Caroline Chouler-Tissier

Caroline Chouler-Tissier is a British artist working in ceramics and glass.

Educated at the Royal College of Art and Loughborough College of Art, Caroline has over 30 years of experience with ceramic making.

Inspired by architectural forms and the natural environment and with a desire to find new ways of working, Caroline's MA graduate show explores the dynamic processes of clay, glass, and bronze casting.

Her practice embraces the commonality of human experience through research of ancient artefacts, exploring story and the ambivalence of memory and recorded history.

ceramic and glass photography by Sylvain Deleu

The vessel in my practice embraces the commonality of human experience. My research into ancient artefacts contributes to an interpretation of our story and reflects the ambivalence of memory and recorded history.

I reference the rawness and vulnerability of inner experience, and the challenging expectations of presenting an acceptable face to society.

My methodology is a combination of a planned, as well as an intuitively spontaneous approach. In working with extruded clays and altered surfaces in glass and bronze, I combine the distorting effect of process and heat to capture a moment of dynamic transformation.

My work was first inspired by experimentation with heat-altered, waxed plastics during the 2020 lockdown.

The dissonance between internal and external expression is explored through the cut and fire-polished glass and the combined, extruded clay surfaces with slip casting and thrown elements.

My pieces embody an acceptance of imperfection and an intense materiality with selected areas of reflective metallic glaze, from recipes used by Lucie Rie, and more recently Theaster Gates, and first experienced in my school pottery room in 1979.

"Clay made me and is forever the root of my artistic interest" - Theaster Gates

Moment of Transformation – This body of work is fuelled by the transformative experience of early loss of my parents. I have chosen to explore the process of grief and the related trauma. Whilst giving quiet attention to this personal experience I have considered the wider influence of family and society on our expression of these feelings.

I have considered the power of story and the reliability of memory in our knowledge of who we are.

New Skin – Blown, cut, fire-polished and re blown glass.

Fragile Presence series. i

Fragile Presence series. ii

Still Worshipping an Old God. – Bronze cast, heat distorted plastic. Featuring patination and the Tinning process.

From the beginning of MA1 I have explored new processes, starting in lockdown with distorting plastic water bottles in hot wax, and later exploring the contouring and undulations by forcing clay through hand-cut metal extrusion plates. I learned lathe cutting and fire polishing with blown glass, and then returned to take the plastic through bronze casting, patination and tinning with help from Professor Michael Rowe.

Finally I arrived at the Moment of Transformation, working with these dynamic processes, leading to a stillness of contemplation; the intention behind the curation of my show.

In Collaboration with:

Professor Michael Rowe and Mils Bridgwater

To rediscover and reinterpret the use of the 'Tinning Process' used by Professor Rowe, in the late 20th Century. The RCA and The Worshipful Company of Tin Plate Workers alias Wire Workers shortlisted and awarded my submission 3rd prize and the position of Yeoman of the Guild.

Combining plasma cutting and handcut plates offers distortion and disruption of the process.

Experimentation with hand held plasma cutting for extrusion and sledging.

Featuring bronze cast wax plastic

a process of disruption – A film exploring the disruption of a dynamic process. A collaboration with Leeds based Artist and film maker, Lydia Chouler Tissier

Through exploring a narrative of personal trauma and societal pressure I have focussed my making processes on those which offer opportunities to manipulate and disrupt the clay through contrasting smooth and tearing surfaces. When the process of clay extrusion and my recent glass cutting are combined with heat, a distorting and dynamic transformation comes alive.

Architecture Bronze destabilize disruption distortion Dynamic Extrusion nature plastic

Glass Artist, and RCA lecturer, Dr. Heike Bracklow gave an empathetic lecture showing how upcycling work in alternative materials was within our grasp without RCA studio access during the Covid lockdown.

My plastic and wax experimentation took place soon after and the connections with transparency and glass began. Working with Liam Reeves, glass blower and technician at the RCA, I was introduced to glass cutting and fire polishing. This glass work represents a softening of my narrative, allowing me to explore and develop new aspects of my practice.

Following an MA2 residency with Cumbria Crystal my designs have been selected to prototype with the company in the Autumn.

Architecture Cumbria Crystal Fire polishing Glass Heat Nature Process Vessels

I would like to express my thanks and gratitude to the following foundation and companies:

The Worshipful Company of Tin Plate Workers / Wire Workers .The Tin Prize: Short listed and awarded 3rd prize

Cumbria Crystal for choosing to prototype my design.

The Washington Foundation. RJ Washington Bursary.

Caroline Chouler-Tissier

In Collaboration with:

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Royal College of Art