As the summer season gets underway, every June on Paros there is a plethora of engaging multi-cultural events, but this June had to rank at the top of the list. Closing out the month in a truly grand finale of connecting culture was the International Pithoi Symposium, a stellar convocation indeed. Headlined by four master potters of great diversity, the four-day event was attended by potters, sculptors, artists and just generally-interested folks from all over the globe.
Winding my way through the crowds that assembled each day in the beautiful hill-top courtyard of Studio Yria to observe, film, question and learn, I was struck by the joyous atmosphere of such a multifarious group. Various languages wafted in the breeze; every style and deportment seemed to be represented, yet the bright energy of creative endeavor dissolved all borders. It was truly a happy and satisfying experience to witness the melding of art and tradition passing through all the people present, from one culture to another.
The Symposium was conceived by Studio Yria proprietors, Stelios Gkikas and Monique Mailloux. Their vision is one of not only nurturing and preserving the spirit of pottery-making as it has evolved from its long tradition here in Greece, but of expanding and enriching that spirit through exposure to concepts and techniques from other cultures and encounters with craftsmen from other backgrounds. The Symposium, generously sponsored by the Municipality of Paros, the Prefecture of Paros and Antiparos, Dr Apostolos Polyzoides and Alpha Bank, provided a perfect venue for achieving this aim through a lively and accessible hands-on cultural exchange among artists, craftsmen and the public.
This year's inaugural event featured four very different master potters. Two hail from Greece, Ioannis Lembessy from Agia Anna, Siphnos and Nikos Gavgalakis from Margarita, Crete. A third participant, American Paul Chaleff, traveled from his studio in the New York countryside, and the fourth, Julian Stair, arrived from London, England. Art and tradition came together in a big way as these four potters set up their respective work spaces and got down to the prodigious feat of creating those amazing capacious vessels we call pithoi.
The two Greek potters both work out of a long tradition. As I watched the manner and spirit in which they worked, I began to understand why we are so fond of and attached to all those various pieces that we have acquired and live with day to day. The plates, platters and bowls we eat and serve from, the pots we cook in, the various jugs, vases, jars, chimney tops and pitharia that grace and decorate our houses and gardens, all of them are so imbued with these potters' thorough, time-polished understanding of the harmony between form and function, the meaning of usefulness.
Ioannis Lembessy had set up his space just inside the big doors of the studio. A fourth-generation potter, his work is indeed living tradition. Arriving later than the others, he began to "catch up" on the second day in the quiet, after-lunch siesta hours. Fortified occasionally by his glass of souma and bantering in his jovial and easy way, he turned out piece after wonderful piece with seeming effortlessness. Taking shape before us, each mound of clay, engendered by him with its function, arose on the wheel and took its form: stamnies, the familiar Greek water jugs, various other larger pithoi for oil and wine storage, a kipseli, the traditional Greek ceramic beehive, an oh-so-joyful chimney pot with its perfect blend of whimsy and function, a watchful bird perched atop it. As each of the smaller pieces requiring decoration was nearing completion, he would produce from somewhere, a pocket perhaps, a curious, clay-encrusted flask of sorts and a paint brush with which he began to paint the spinning pot with various lines and dots. It was a magic afternoon. He continued to impress us like this every remaining day as we were privileged to observe this rare sort of master who has no seams between what he is and what he does. When he departed on the last day, it was to a big round of appreciative applause - as well it should have been.
Outside in the courtyard, fellow-Greek Nikos Gavgalakis had requested a place in full sun. Partly, I think this was to take advantage of the heat for quicker drying of the clay, but as I watched him work, I saw how it also suited him completely to be out there in a bright and open space. Nikos, an energetic sixty-seven-year-old is a big man making big pots!
