Exhibition: Tanya McCallin

Born in Cambridge and studied at Central Saint Martins, Tanya McCallin comes to working with ceramics from a long and successful career in theatre set design. Tanya explains how she “longed for a more ‘real’ and ‘solid’, less ephemeral material to work with.”  “I think about ceramic forms in terms of space and light, weight, scale and surface, inside and out, but also of ideas, use and value.” Looking for a sense of harmony, balance, proportion, but also giving value to simplicity and ‘truth to materials’, Tanya McCallin notes that, in comparison to the roughness and coarseness of stoneware, there is a gentleness to Porcelain “that inspires a concentration and attention when throwing.” Explaining the risks of working with porcelain, that the material must be mixed exactly, not to wet not to dry, that when throwing a movement too gestural could nock the form off balance, Tanya says she is drawn to work with porcelain for its calm, white purity; modern, minimalist, plain and best unadorned with ornaments or fuss.