Born in 1948 and educated at the Central School and the RCA, Alison Britton emerged in the 1970s as one of the most interesting of a new generation of sculptural potters. She uses slab-building and alteration to explore the seemingly limitless language of vessel-making. Her work investigates an intriguing interaction between form and surface marking, between often complex articulated shapes and fluid abstract painting.
The best pieces are structurally and decoratively playful, resourcefully working with the varied ramifications of cylinder, neck, lip, spout, handle and so on. She has continually reinvented the pot for herself, so that it reads as an ever-transforming object, full of possibility for her response to the broader visual world.
David Whiting |
