Have you seen the work of Tim Smith?
by greg
(Brighton UK)
Matt Smith
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I love your website btw. I was just perusing your upcycling pages - very interesting designs. Fresh light on something old and lovely.
Recently, I went to an exhibition in Brighton and saw the work of a contemporary artist working in ceramics called Tim Smith (see photos attached). I agree with the general sentiment of this website that there really is a great buzz about contemporary ceramics in this country.
It's a funny thing that on the one hand, the old fogeys in charge of the old style ceramics industry just seemed totally incapable of making any forward looking decisions, so the industry just died on its feet, so to speak. So that's one aspect of British culture - the old died-in-the-wool conservative (with a small 'c') brigade. Put these guys in charge of a flourishing industry and they will be fine, but as soon as the demand wavers and things need to be moved on to fresher pastures and they are the worst possible people to have in charge, simply because they have no clue as to the importance of 'the creatives'. To them its all bullshit and 'management decisions' and let's talk a better talk than the next guy (so as to get one up on a promotion and some bonuses).
On the other hand, in the UK there is and always has been a really cutting edge of cool creativity and forward thinking from a certain sub-set of people. Call them artists, call them designers, creatives - whatever.
The problem with the UK is one set of people tend to write the other off as 'the enemy' - more so than possibly any other culture I know. That's our main problem here in the UK and someone ought to crack some heads and get business executives and creatives to talk to one another.
Anyway, back to Tim Smith - I attach some photos...
Greg
