Currently working in ceramics, drawing and stitch, Tamlin’s pieces range from sculptural vessels to be admired, to functional tableware calling out to be used and held. Each piece is handmade in her studio, echoing colours, marks, traces and textures inspired by exploring the North Norfolk landscape.
“I use various materials or media to retell or remember an atmosphere, place or event, creating work that offers time for contemplation, a moment's pause amidst the frenetic events of everyday life. Involuntary memory, how objects, smells, sounds and sensations can trigger feelings, both personally and culturally, allows me to utilise and play with unconscious associations.”
Making a mark, creating tactility.
By the very nature of hand-making, the presence of the makers hand is ever present. For some a simple monogram is befitting, for others the creators pursuit can be felt, throughout the fabric of an object.
In the case of Tamlin Lundberg’s ceramics each item, be it functional or decorative, embodies her process as much as the influences from the far reaching North Norfolk Countryside.
In doing so creating something that responds to its’ influence whilst simultaneously translating a sense of atmosphere into the users hands.
Reconnecting the Dots
Understanding how any artist takes the seeds of inspiration to create energy, that in turn drives the creative process is utterly fascinating. Like tracking a river back to one of its many tributaries, small but purposeful trickles ultimately resulting in torrenting rapids downstream.
Finally, we wanted to share with you Tamlin's journey from first inspiration to working back in her studio:
“How I capture the experience of being in the landscape and bring back those influences to the studio is varied but often include, photography, collecting found objects, samples from the actual landscape, like mud, chalk, grasses and reeds. I also try to be really present on a walk - allowing absorption of my surroundings to take place. Often that will involve stopping, pausing, for a while and just listening to the sounds around me. I often make little video clips or sound recordings to capture movement and atmosphere. Sometimes I try to immerse myself in the landscape, a river, (I'm not a wild swimmer but will walk in rivers where shallow and safe, wade through salt marsh cuts, if the tide will allow it) I also collect words, ( I write them down). All these interactions inform the making process back in the studio, where I have an assemblage of objects and memory triggers recalling impressions of place, weather, geology and atmosphere. This allows me to notice small details and fluctuations in my surroundings, often returning to similar or the same locations also punctuates what changes and what stays the same.
Back to the Studio
“When it comes to the making I am trying to re connect, retell, or re remember some of those experiences, allowing them to emerge in the colours and mark making.The forms are in a sense a canvas, or a metaphor for me. Pots and people have inherent similarities and resonance, even in the language we use to describe pottery, like the "foot, neck, belly, lip, shoulder" etc. I don't craft or make in the environment I concentrate on 'being present' in the environment, even the action and motion of walking are resonant of the actions and motion of making later in the studio, these actions are meditative and calming, allowing an authentic alertness to the moment. I then use drawing, mark making and colour in sketch books at home to explore possible outcomes and shapes, and will often have a few drawings of pots on the wall to inform and remind me loosely what I'm doing.”