an installation by Paul ScottConfected, Borrowed and Blue...

1st November 2014 - 18th January 2015

at The Holburne Museum

Paul ScottConfected, Borrowed and Blue...an installation by Paul Scott

Exhibition at The Holburne Museum

PAUL SCOTT

In Paul Scott’s hands, domestic ceramics mutate into subversive comments on our life and times. His expert manipulation of familiar motifs like the Willow Pattern gives his work special resonance and broad appeal. He also uses undecorated factory ceramics, called ‘blanks’;these are over-printed in the same blue as the Willow Pattern to dramatic effect.

Blue and white china is often displayed at home for its decorative qualities; it is a visual language that many people are familiar with. Scott’s appropriation of its traditional patterns as vehicles for socio-political commentary has made his work unmistakeable. Warning signs for radioactivity are tucked into the border of the Willow Pattern; jet planes streak across rural landscapes.On a shallow oval dish with delicate fluted edges, a drilling platform rises starkly above a sumptuous deep blue landscape. As befits the title - Fracked - the dish is cracked and in time honoured fashion, the crack has been filled with gold.

A ghost factory, with the legend ‘Spode Closed’, overprinted onto a classic Spode Italian plate laments the demise of the ceramics industry in Britain. The exhibition includes new work derived from a period of research in the Spode archive.

With prefixes like ‘Scott’s Cumbrian Blues’ and ‘The Scott collection,’ the titles of Scott’s ceramics reference both private and institutional collecting practices. On the reverse of each piece are found his maker’s mark, information about the printed ‘edition’ to which it belongs, and sometimes his signature.

In Partnership with Bath Spa UniversitySupported by Arts Council England

Scott’s Cumbrian Blue(s) Arctic Scenery, Kulluk, 2014In-glaze print collage and gold lustre on feather edged pearlware platter (c.1820)37.4 x 28.8 cms£1,800

Scott’s Cumbrian Blue(s), Stigsnæs No.2, 2007In-glaze decal collage on Villeroy and Boch plate (bought in Skælskør,

5 miles from the power plant) Guldagergård, Skælskør, Denmark42.2 x 30.4 cms

£1,500

Skælskør,5 miles from the power plant)Guldagergård, Skælskør, Denmark422 x 304mm2007w

Scott’s Cumbrian Blue(s), Fukushima, 2014In-glaze decal collage on broken and re-assembled Willow pattern platter, marked Japan (c.1965) Wave insert from erased Willow platter (c.1840). Gold leaf, tile cement & epoxy resin.46.4 x 34.9 cms£2,950

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Scott’s Cumbrian Blue(s), The Horizon Series, Wind Turbine No.10, 2014In-glaze decal collage and gold lustre on W.H.Grindley and Co. earthenware platter (c.1920)36 x 28 cms£1,500

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Scott’s Cumbrian Blue(s), The Horizon Series, Fracked No.5, 2014In-glaze decal collage and gold lustre on Booths ironstone platter (c.1900)

32.5 x 42.4 cms£1,950

Scott’s Cumbrian Blue(s), The Albertan, No.1, 2011In-glaze decal collage on Medalta Potteries toilet cistern top (c.1970) Medalta, Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada52.3 x 20.5 cms£2,950

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Scott’s Cumbrian Blue(s), Bridgeless, 2014Collage24 x 24 cms£1,800

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Scott’s Cumbrian Blue(s), Gothic Bridge Ruin, 2014Collage

25.5 x 25.5 cms£1,800

Scott’s Cumbrian Blue(s), Garden After Stephenson & Mi Youren, 2014Collage28.7 x 25.3 cms£1,800

Scott’s Cumbrian Blue(s), Garden After Li Cheng & Claude Lorraine, 2014

Collage24.5 x 21.4 cms

£1,800

Scott’s Cumbrian Blue(s), Nerc Bridges, 2014Collage28.4 x 25.1 cms£2,500

Scott’s Cumbrian Blue(s), After the Bypass (Tower), 2012In-glaze decal collage on Spode Tower plate

