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 Jill Fansgawe Kato

Another close link to Japan was maintained when Jill Fanshawe Kato became Artist in Residence at Taurus at the same time that David’s Haiku Perch was being carved and his exhibition of carved stone works (called WALKING.STONE.GARDEN) was in full swing in the courtyard. Jill had originally been contacted as part of the Japan 2001 promotion, organised by the Japanese Embassy, but was unable to take part due to her exhibition commitments in Tokyo, where she exhibits and sells much of her work. (However we did have the very great pleasure of hosting several talks and workshops by world-renowned potter, Professor Takeshi Yasuda, during November 2001 as part of our Japan 2001events).

In June 2002 Jill, whose pottery is admired and collected throughout the world, took up her residency here for a month—relishing the opportunity of swapping her relatively small London-based kiln for the very large production kiln used to produce the range of blue pottery that characterises Taurus Crafts. In this way she was able to produce something big!

Her travels throughout the world and her first hand experiences of tropical birds, coral reefs, exotic fish, animals and plants are all strong influences in her work. But so too is her love of the countryside, organic food and her own organic garden. The Taurus Crafts’ four-acre organic garden particularly caught her eye. Challenged to produce a piece of ’Living Art’ within a month or so, for two weeks Jill imbibed the atmosphere of Lydney’s countryside and Taurus Crafts. Trips to the Forest of Dean in search of local inspiration led to a state of torment. Though verdant and ferny, the industrial forest and small grey villages did not jolt Jill’s multi-coloured imagination. And the sculptures in the Forest made by other artists clearly showed a much deeper knowledge and fascination with the area than could possibly be expected of Jill.

Her normal way of approaching a commission is to do a series of drawings. On this occasion she made a series of maquettes directly in clay but was not comfortable with any of them. Aware of time slipping away Jill proposed an idea based on tropical plants and animals. This could be a way of adding a splash of colour to the Courtyard. The inspiration for the eventual form of the piece actually came from observing a cactus, just 5cm tall, in Jill’s house. This Echinocereus has ribbing down its sides and brilliantly coloured flowers. Taking the form of the cactus as the basic shape for the Chameleon Planter, as the piece is now called, it is divided into four by the application of clay stems and leaves. These Jill then developed into hiding places for chameleons.

The sculpture was built by coiling section upon section and smoothing and thinning the clay upwards. Since the piece was so large, and Jill is quite small, she had to stand on a chair to finish the top. An inner container of similar construction houses the exotic-looking Agave americana ‘Marginata’ which erupts from the top.

After completion, the piece was dried very slowly over two months to prevent any peeling away of the chameleons, and biscuit fired to 1000°C. Later Jill returned to glaze the Chameleon Planter, applying small amounts of matt blue and green glazes around the leaves. The sculpture was then fired to 1270°C. Jill prayed nervously for no disaster to occur. The firing took place over 10 hrs - much faster than the 15 hrs she normally allows much smaller pieces in her own kiln. Everyone was very relieved that this large piece emerged from the baptism of fire in one piece.

Jill’s techniques are firmly grounded in the skills she has learned from five years spent studying ceramics in Japan and her subsequent biennial exhibition trips to that country. Since 1977 Jill has held 23 exhibitions there, mainly in Tokyo, and now she lectures widely on Japanese and British ceramics.
 
She maintains that that one of the best parts of being an artist is to be asked to create a new work for a new location. Nobody, least of all the artist, actually knows if it can be achieved. Only by being put to the test does an artist actually learn what is achievable.
 

Graduated from Chelsea School of Art in painting;
studied pottery intensively at the school of the Bizen potter, Yosei Itaka and at the Musoan Karatsu Pottery School in Tokyo.
Past lecturer on the
Postgraduate Ceramics
Diploma course at
Goldsmiths College

Exhibitions include: Keio Department Store, Tokyo; Gaku Gallery, Tokyo; Medici Gallery, London;
V & A Museum, London; Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh; Nature in Art, Gloucester; Coombe Gallery, Devon; Beaux Arts, Bath; Yufuku Gallery, Tokyo; Art Salon Kogen, Nagoya; St. David’s Hall, Cardiff; Bandol, France; Beijing, China; Chelsea Crafts Fair; Ryubo Department Store Gallery, Okinawa; Primavera, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; Daiwa Foundation, London; Vallauris Biennale, France; Crafts Council Gallery, Islington; Japan Festival, Liberty’s, London; Natural History Museum, London

Commissioned works in Tokyo; London; Mauritius
 

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