Pot Diction

Maura Doyle

new ceramic sculpture and work on paper
June 5 - July 11, 2015

Pot Diction
Pot Diction
Vase, Ming Dynasty, China (early 16C)
Double gourd vase Qianlong period (1735-1796)
Double gourd vase, designed by Christopher Dresser, made by Linthorpe Pottery (1880)
Vase by Beatrice Wood, California (1960)
Pot Diction
Sallow down / pillow / hair / bathed / in honey. / Soggy slipped / linen saggar, sealed / with band aids, surrounds / wish bones splayed / frozen pizza / dead mouse / presents / sleeping pill / pancake laced / with crushed malachite.

Pot Diction

Pot Diction , 2015
installation view

For her exhibition "Pot Diction" Maura Doyle continues to explore the form of the pot. A series of painted paper constructions reimagine the secret inside spaces of historical pots. Three hand-built and smoke fired pots are titled as poems, each describing the unique firing process for their respective forms. Doyle writes, "The form of a pot is its basic structure and shape. It can also refer to familiar forms, such as pitcher, gourd-shaped vessel, vase, or wide-mouthed bottle. The form contains a mysterious space that we can never know. If we open that space, then that space is lost (and a pot is broken)."

Pot Diction: (1) Layers of cut painted paper reimagine the secret inside spaces of historical pots. (2) A series of hand-built pots are titled as poems which describe the unique firing process for each form.


Maura Doyle lives and works in Ottawa and holds a BFA from the Emily Carr Institute, Vancouver, and an MFA from the University of Guelph. Her work has included video, ceramics, sculpture, book works, printed matter and drawing. More recently, she is focused on the medium of clay, prehistoric pottery and processes; this includes the traditional techniques of hand building and open flame firing. Her work has been exhibited across Canada in artist-run centres and art institutions, as well as internationally in New York, Japan, Sweden and Vienna.