27.8 x 27.8 cms£1,200

Scott’s Cumbrian Blue(s), American Scenery, Turnpike (New Jersey), 2013/14Screen print (in-glaze decal) and gold lustre on Portmeirion platter. Clay studio, Philadelphia, USA and Blencogo, Cumbria, UK34.1 x 23.4 cms£1,200

Scott’s Cumbrian Blue(s), Alberta No.8, 2011/13In-glaze decal collage and gold leaf on broken

Hycroft china earthenware plate, rivited with brass staplesMedalta, Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada and Blencogo, Cumbria

24.7 x 24.7cms£1,200

Scott’s Cumbrian Blue(s), English Scenery, Pastoral, 2014In-glaze decal collage and gold lustre on Alfred Meakin plate (c.1960)25 x 25 cms£1,200

Scott’s Cumbrian Blue(s), English Scenery, Countryside, 2014In-glaze decal collage and gold lustre on Davenport plate (c.1850)

26.5 x 26.5 cms£1,200

Scott’s Cumbrian Blue(s), English Scenery,Wordsworth’s Lake Country, 2014In-glaze decal collage and gold lustre on Nelson Ware jug (c.1930)12.2 x 16.8 cms£1,200

Scott’s Cumbrian Blue(s), English Scenery, Sellafield, The Commissioning Series, 2014

Screen print (in-glaze decal) on unmarked earthenware platter (c.1900)47.8 x 37.8 cms

£2,500

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Scott’s Cumbrian Blue(s), Cow in a Meadow After Damien Hirst, 2014Assemblage, in-glaze decal and gold on Bernardaud porcelain platter with sliced cow creamer (c.1850)18 x 13.5 cms (Cow) 39 x 30.2 cms (Platter)£3,500

Scott’s Cumbrian Blue(s), Cow in a Meadow After Thomas Bewick, 2014Assemblage, in-glaze decal and gold on Bernardaud porcelain platter

with tin glazed form (Cooklands Cow)22.4 x 13 cms (Cow) 39 x 30.2 cms (Platter)

£1,500

Scott’s Cumbrian Blue(s), Foot & Mouth No.5 After Macleod, Darwin and May... 2003/2012Screen print (in-glaze decal) on Royal Worcester bone china platter43 x 32.5 cms£2,500

Scott’s Cumbrian Blue(s), Italian Cows, 2014Collage25 x 25 cms£1,800

Scott’s Cumbrian Blue(s), Wild Italian, 2014Collage

33.5 x 27.5 cms£1,800

Scott’s Cumbrian Blue(s), Spode Works Closed, 2009/2010In-glaze decal and gold lustre on unfinished Spode’s Italian porcelain casserole dish (marked ‘Made in Czech Republic’) salvaged from the closed Spode Works in 2009

39 x 29.3 cms£2,950

Scott’s Cumbrian Blue(s), Italian Willow, 2014Collage33 x 28 cms£1,800

Scott’s Cumbrian Blue(s), A Willow for Ai Weiwei (Wen Tao, Liu Zhenggang, Zhang Ginseng & Hu Mingfen), 2014

Erased Willow Pattern platter (c.1840) with in-glaze decal collaging and gold lustre

41 x 32 cms£1,800

Scott’s Cumbrian Blue(s), Palestine, 2014In-glaze decal collage, gold lustre on partially erased Stevenson Palestine plate (c.1820)26.5 x 26.5 cms£950

Scott’s Cumbrian Blue(s), Palestine, Gaza, 2014In-glaze decal collage, gold lustre on three partially erasedAdams Palestine dessert plates (c.1840)21.5 x 21.5 cms each£2,500

Scott’s Cumbrian Blue(s), Scenery, Yanina, 2013In-glaze decal collage, gold lustre on Copeland & Garrett Late Spode platter (c.1840) Clay Studio, Philadelphis, USA38.7 x 27.5 cms£1,950

Scott’s Cumbrian Blue(s), Bombs Over Bagdad, 2014In-glaze decal collage on damaged Minton platter with crest and text

Servata Fides Cinera (‘Loyalty Preserved in Ashes’)52.8 x 40.8 cms

£2,950

Scott’s Cumbrian Blue(s), Wil low, 2014Collage39 x 30.4 cms£1,800