Jim Kelleher is a ceramic artist and educator, producing a range of thrown decorative vessels and figurative sculptures.
My figurative pieces work around a theme of confidence and doubt in personal identity. The figures depict moments of duality between internal monologues and ungovernable external events of life.
These pieces are an attempt to revel in our singularities and defects. They are depictions of the whimsical and sometimes melancholy dramatics at play in the psychological make-up of each character seen in moments.
Vessels
The potters wheel and the vessel have always been an enduring source of interest. The current direction of my thrown work is influenced by exploration of asymmetry and the expression of energy from the making process.
Bowls for Palestine
A limited-edition bowl range created as a gesture of solidarity and support, with proceeds being donated to charity.
Their surface draws loosely from the fishnet and trade routtes pattern language of the keffiyeh, a symbol of identity, resilience, and cultural continuity. Reinterpreted through a widened rim shape and glaze pattern work.
The design becomes both functional object and offering: something made by hand, carried by purpose, and intended to give a little back.
My thoughts are with all those still living under apartheid and fear.
Of Things After Nature
There is a strong inclination to allow the clay as a material to lead the design process resulting in a natural unrestrained aesthetic. These pots are high fired stoneware with a mix of underglaze, slip, oxide wash and a fluid flambe glaze. The making process involves throwing on the wheel, cutting and forming and the use of clay in plastic, slip and bone-dry state.
Waterbowls
A range of high-fired stoneware vessels fired in oxidation. These
pieces are thrown, altered and transformed on the potter’s wheel. I’m interested in forms that are developed with a visceral relationship with the clay making each piece unique within the range of a working visual language.
The pieces attempt juxtapose traditional vessel forms with an influence of asymmetry as a design element and natural features which occur in rock and mineral formations. There is an emphasis on accentuating the malleable nature of clay in the fired ceramic pieces. This is complimented with fluid flambe glazes that flow over and pool across the surface.
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Jim Kelleher 