3D PRINTED POTS - Jonathan Keep UK
Exhibition 11 April – 8 Maj 2013 Opening reception Thursday 11 april at 16-19.00
Artist talk: Jonathan Keep at 17.00-17.30
Technology & ceramics – decoding transformation of nature phenomena
Jonathan Keep experiments with 3-dimensional print in ceramic materials.
Idealistic and artistically free, Keep experiments with digital transformations of various codes appearing from sounds and objects of nature.
The pieces reference our time of constant digital presence.
Poetic ceramic objects created by unusual codes of natural phenomena in a sophisticated combination of technological and ceramic knowledge. www.youtube.com/user/jkpottery The pieces combine traditional function with disturbing feelings of secrecy.
The exhibition of digital ceramics inform of the new possibilities for contemporary ceramic art in dialogue with the new technology of ceramic 3D-printing.
www.keep-art.co.uk
JONATHAN KEEP - Digital Pots
Jonathan Keep has long used computer software to develop new ceramic forms. With an interest in the hidden numerical code that underpins all nature he has developed a working process whereby the shapes of these pots are written in computer code. This digital information is passed to a studio based DIY 3D printer that he has adapted to print in clay.
Layer by layer the pots are printed out – a sort of mechanical pottery coil building. After printing, the ceramic is fired and glazed in the normal way.
"From the elemental forces of earth, fire and water pottery has traditionally drawn on nature for inspiration. In using computer code to create this work I aim to add a further layer to include the elemental, natural-mathematical patterns and structures that underlie all form.
The appreciation of this work illustrates just how much we are connected at a very deep level to the natural world."
3D PRINTED POTS GO ON SHOW...
Jonathan Keep exhibits several series of digital 3D-printed ceramic pieces with various starting points. He has developed a working method where the three dimensional mathematical structure of the forms of his pots is first written in java computer code. This digital information he then prints out into physical objects using a studio based DIY 3D printer that he has adapted to print in clay (porcelain). The printed pots are dried, glazed and fired in a traditional manner.
SOUND SURFACES - Created in computer code, a pixel is set to spiral in virtual space and as it grows into the pot shape a three dimensional computer mesh is created. The surface of the mesh is progressively textured by adding the data from digital sound recording. The surface, from base to rim becomes a time representation of the tone and rhythm of the music named in the title of the pot. The digital file is then 3D printed in clay. After printing, the ceramic is fired and glaze in the normal way. - MUSIC: Benjamin Britten, 4 Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, Django Bates, You Live and Learn…
RANDOM GROWTH - This series of work characterizes my interest in the code underlying organic nature. As with the making of stalactites or ant hills, these forms have an underling structure or logic but as the computer code that generates these forms has a built in variation function a different form is created each time the code is run. I want the viewer to bring their own subject interpretation to the form, trying to make sense of the shapes while allowing for a personal and imaginative reading of the object.
ICEBERGS – These works are about the beauty to be found in apparently random natural form. The algorithm used to generate these forms has an inbuilt randomness set within natural parameters as with the formation of icebergs. The DIY studio based 3D printing technique offers a timeless sense of layering while the porcelain echoes the translucency of ice. 
TREES - This is an on going project based on ideas of the relentless growth of natural forms. As ceramics objects now frozen in time this group represents mans desire to control nature - how trees are cut but continue to grow.
SEEDS MORPHOLOGI - This collection is about the evolution and morphology of form. My working method lends itself to slight alterations in the computer code to generate related and ever evolving shapes. Being able to print or build these unique individual forms directly from the computer with my 3D-printer represents the strength of this technology and fulfils my desire to explore the possibilities of ceramic form.
JONATHAN KEEP - ABOUT THE EXHIBITION: ”This exhibition is based around ceramic 3D printing. While all work will be for sale, it is also an opportunity to introduce and educate the public about computer aided design and making in ceramic with 3-dimensional printing technology.
Within ceramic 3D-printing there are two developing technologies, one using layered powder clay bonded with an inkjet type print head and the second a layered extrusion of wet clay almost like mechanical coil building. I use the latter extrusion type printer that is a DIY kit that I have adapted to print with clay.
I tend to work in series based around an idea that often comes out of the process used.
Interest in the hidden numerical code that underpins all nature I have developed a working process whereby the shapes of my pots are written, or described in computer code using the java based Processing program.
The printing process is then very hands on as I offer support and assisted drying as the forms are created.
After printing the ceramic is fired and glaze in the normal way. Currently I am using porcelain clay finished in a palate of reduction glazes that are fired in a gas kiln."
The exhibition holds 30-40 pieces from the Icebergs series, the Random Growth series, the Sound Surface series, the Morphology series and other individual forms as illustrated on my website – see http://www.keep-art.co.uk/digital.html
- This page also has a brief statement about the digital pots.
For further information on recent developments - see studio journal: http://www.keep-art.co.uk/journal_1.html
Jonathan Keep is educated at the Royal College of Art in London, and in his 30 years carriere as a ceramic artist and potter he has attained a reputation for creating innovative og constant re-newing projects from his studio in Suffolk.
He was born and grew up in South Africa, obtaining my BA (Hons) Fine Art degree from the University of Natal in 1979. After working in a number of studios and a period of teaching he moved to England in 1986 and settled in Suffolk where he continue to live and have a studio at his home. His freethinking approach to pottery has had him investigating the subject of pots from a number of viewpoints. In multimedia and virtual reality when commissioned to produce a CD-ROM in the Insite Arts program, to a Year of The Artist residency where he worked in collaboration with patients at two doctors surgeries using the pot as a vehicle for patients to visualise their medical condition.
He received a MA from the Royal College of Art in 2002, where his postgraduate show was awarded overall prize-winner of the Lattice Group Awards. He was subsequently awarded a Woo Foundation Graduate Arts Bursary. His work has been exhibited widely and has been seen recently at Collect in the Victoria and Albert Museum, Network Europe at the Museum of International Ceramic Art, Denmark, - at Sotheby's in New York, the Carlin gallery, Paris, Puls gallery, Brussels and Sarah Myerscough Fine Art, London.
In an artists advisory role He was involved in the Working Party for the Center for the Visual Arts, Bury St. Edmunds and on the steering committee of the Visual Arts Marketing & Business Development Scheme in Suffolk. He has sat on the Advisory Panel of the Hub Arts Center in North Kesteven and assisted in an advisory capacity to Platform 5, a professional development program for emerging artist in the eastern region.
Thanks to the Danish National Bank Anniversary Foundation and Danish Crafts!
