Tuesday 13 July 2010


While pondering the phrase 'between the Devil and the deep blue sea' I immediately thought of those ancient maps which featured strange lands and mythological creatures which stood in for the perils of sea travel. An earlier version of the idea of being caught between evil and the sea occurs in Homer's Odyssey wherein Odysseus is caught between Scylla (a six-headed monster) and Charybdis (a whirlpool).These pots are heavily influenced by Attic amphorae which often featured an interweaving of the mundane and the mythological on their surfaces. A pot's surface makes an ideal map; the next destination appears as you circle the object.Our relationship to the sea is almost Gothic in nature.The sea literally is 'the other', a place full of mystery treachery and beasties. As such it presents a rich terrain for other more metaphorical and inward journeys.The images range from Odysseus' boat, 'Penelope' to the Tampa .The text on the pots draws widely (and cheekily) from sources such as Shakespeare,T.S.Elliot,TomWaits,P.B.Shelley,The Drones,Joni Mitchell and Tim Buckley.

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