Book Review:
Transitions of a Still Life

Hot off the press, with quoted conversations and correspondence as current
as March 2007, 1s a comprehensive critical work as elegant as Tam Irving’s
ceramic works. Transitions of a Stall Life: Ceramic Work by Tam Irung is the work
of Carol E. Mayer, senior curator at the University of British Columbia
(UBC) Museum of Anthropology and founding president of the Northwest
Ceramics Foundation. Transitions begins with early influences on Tam Irving’s
work as an influential ceramic artist and closes with his most recent works; in
between are sections on his studio years, investigation of local materials and
teaching years at the Vancouver School of Art/Emily Carr.

There are two reasons why Transitions 1s a keeper. It allows me to continually
revisit Tam Irving’s recent retrospective exhibit at the Burnaby Art Gallery,
and in Carol Mayer’s body of work is a collection of touchstone ceramic
images surrounded by a crucial conversation about the ceramic art form. It 1s
difficult to separate the writer from the subject of the book because Mayer’s
text brings Tam Irving to life so vividly and the photographs create a vibrant
presence of the works.

Transitions 1s a highly readable documentation of Tam Irving’s artist journey,
a journey to find his voice and location in his ceramics practice. Mayer includes
conversations that precariously situate him between the Bauhaus School of
Design and the Bernard Leach Pottery Studio. She explores Irving’s need to
find and work in that sense of place and describes how he investigated the
geological elements of his location, a location where he dug deeply. Whether
Carole Mayer is making meaning of one of Tam Irving’s honest brown jugs
or a bravely balanced rocking bowl, she keeps one essential element about
Tam Irving central to her writing: “He produced vessels that were inspired by
curiosity about the world around him.”

According to Tam Irving, “ the beautiful pot is something that you arrive at
almost by chance,” but a life time achievement of well-formed ceramic objects,
sometimes utilitarian and other times aesthetic, objects made from local
materials, referencing architectural form and solutions to technical challenges
is not arrived at by chance. This is the work of a persistent and inspired artist,

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an exhibition of ceramic sculptures
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a pervasive message in Tyansitions. In addition,
the elegant container of words, photographs,
ideas and critical conversation 1s not a product
of chance arrrval—we waited a long time for

Carol Mayer’s latest body of work. e
Phylks Schwartz

Transistions of a Still Life:
Ceramic Work by Tam Irving

Carol EB. Mayer
Anvil Press/ Burnaby Art Gallery (2007)

Available at the Gallery of BC Ceramics

BC In A Box:
FingerPlay 2008

As we arte getting many questions about
FingerPlay, we’ve decided to include a link for
you. Click on BC Potters Events to be routed
to the Events Page. You'll find all the info and
Entry Form near the bottom of the listing,

Don’t forget, BC In A Box entry is open
to all individual members (limited to one
entry per artist) and required to fit specific
dimensions: maximum 6’x6’x6”. Have fun
and contact us if you have any questions:
contact Niki Berry at events@bcpotters.com

Opening reception: 6 - 8 pm, November 1°
Exhibit: November 1* to December 2", 2007

Crafthouse Gallery (Crafts Association of B.C.)
1386 Cartwright Street, Granville Island, Vancouver, B.C,

Gallery hours: 10:30 am — 5:30 pm daily

CanWest , aon

Rai eet A percentage of the sales will
@Reader’ be: '

THEVANCOUVERSUN Aaise-a-Reader campaign.

be donated to: The Vancouver Sun