Exhibitions20224 at Cross Lane Projects

4 was a stunning ceramics exhibition featuring artists Lawson Oyekan, William Plumptre, Nicola Tassie and Gavin Turk.

Curated by Rebecca Scott, Gallery Director at Cross Lane Projects, the group exhibition was designed to foreground the diverse ceramic practices of four leading contemporary artists.

The inclusion of Gavin Turk’s En Face, a series of 72 clay busts of his own head that resulted from an interactive performance, The Bust Party, which took place in his studio in April 2010, provided a counterbalance to the sincerity of the other artists in ‘4’.

Turk is renowned for his irreverent commentary on the art world and art, and En Face is no different, questioning the ceramic traditions that value handwork epitomised in Soetsu Yanagi’s influential text ‘The Unknown Craftsman’. The sculptures form an exquisite corpse completed by many untrained hands, questioning authorship whilst simultaneously commentating on the ego of the artist-maker and challenging the value of art – or craft – itself.

The four completely different artists were brought together through a single material that explores the uniqueness of human existence. Through it, they connected not only with each other, but also to a global history of material culture.