Nestled
peacefully in the rolling countryside and better known as the birthplace of
Giovanni Boccaccio, Certaldo seems an unlikely springboard for a
twenty-first-century artistic revolution. And yet, for the last 15 years, it
has been the home of Terry Davies, the place where he has set up his workshop,
thrown pots on his pottery wheel, and quietly engineered a change in attitude
towards the ancient art of useable stoneware ceramics.
Nowadays
Davies boasts celebrity status within the world of ceramics in Italy, but he
has not always found it easy to achieve recognition. After a studio
apprenticeship in Britain, and then extensively travelling the world, he first
came to Tuscany in February 1998. Settling down in his kitchen, he tells me
about the ‘early days’:
‘When I first arrived in Tuscany, Italian pottery
was in the dark ages … ceramics was associated with interior design rather than
the world of art. People didn’t understand the concept of glazing rather than
painting pottery … one woman at a market, while looking at a pure aqua celadon
glazed vase, even told me that it would be nice to see my work when it was
finished,’ he recalled.
What is
unusual about Davies as an expatriate artisan is how little crossover there is
between his creative output and that of the traditional Tuscan artisan. Made on
the pottery wheel, Davies’ pieces manifest a central preoccupation with form,
with glazes accentuating the coherence of shape. On the other hand, many of the
traditional Tuscan botteghe, a fixture in the streets of Florence,
largely use precast pottery as a canvas on which to apply intricate stencilled
designs. The two styles stand in stark contrast to each other, with few potters
in Italy successfully combining the two approaches to their ancient
craft.
Over the
last 15 years, the world of traditional Tuscan pottery has suffered a distinct
decline. The spiritual homeland of the movement, the town of Montelupo
Fiorentino, situated 20 kilmetres southwest of Florence, has seen dozens of
decorative botteghe close down, while almost all higher-education
courses in the traditional decoration techniques have become privatised.
Similarly, in Florence, many of the outlets of Tuscan decorated pottery have
been badly hit by the economic recession, and have either closed or moved into
the more general ‘souvenir market.’
In contrast, the stoneware movement, which is originally derived from Bernard Leach
and the English stoneware tradition, has risen in importance and gradually gained
acceptance within the Italian artistic community. Today there are dozens of
potters, both hobbyists and professionals, who, like Davies, work with
stoneware clays and experiment in glazes. For Davies, the success enjoyed at
recent exhibitions and pottery markets, as well as a new contract with Giorgio
Armani Casa, is a testament to 15 years of hard work.
Davies is
resolutely unapologetic for what could be labelled as artistic colonialism:
‘Potters in Florence closed their eyes 500 years ago, and have not opened them
since … Italian ceramics is wiping itself out because it has never moved with
the times.’ While speaking to Davies, I begin to realise that art, like every
organic process, is inescapably subject to the Darwinian concept of ‘survival
of the fittest;’ the studio pottery movement which Davies has spearheaded has
become increasingly successful at the cost of the traditional Tuscan bottega because it is inherently less industrial and more human.
Above
all-and this is no overstatement-Davies has helped bring pottery to the people,
turning what previously had been regarded as a rather secretive craft into
something which occasionally has resembled a spectator sport. In particular, he
has set up many public kiln firings in the piazzas around Italy, drawing crowds
in the thousands to the main squares of Lucca, San Gimignano and Faenza to
witness the elemental magic of fire combining with earth, water and air to
produce ceramic masterpieces. His paper, cardboard tube and glass bottle kilns
have never failed to turn heads in these medieval piazzas. While this may seem
a rather primitive advertising strategy-after all, what could be more obvious
than building a huge fire in the centre of a community?-it has brought ceramics
to the wider public and perhaps even engendered a new generation of potters in
Italy.
With the sun
starting to settle over the Tuscan hills, and with the soda-glazed teapot
nearly empty, I turn the conversation back to Davies. ‘In the midst of all this
change, are you still the same Terry Davies that came to Italy 15 years ago?’ I
ask him. ‘Living abroad gives you extra colour. I’m older and I’m wiser, but,’
he says, with a smile glancing across his face, ‘the fire still burns within
me.’
For more information about Terry Davies and his work, please visit www.terrydavies.it
