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Fiona Thompson

Edinburgh
Ceramic artist, making work for exhibition and commission.
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I graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 1994, and completed an M.Phil (post graduate research degree) at the University of Sunderland in 2010.I have exhibited widely in the UK and further afield, with work available through various quality galleries. I am a professional member of the Craft Potters Association. Residencies are a big part of my practice, and I also work to commission. Teaching experience includes at universities and colleges, community arts work and adult education. I have had a couple of articles published in ceramic and tourism journals, and have co-authored a chapter in 'Travel, Tourism and Art' published 2013. In 2012 I set up a social enterprise ceramic studio and teaching facility in Edinburgh with partner Chris Donnelly- Cyan Clayworks. We offer courses, artist project support and other ceramic services. 

The non-functional vessel is my main focus. Work in recent years explored travel narratives,  the souvenir and the photograph. The pieces developed were, in a sense, personal souvenirs. Travel is often simultaneously a heightened, enjoyable experience, overloaded with visual stimulation; combined with a sense of displacement and unreality. The everyday can be familiar and yet unfamiliar.

Other series explore themes of authenticity, display and collection within the natural history collection.The image of an animal is potentially evocative, loaded with multiple meanings. I am interested in the transformation of the animals; they have become representations, symbols, altered versions of their former selves. They are fixed in time; frozen into a chosen pose that convinces the viewer of their original context, their display cabinets a new setting. 

The work is handbuilt in stoneware clay, previously earthenware. Imagery is built up in layers through brushed and monoprinted slips. Images and text are monoprinted and or screen printed. Photographic transfers (decals) are applied, with lustures on selected pieces. 

 

 

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