Through the alchemy of his hands, John Parker creates forms in space. Uniformly white, these objects are concerned with aesthetic beauty and the rhythm of line. Domestic in scale, the works individually, and in groups, have a sculptural relationship to the space inhabited and established.

Volume changes into line and line scribes the volume with the clarity of design and the device of repetition. There are interposed debates of drama and light, functionality and architecture, of order and concept.

There are two distinct groupings of vessels in Superstrata, and the Lattice Bowls are available for purchase for the first time.

The Lattice Bowl works seem incongruous, insubstantial, humorous and paradoxical while also being menacing, uncompromising and strong. These new bowls are innovative in character and attitude, and take Parker’s visual language into new territory that is somewhat circular in nature as inevitably one is reminded of – by the rectangular gaps or holes or edge omission – of the earlier Penetrations series where the surface was punctured through. In the Lattice Bowls emphasis is drawn to the internal structure and spaces between, shape is implied and presence incomplete.

The Lattice Bowls are produced by piping clay into thick-layered tiers that build to three-dimensional structures. They are at once organic yet controlled forms owning a strong architectural presence. Parker’s white textured surface and built up lattice structure allude to the skeletal rib cage of a boat, basket fungi or coral. He also makes playful reference to the historical traditions of Wedgewood and Rosenthal where the delicate plaited basket works of the 19th century were a prized possession.

If the Lattice Bowls are about possibilities, then Parker’s trademark bottle, cylinder and orb vessels are more formal in concern. Returning also to using a matte finish for the first time for a number of years, these works cross back and forth between still-life compositions composed in space and luminous poems of mastered form.