Chris Turrell is a ceramic artist and teacher running an independent studio in Liverpool. His work for Collect is intensely personal. Chris says, “Growing up in 80s Britain as a gay teenager, there were few positive role models for me to be inspired by. When Channel 4 started up and began screening independent films by film makers that had something to say, I discovered Derek Jarman. An artist, film maker and political commentator that wasn’t afraid to create difficult and beautiful films and artwork.”
At the time Jarman lived in Prospect Cottage in Dungeness, a place like no other in the country. When Chris lived in Brighton in the 1990s, he decided to go there. It took hours on the train: first Brighton to Rye, then the miniature railway. When he eventually got there he discovered that Dungeness is a vast expanse of shingle along the Kent coast, the only buildings being the nuclear power station, a café and a ragtag collection of black fisherman’s cottages, which included Prospect Cottage. Chris observed, “It was one of the most magical, spiritual and evocative places I had ever been to.”
Chris’s work for Collect is a series of visual, ceramic “postcards” describing his journey to Dungeness and the impact it had on him. These form a visual yet abstracted journey, created using a wide variety of different techniques and processes. Some of these are new to Chris – mono printing, sgraffito, text and photo transfers. He recreates the emotional reactions he had to the whole experience of traveling to Dungeness; this is a very personal work that is beautiful, complex and biographical.
Ten years ago Chris was made redundant and decided to set up a pottery studio that ran classes for beginners. It’s called Baltic Clay and has been going ever since. Being made redundant was the catalyst for Chris to focus seriously on creating and developing his practice. He uses a wide variety of media in his ceramics, from traditional decorating materials like slips, oxides and glazes to non-traditional ones like polyfiller, beeswax and watercolour.
Everything Chris makes is a unique work of art. For him, these pieces are non-repeatable. Chris has thirty years’ worth of sketchbooks, going all the way back to his time at university, which he still use for inspiration. He says, “They are an essential way for me to realise ideas as I have no visual memory.”
Piece for Sale:
Journey to Dungeness, 2023-24, W 30cm x H 35cm each, 13 ceramic panels
£2,900
Email Chris: itschristurrell@hotmail.com