Earth and Fire

Rachael Mellors – New ceramic work - Palingenesia (from Greek palin, again, genesia,  birth)

 

Rachael Mellors’ new ceramic work Palingenesia, incorporates materials found on the beach in Brighton and Greece. The work continues the anthropomorphic and metaphorical themes of earlier work, with a new simplicity, reusing found materials weathered by the wind and sea, clay and earth fallen on the beach, and firing pots in an open fire.

  ‘Impressions of a past life’

Imprints from the last pots made and exhibited in 1995. These pieces mark the end of one cycle and the birth of another in 2010.

‘The lost pithoi of Petriadhes’

Shards washed up on same beach from which the clay that formed them was collected by potters of Petriadhes over 40 years ago. The same bed of clay fallen on the beach in 2010 forms vessels to hold the fragments, made in the olive grove at Gargarou Retreat, and fired in an open fire with olive prunings.

‘Conversations on Gargarou beach’

 Dead bamboo reeds battered and uprooted by the sea and wind are given new life, held in a fired brick like form, made with the clay and soil fallen from the eroding cliffs which the bamboo reeds once grew in.

 

to contact Rachael Mellors please email:  info@gargarou.com

Rachael Mellors: new ceramic work in progress, April 2010