A Pot in The Life of Janet Hamer presents a ceramic hanging pot in combination with a narrative text, which parodies the curatorial blurb. Told in third person, the figures and sub-texts, which make up the body of the narrative all circulate around the biography of the ceramicist and writer Janet Hamer, who constructs this ceramic object. In this tangential engagement with the clay form Hamer attempts to demonstrate the limits of a long-forgotten deposit of highly grogged clay.

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The result – a hanging pot, triangular bracket and hook, are made entirely of hand crafted un-glazed ceramics. The triangular support structure and hook are fired to a different temperature than the pot – resulting in the support and hook being impermeable, while the pot is porous. These physical states prompt Hamer to think through two different types of metaphors, each touching diverse literature, images and theory from her history and studio library. For example: chunks of the technical and chemical language of clay and ceramics, which she had previously published; the image of a traditional Spanish ceramic water cooler (botijo) and Jacques Lacan’s 1950-1960 seminars on transference. 

 

A Pot in The Life of Janet Hamer was exhibited as part of In The Line Of Beauty, 2013-2014 at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin.