Philip Lakeman
Over the last 30 year, a constant image in my sculpture has been
vessel.
It is the historical reference to the vessel, as a spiritual and metaphysical object, which underlies my intent when creating these ceramic objects. In Greek and Roman times the vessel was used as a canvas to document special occasions, to narrate myths or to store things of spiritual nature. They come to us as time capsules of ancient lives and customs. It is this same concept that is the framework of my vessel, and they are my 'canvas' for personal expression on life in this contemporary world. My vessel retain a reference to their ancestors and the symbolic purpose which clouds them with mystery. Similarly their surfaces are rustic, and their forms classically archaeological. However my vessel could also pass as a Trophy or an object won or presented as a prize. So within this context they each have a character, and ib fact they have dual characters split personalities. They are two-faced vessels where the fullness of volume is illusionary, where internal space is squashed int two profiles. As the viewer you can journey from one side to the other, move from one emotive sensation to another. Often these sides are opposites in mood from old to new, from happy to sad or from sobriety to embellishment. I like to think that my vessels wear cloths of different colours and patterns. Like a shirt you choose to wear because it reflects your mood for that day. Maybe you choose to dress yourself up as Harlequin, or in something which brings out a sense of sophistication
......or maybe just to fulfill that crazy desire to dress up and party.
Should you choose to put flowers in my vessels, you dress them up yourself.
Leave them as they are, and they remain objects of my 'dress up' box. Both sides!
Philip Lakeman
2004
It is the historical reference to the vessel, as a spiritual and metaphysical object, which underlies my intent when creating these ceramic objects. In Greek and Roman times the vessel was used as a canvas to document special occasions, to narrate myths or to store things of spiritual nature. They come to us as time capsules of ancient lives and customs. It is this same concept that is the framework of my vessel, and they are my 'canvas' for personal expression on life in this contemporary world. My vessel retain a reference to their ancestors and the symbolic purpose which clouds them with mystery. Similarly their surfaces are rustic, and their forms classically archaeological. However my vessel could also pass as a Trophy or an object won or presented as a prize. So within this context they each have a character, and ib fact they have dual characters split personalities. They are two-faced vessels where the fullness of volume is illusionary, where internal space is squashed int two profiles. As the viewer you can journey from one side to the other, move from one emotive sensation to another. Often these sides are opposites in mood from old to new, from happy to sad or from sobriety to embellishment. I like to think that my vessels wear cloths of different colours and patterns. Like a shirt you choose to wear because it reflects your mood for that day. Maybe you choose to dress yourself up as Harlequin, or in something which brings out a sense of sophistication
......or maybe just to fulfill that crazy desire to dress up and party.
Should you choose to put flowers in my vessels, you dress them up yourself.
Leave them as they are, and they remain objects of my 'dress up' box. Both sides!
Philip Lakeman
2004