December saw the annual work in progress exhibition at London’s Royal College of Art (RCA) of final year MA students of ceramics and glass. ARTS THREAD went along to take a look.

Louis Thompson is the winner of the Charlotte Fraser Prize 2009 for Glass and he showcased two pieces based on Sigmund Freud’s study of dreams with half-glimpsed shapes and shadows caught in the glass – as if captured dreams.

Tanya Gomez is the winner of the Charlotte Fraser Prize 2009 for Ceramics with a collection of pieces created from ribbons of ceramic, wrapped around to form shallow vessels, as well as layered to form tall bamboo-like structures. Tanya’s work revolves around adding colour glazes and finishes. The back wall of the exhibition displayed a mini ‘studio space’ for each designer, showing their working methods.

Sun Ae Kim uses ceramics and glass to explore satire in ceramic art of the 21st century. Looking at how people quickly fall in love, marry and then divorce, Sun Ae has taken drawings of European figurines of the 18th and 19th century from the V&A and used them to create her own parody version of a love story.

Bethan Lloyd Worthington undertook a work placement at Royal Crown Derby in the summer and noticed how imperfections are marked with coloured pens and temporary coloured dyes used to highlight sections. Bethan’s range explores how this markings can be used in decorative ways.

Koji Shiraya is investigating mixing porcelain with feldspar in differing percentages and firing them at differing sizes of particles. Her aim? ‘To try to recreate the earth.’
Martha Todd is interested in figurative sculpture and using it as a medium to look at how we switch from parallel emotions – such as comfort/discomfort. The rabbit’s head inspiration comes from a kindly present of a similar furry severed head to Martha by her cat.

Edmond Byrne’s tall glass vessels are a result of his investigation into surface and mark making, using drawings, photography and spontaneously-made moulds to push marks into the glass.

Mylen Eliot’s Libidinal Chandeliers use the fluidity and transparency of glass to explore female sexuality.

The exhibition also included PhD and MPhil students. 2nd-year Mphil student Min Jeong Song uses glass to explore how we see objects; by photographing them in different light settings or as sequential images, we can see multiple viewpoints.

PhD student Heike Brachlow is researching colour in transparent glass. Her aim is to develop a feasible process for studio-based glassmakers to create coloured glass in a kiln. Using her process, the designer can create their own bespoke colours. The piece is explained by Heike: ‘these cubes are all coloured with the same mixture of oxides, using increasing amounts ( from back to front as shown). The glass contains neodymium oxide, which causes it to change colour in different types of light, most obviously between incandescent (pink) and fluorescent light (green).’

In addition, first year MA ceramics and glass students displayed a project that took them to the recently re-opened ceramic galleries of the V&A to choose an object, investigate it, copy it and then make their own creative response to the object, giving it a contemporary significance.

Royal College of Art
Louis Thompson
Tanya Gomez
Sun Ae Kim
Min Jeong Song: mintyglass@gmail.com
Bethan Lloyd Worthington
koji.shiraya@network.rca.ac.uk
Martha Todd: martha@lifejustbounces.com
edmond.byrne@network.rca.ac.uk
myleneliot@yahoo.com
Heike Brachlow

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