2013/14 - LISTE 18 | The young art fair in Basel

Tufnell0/5/1Rob Tufnell83 Page StreetGB-London SW1P 4HAmail@robtufnell.comwww.robtufnell.comSolo Show at LISTE:Aaron Angell, 1987, UKOther Artists of the Gallery:Joel Croxson, UKRuth Ewan, UKStephen Sutcliffe, UKWorks available by:Mary Barnes, UKDavid Burton, UKChristopher Logue, UKHumphrey Spender, UKAaron AngellUntitled, 2012Glazed stoneware29 × 23.5 × 17 cmAaron AngellWheel of Flesh –Long Hair, 2012Collaged walldrawing250 cm diameter172 / 173Aaron Angell’s presentation announcesthe foundation of his Troy Town Art Pottery.This ‘studio pottery’ follows twentiethcentury ideas of artisanal ceramic makersand will accommodate both his practiceand that of invited peers. The Pottery takessome influence from the works of a longforgotten novice monk, Brother VincentEley, an initiate of the Trappist, neo-GothicMount St. Bernard Abbey in Leicestershire,England in the 1950s.After building a kiln beneath the monasterywithout the permission of the Abbot,he set about producing what he believed tobe an archetypal monastic-ware basedupon his observation of fragments ofMedieval pottery found across Europe.His Charnwood Cistercian Ware developedfrom his studies in ceramics at a localtechnical school. In 1951 he was invitedto present his over-sized coil pots bearingamateurish depictions of prehistoricdinosaurs within the Festival of Britain.After 1965 there is no trace of him.Angell’s idea of Charnwood CistercianWare consumed by 1960s counter cultureprovides one starting point for the TroyTown Art Pottery. The pottery takes itsname from the Troy Town sites foundthroughout Britain. The name indicatesthat they were locations for historical,turf mazes based upon ancient, Classicaldesigns that were used for games andritualsDrawing on the Latin root of the word‘compost’, compositus – literally ‘somethingput together’ – Angell sees his ceramics,wall drawings and paintings as havingbeen developed through accretion and rot:‘an imperfect, incomplete and unscientificprocess’ in opposition to the distillationor ‘alchemical’ ideas expounded in muchcontemporary and Modern art.