One of this country’s most exciting potters, the internationally acclaimed Svend Bayer will give a talk and show a short film about his work at Sladers Yard on Friday evening. Thirty of his magnificent pots can be seen, and bought, at Sladers Yard until November 6th. Tickets for the talk, with or without supper, are available from the gallery.
Born in Uganda to Danish parents, he came to this country when he was 16. He graduated from Exeter University and joined Wenham Bridge Pottery as student to Michael Cardew. Later Cardew called him ‘easily my best pupil… his is a force of nature. Everything comes to him so easily.’ In 1973 Bayer married and travelled to potteries with big wood-fired kilns in Japan, S Korea and SE Asia.
In 1975 he set up his own pottery at Sheepwash, North Devon, near the ball clay mines and sawmills who supply the offcuts to burn in his kiln. Since then he has worked with tremendous levels of energy, strength and application making the pots which are recognised around the world.
He is known for the extraordinary size of his pots and for the exceptional colours and textures he achieves with his glazes. His firings are unusually protracted and hot, lasting five days and nights during which the kiln has to be continuously stoked with wood. While the shapes of his pots derive from traditional forms, he breaks tradition by exposing delicate glazes to the wood ash in his kiln. This high-risk practice causes the glazes to ooze and flow with remarkable colour and texture. Svend exhibits his work in leading galleries in this country and has shown in USA, Australia, New Zealand, Kuwait, India, Malaysia and Brazil.
His work exudes personality, deriving from a traditional training but breaking the rules with the hand of a master. ‘If you look for perfection in my pots you will not find it.’ He says, ‘ Look at them as you would on survivors… they have the signs of a life lived which, in my pots, come from the firing process.’
- event: Talk and Short Film by Svend Bayer
- Friday 7 October 2011, 7.30pm
- Tickets: £7.50/ £17.50 with supper
- Bar opens 6pm