Another fourth-generation potter, Nikos, the son of a potter, began learning his craft at only two years old under the tutelage of his maternal grandfather. It is truly a family affair. His three daughters, Asimenia, Eleni and Nikoletta all work in his studio, although they have also developed their own artistic style outside of the traditional work and exhibit independently. His three grandsons, ages fifteen, eleven and ten are working alongside him as well. Nikos truly believes in a family carrying on such an important tradition, and though he has been approached many times to teach others, he has declined out of this strong sense of lineage. Accompanied to Paros by his wife, his ten-year-old grandson and an assistant for his work during the symposium, Nikos brought his own special clay. He worked standing, building up slowly in increments each addition to the wall of the huge ridged pitharia that his native Crete has become known for, the classical design for centuries of storing wine and oil. It was such a physical endeavour to handle these big masses of clay, to build them up at exactly the right tempo. His assistant often crouched at the base, manually turning the wheel at just the right rhythm; often they would dry sections with a torch to harden them in order to support the weight of the next level, thus allowing them to work more quickly and produce more within the timeframe of the four days. At the end of the time, there stood two of those great wonderful jars, like sentinels in the courtyard.
Later, in a conversation with my husband, Nikos expressed his thoughts on the Symposium. He told him that although he has done such work and given such demonstrations many times both in Greece and in other countries, the experience at Studio Yria had been his favourite because it had provided such a rare opportunity to watch other potters from such different backgrounds work. He thought the whole thing was a wonderful idea and would love to have the opportunity to do it again. Best of all, he said, and something that made him very glad, was the affirmation of his own feeling that "potters are very good people."
The other two participants, America's Paul Chaleff and Britain's Julian Stair, have both emerged from art- school backgrounds. While their work has been informed and influenced by different traditions in ceramics they are not practicing their craft from the position of being embedded in a particular cultural tradition as are Ioannis Lebesis and Nikos Gavgalakis. Perhaps it would not be wrong to use a friend's characterization of them as "artists whose medium is clay."
Paul, the son of a Polish immigrant baker, grew up in the Bronx and still lives in New York State. He came to be a potter literally by accident. A pre-med student at university, one of his professors suggested he take a drawing course to improve his medical illustrations work. The drawing classes were full and he ended up instead in a ceramics course. It was at this time that he was involved in a tragic canoeing accident in which the friend accompanying him was drowned. The ordeal in the water changed his outlook on life, and the rest is history. He remained in and graduated from art school at City College N.Y. He spent time in Japan studying the Anagama method of wood firing, at which he has become a master himself. His work not only includes wonderful great pots and jars and all other manner of vessels, but has also moved into large clay sculptures that grace public and private parks and gardens with their assertive form and energy. He has works in major museums and private collections world-wide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art and the Smithsonian.
Watching him work was delightful. He has an unassuming relaxed manner and manages to radiate both calm and lots of energy at the same time as he interacts with the large bodies of clay that rather quickly become pieces at least as big as he is. His work is bold and impressive, sometimes even perhaps resonating a starkness, yet the sense of play present in the potter gets passed into the clay, giving his work a kind of softness that mitigates any harshness or severity - always a subtle smile underneath. There was a kind of immediate, uncalculated quality in the creation going on, as though he were engaged in a sort of spontaneous, serendipitous dance with the piece on the wheel. One characterizing expression came to mind and summed up my impression: "No Fear" - not afraid of himself, not afraid of his medium, not afraid to take risks, not afraid of the results, not even afraid of the constant audience! On the last day, I watched him put the finishing touches to a large seemingly unwilling pot he had wrestled with most of the day as it gave him all sorts of problems to solve. Finally, with finalizing verve, he was decorating the surface with a sort of calligraphy in heavy clay impasto comprised of three "gestures", a gesture of one stroke, a gesture of two strokes and a gesture of three strokes. "Easy as 1,2,3", he said. Always that smile underneath.
And then there is Julian Stair. The youngest of the group, turning fifty this year, Julian studied first at Camberwell College of Arts and later completed graduate studies at the Royal College of the Arts in London obtaining a PhD in 20th century ceramic critical writing. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts and quite active in the art world, contributing to many publications and journals, conceiving, chairing and participating in various conferences and lecturing and teaching. And then, of course, there is the pottery.
His work is housed in more than twenty public collections including the Victoria & Albert Museum, The American Museum of Art and Design and the Hong Kong Museum of Art. Last year he won the prestigious World Craft Council European Achievement Award for a stunning exhibition housed at the Victoria & Albert's Collect Gallery in which he presented the results of his exploration of funerary ware in a series of lidded casks for ashes and large pithoid-form sarcophagi. Accompanied by his wife, Claire Wilcox, a costume curator at the Victoria & Albert, who is obviously a very trusted confidant and supporter, Julian had set up his space in the side of the courtyard under the grape arbour.
