thrilling to see her
work on its own, it is even more interesting to
see it “in conversation” with other objects.

In the accompanying brochure and on-site
video, Pigott discusses several organizing factors
that influenced her selection and placement.
Objects of great value are set without
hierarchy alongside simple tools or fabrics of
everyday life. In some, category associations

Discovery
Art_Travel
2013-14 CERAMICS EXCURSIONS

Sicily
Oct. 1-18, 2013

Morocco
Oct. 28-Nov. 18, 2013

Burma
Jan. 8-24, 2014

govern her choice, as in Case E containing
“river-fellows—canoes and painted duck.”
Case D addresses “translucency,” expressed by
such items as a goat skin puppet from India,
a bamboo and paper fan from Korea and joss
sheets from Cambodia. Another (L) considers
solidity, combining clay net sinkers from the
Philippines, a wood and tin cassava grater
from Suriname, and a wooden cup, bowl and
bentwood dish made by North American First
Nations. The colour red animates this and
other cases, supplied here by a ball of bright
red yarn and lacquer dishes from Japan. Red
is used strategically throughout, unifying
and establishing connections between cases.
It appears in the guise of a red Korean sash,
a red-spiraled Japanese umbrella and as red
patterning on eggs from the Ukraine, which
tide in a red-striped canoe. This use of red
is effective, as the dim lighting causes the
cases to resemble islands in a sea of darkness,
suppressing the sense of the exhibition as
a whole. Museums regulate light levels in
exhibitions, but, occasionally, one wishes for
a little more brightness.

Several cases explore surface and trans-
lucency. A particularly wonderful case (B)
includes a quartz necklace from Columbia, a
classical marble figure, a fluted Sung Dynasty
cup and one of Pigott’s magical bowls. Light
penetrates each of these surfaces to reveal
an underlying crystalline structure. The case
is unified by a meandering line that deftly
navigates the fluted edges of the Chinese cup,
the folds of the drapery-swathed figure and the
delicate lip of Pigott’s bowl before radiating
through the ribs of a paper fan hanging above.
Another case (N) presents a composition of
circles and squares: a square Japanese lacquer
tray cradles three of Pigott’s elegant bottles.
These are set beside a wide-rimmed Slovakian
charger decorated with a simple wreathe and
inscription. Other cases throw caution to the
wind, mixing ceramics and cedar bark, seal
skin and cotton, or metal and bamboo. Care-
ful looking reveals an underlying order and
aesthetic, one that revels in colour, texture and
the materiality of things. This isan exhibition of
adjectives and qualities: crisp paper; dull metal;
rough wood and smooth ceramic. Through
careful and sometimes surprising juxtaposi-
tions, Pigott makes us feel these qualities. This
is not an easy exhibition, nor one that can be
quickly taken-in, but it does reward those sufh-
ciently patient to look and learn from a true
artist. Pigott educates, opening us up to the
magnificent array of objects made by humans
of all cultures, and she makes us more sensitive
to and aware of the beauty in the world.

Potters Guild of BC Newsletter : December 2012