There is something about ceramic vessels that, regardless of their age and background, "communicates so much to people," world-acclaimed British artist Felicity Aylieff tells me when we meet on a particularly sunny September morning at London's Kew Gardens, where her latest solo exhibition, Expressions in Blue, has just opened to the public (through March 25). In many ways, it is as if vases spoke a universal language: "Everyone knows what a cup is, that it's hollow, and has volume," she says. "And that's exactly what makes vessels so profoundly fascinating to me."
For four decades, Aylieff has been probing the line between ceramics and sculpture through colossal clay works that stand out for their abstract yet oddly emotional essence. A professor at the Royal College of Art, her works are part of numerous private and public collections — including the Victoria & Albert Museum — and championed by leading gallery Adrian Sassoon for their pioneering contribution to contemporary decorative arts. United by an enthusiasm for material, process, and the history of handmade crafts, the artist's creations have long captivated the audience with their imposingly ethereal nature. But it was Aylieff's immersion into China's blue-and-white ceramics production that marked a new beginning in her career, as showcased in the spectacular series of vessels on view in Expressions in Blue, one of this month's must-see design exhibitions in London.
China, or the Discovery of Wheel Thrown "Big Ware"
In 2005, she joined her husband, the Japanese potter Takeshi Yasuda, on a work trip to China's undisputed porcelain capital, Jingdezhen, becoming rapidly hooked in its universe. "Jingdezhen is a crazy place," explains Aylieff as a warm smile appears underneath the frame of her round, red glasses. "All they do there is working with porcelain clay, whether creating tableware for modern homes and art pieces or reproducing traditional artifacts." Inspired by the city's "absolute specialism," she connected with the Zhen Shang Ceramics Co. and the Xin Liang Big Pot Factory, two of the city's family-run ceramic workshops specialized in gigantic ware, to push the boundaries of her production in a creative dialogue that continues even today.
"It was like being in a sweetie shop," laughs Aylieff. "I knew I could do all sorts of things there." From the meter-wide scale of her previous sculptures, the artist found the physical and artistic means necessary to take blue-and-white china, and ceramics as a whole, to bold new heights. What would have been too demanding to accomplish on her own in England — "it takes three throwers working in tandem to throw a big pot" — became possible through her collaboration with the Jingdezhen artisan community, whose resourcefulness is evident in Aylieff's 16-foot-tall vases. Compared to the UK, "the manufacturing system is quite different there," says the ceramist, adding that small, independent labs serve as its main force. Despite not having worked with such volumes before, the local crafters "took up the challenge," seamlessly tuning into what she had envisioned, and granting Aylieff a "completely new way of thinking" about porcelain in return.
Expressions in Blue — A Years-in-the-Making Journey
Launched at Kew Gardens' Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art on October 26, Expressions in Blue is the perfect culmination of that decades-spanning journey. Presenting a hypnotizing selection of hand-thrown pottery works — including cobalt oxides-painted, statuesque ones and vibrant Fencai enameled vessels informed by the hosting institution's collection — the showcase itself is five years in the making. "The project was first put together in 2019, when my gallery, Adrian Sassoon, and RBG Kew's Galleries and Exhibition Leader Maria Devaney asked me whether I'd be interested in bringing my work to the gardens," Aylieff recalls. Though, initially, the idea was to showcase her vases throughout the grounds, soon COVID-19 took a hit on the exhibition, preventing the artist from entering China for two years.
When she eventually got back into it in 2022, Aylieff picked up her Chinese ceramics-inspired experimentation where she had left off, giving life to nearly 50 new objects in only a couple of visits between then and today — a remarkable achievement considering the amount of trial and error required by ceramics produced at such an ambitious scale. "With large pieces like these ones, it all starts with a prototype," explains the ceramist. "You want to work out how each of their fragments will fit together, how the finished vessel is going to look like, and how to glaze it." Of course, some attempts are discarded along the way, and the process is much more granular than it seems.
From Clay to Kiln — Porcelain Making in Brief
The first step towards Expressions in Blue involved understanding how many small and big artworks would be featured in the exhibition. Once that was decided, Aylieff "drew them up on Rhino 3D as precisely as possible," so that artisans could identify any obstacles to the firing stage. "Sometimes you might have to change the shape of the vase to accommodate the high temperature and avoid technical problems," she explains. They would then hand-throw and trim the individual sections of which every big piece is composed — three to four, to be exact — and, once dry, they'd proceed with glazing before bisque-firing them.
"Because fuel is very expensive in China, all components are fired at once, which means I have to do everything at the raw stage," says the artist. Decorating these artworks isn't any easier. "It's like painting on blotting paper," she explains. "I must work very fast on them not to take off the glaze underneath: in a way, this determined my brushwork." Once her dynamic, animated painting has graced the vessel's surface, this is glazed once again and put in the kiln, the final passage of a four-week-long production timeline, "though I work on multiple pieces at once", adds Aylieff.
Bridging the West and the East, her Chinese porcelain-inspired creations belong to a world of their own, suspended between past and present and different corners of the globe. While the ceramist's experimentation looks pretty much flawless to the eye, for Aylieff, there are no boundaries in ceramics that can't be pushed any further. "I want to use color in my Fencai enameled vessels in the same gestural way that I use in my blue and white ones, and although it is incredibly hard, I am determined to solve that problem," she says. As for the meaning behind it all, and what she hopes Expressions in Blue will leave to people, the artist has no doubts.
"Absolute joy, I hope," Aylieff exclaims. "I would love visitors to experience a sense of awe, wonder, and unexpectedness, and to ask themselves, 'How can this be?'" Part of her wishes to bring us back to her fascination with vessels and their "universal" resonance. "I am very old-fashioned in the fact that I love beautiful things," she confesses. "I hope some of the pieces on view, however big or small, will touch people, evoke emotions in them, and help them reconnect with themselves — something I find very important in this digital world."
'Expressions in Blue' is open at RBG Kew's Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art through March 23, 2025. Book your tickets
Curious to have a go at wheel-throwing yourself? Find the right class for you with our edit of the best London pottery courses or discover how to integrate the medium in your home décor by looking at how these monolithic table designs embrace ceramics in a new way.