As observers gathered around him, one of the most striking things I noticed was that in a matter of moments, the volume of voices diminished and a kind of hush stole over those watching. If there were comments or queries, they were made quietly. Some were actually whispering. It felt something like being in church. It was not that Julian presented a stern and intimidating demeanor, indeed, quite the contrary. It was just that the meticulous concentration and attention emanating from him and surrounding his work elicited a kind of similar and mutual reaction in the observer, like turning down the car radio to better concentrate on exactly where you are going in order not to miss the right turn-off. It was an interesting phenomenon that I watched occur many times over the four days.
As I observed him working over this time in this manner, it put me in mind of the method of Byzantine icon painters who, working in a state of reverent meditation, chose each particular colour and executed each stroke with the precise intention of creating by that meticulous method a work that would embody the power of the sacred so as to evoke a state of grace in the viewer. I am not implying anything religious about Julian's work as I have no idea of his thoughts in that area, but I feel that the analogy is apt in the sense that, having seen and experienced the exquisite objects he has fashioned, what Julian Stair seems to be creating are vessels that house and convey the numinous. Every piece, from the smallest cup or teapot or bowl to the monumental jar or sarcophagus, moves out of that still point of clarity and attention, nurtured toward its form until it stands completed, its essence expressed as purely as possible, nothing lost in translation.
These four stars of the show gave us all unforgettable experiences, but there were other events occurring in conjunction with the daily demonstrations that gave us much as well.
On the Friday evening, there was the opening of the exhibition "The Ceramics of Paros" at the Museum Othona Kapari in Naoussa, featuring a collection of ceramics from the Mediterranean. On the Saturday, in the town hall of Lefkes, there was a presentation sponsored by the Averoff Foundation of Ioaninna and the World Craft Council, and given by representative Clara Puech on "easycraft", a technological platform created for craftsmen world-wide that provides various forums, communication tools, on-line exhibition and sales and a variety of other services for anyone interested in crafts in any way. If you want to see what an interesting and valuable job this network is doing and see some wonderful pieces of art in the bargain, just log onto their website www.easycraft.org and browse. Next we saw an excellent documentary, "The Pitharia of Crete and the Peloponnese". Presented by the Psaropoulos Family Foundation, the film followed the production of these pitharia from the mining and preparation of the clay through to their marketing and distribution throughout the Mediterranean. And last, but not least, on Sunday we were treated to an unexpected bonus. Kostas Loukis, whose picturesque cottage, "Owl's Way" is known to many who travel the Paroikia-Lefkes road, relaxed in the courtyard with the potters giving us a happy demonstration of his own special traditional craft of basketweaving.
All in all, these four days were a real tour de force of cultural exchange. I think everyone who attended took something new and interesting away with them, and especially the other potters who had come and who would now leave with an invaluable synthesis of information, technique and experience that will go with them and inform and enrich their work and their own cultures.
As everything wound down on the last day and participants began to take their leave and say their goodbyes, I watched as new friends and acquaintances exchanged phone numbers, email addresses, and departing handshakes, hugs and even some tears! The whole gathering had been a satisfying interaction and the consensus was that the Symposium should definitely be a continuing bi-annual event.
Alone later, I wandered around the now quiet courtyard and through the studio, pausing before and contemplating each of the forty pieces created here and left to dry before going into the kilns. I felt happy that all these wonderful objects would now belong in the permanent collection of the Municipality of Paros and could be enjoyed by so many different people as they pass through the crossroads that tourism has created here. I felt particularly proud that on this small island in the Aegean we were fortunate enough to have such a forward-looking mayor as Yiannis Rangoussis, whose personal involvement, support and facilitating presence helped tremendously to boost the concept of the Symposium from the merely possible to a resounding success. Kudos and thanks go to all who supported this worthwhile event and let's hope that the Symposium and many other happenings like it become permanent features of our cultural landscape!
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