Olivia Walker
1985, United Kingdom
Walker works in porcelain to create pieces that explore ideas of growth and decay through the construction and layering of complex surfaces. All of her pieces start by being thrown on the wheel, before being built upon with thousands of individually applied fragments of porcelain. Many of her pieces are thrown and altered, often being cut away and reassembled in the leather-hard stage which allows her to deconstruct the form creating new surfaces on which to continue adding her porcelain layers.
Starting from a set point on a piece, Walker lets these organic accretions spread out and grow, almost eating through, or growing over the form beneath and covering it. Walker makes reference to organisms such as fungus, corals and bacteria but her pieces are her own interpretation, letting the viewer bring their own ideas and emotions to her pieces.
In the artist’s own words:
“My work is inspired by nature, organic life and in particular the build-up of small repeated forms. I explore these ideas through surfaces that are made up of thousands of fragments of porcelain, and that are designed to evoke an emotional response in the viewer. The forms reference organic matter - the underside of a mushroom, bacteria, slate cliffs - but remain unidentifiable; an allusion to a nature that is amorphous, growing and consuming. My vessels are deconstructed - I cut away at the thrown form to explore the relationship between growth and decay - how decay leads to renewed life and reclamation in nature. In recent years I have expanded these ideas to the wall, and began creating my collapsed wall piece series, which operates in the space between art, design and craft.”
Walker studied at Farnham in 2014 where she completed her MA in Contemporary Craft, specialising in Ceramics. An apprenticeship with the highly revered potter and writer, Julian Stair, gave her invaluable insight into the practice of running a ceramic studio and also the opportunity to further hone her skills. She has exhibited extensively throughout the UK & Europe, as well as in South Korea, Australia and the USA.
Artist portrait by Sylvain Deleu.
Starting from a set point on a piece, Walker lets these organic accretions spread out and grow, almost eating through, or growing over the form beneath and covering it. Walker makes reference to organisms such as fungus, corals and bacteria but her pieces are her own interpretation, letting the viewer bring their own ideas and emotions to her pieces.
In the artist’s own words:
“My work is inspired by nature, organic life and in particular the build-up of small repeated forms. I explore these ideas through surfaces that are made up of thousands of fragments of porcelain, and that are designed to evoke an emotional response in the viewer. The forms reference organic matter - the underside of a mushroom, bacteria, slate cliffs - but remain unidentifiable; an allusion to a nature that is amorphous, growing and consuming. My vessels are deconstructed - I cut away at the thrown form to explore the relationship between growth and decay - how decay leads to renewed life and reclamation in nature. In recent years I have expanded these ideas to the wall, and began creating my collapsed wall piece series, which operates in the space between art, design and craft.”
Walker studied at Farnham in 2014 where she completed her MA in Contemporary Craft, specialising in Ceramics. An apprenticeship with the highly revered potter and writer, Julian Stair, gave her invaluable insight into the practice of running a ceramic studio and also the opportunity to further hone her skills. She has exhibited extensively throughout the UK & Europe, as well as in South Korea, Australia and the USA.
Artist portrait by Sylvain Deleu.
Artworks by the artist
