JA: In famous English novelist A.S. Byatt’s words: “You need to be a precise scientist and you need to know how to play with what chance will do to your lovingly constructed surfaces in the heat of the kiln.” Do you feel that these words define Mangion as an artist?

LB: I think we might be jumping the gun here. But to answer your question, to certain extent, yes. A sound knowledge of the medium, including its limitations and versatility, is essential for successful manipulation, torsion and modification. However, once these ‘lovingly constructed’ clay vessels are subjected to the heat of the kiln, then a certain amount of chance takes over. Naturally, the more experienced the potter, the more accurate and predictable the outcome. With a seasoned potter like Mangion, the element of chance is almost negligible.

Atoll

As she states: “Knowing what goes on during the firing process, including the components making up one’s clay and glazes, gives the potter information and experience to gauge the behaviour and outcome of the process. There is, thus, no ‘pleasurable or happy accident’ involved with the application of sufficient heat throughout the kiln, neither to the chemicals put together in the fabric of clay and glazes nor in the manipulation of oxygen for the reduction process to obtain the varied palette of colours on ceramic surfaces.”

Mangion’s success with both form and glaze stems from the fact that, despite her sound scientific training, she continues to experiment and play with chance in a way that permits her to grow artistically.  Your reference to Benedict Fludd, Byatt’s brilliant but unstable potter, is so true – her quote “failure with clay was more complete and spectacular than with other forms of art”.  Having said that, an ongoing curiosity, exploration and the pushing of boundaries are essential to one’s artistic development and this Mangion does with dogged determination.

Turquoise Trio

JA: Can one look at Mangion as an ‘alchemist’, integrating her scientific knowledge with her artistic capabilities?

LB: Definitely. In the same way alchemists sought to transmute base metals into gold, so Mangion transforms rudimentary lumps of clay into objects of functionality and desire. The secret here is chemistry - the composition of matter (clay and glazes), the investigation of their properties, reactions and, of course, the way they are re-formed into new substances. Cold black copper, cobalt and manganese oxide powders as raw glazes; change to luminous blues, greens, and turquoise, from pink through to the deepest purple, coppery metallic reds, even black in the oxidation/reduction process.

As contemporary ceramist Magdalene Odondo says: “A potter in many cultures is considered a magician.”  So true – especially to the untrained.  But to those in the know, it is a process involving a calculated percentage of ingredients in the glaze recipe; manipulation of temperature, position, time and space in the kiln environment; and the final oxidation/reduction atmosphere of the combustion chamber used in the western raku firing process. It gets quite technical.

Archipelagos

Without a doubt, the firing process is a magical one. Seeing the iridescence in the glaze surface, the crackle network and those wonderful contrasts between coloured and pitch-black effects on the surfaces of fired pieces is a satisfaction like no other.

JA: Pots are vessels of containment and storage since time immemorial. However, this rudimentary yet essential characteristic gives way to a more sculptural one that nods towards the biomorphic in Mangion’s case. Can these artefacts be defined as pots or has their previously intrinsic prosaic property been transformed into a more poetic sculptural one? Or does one not necessarily preclude the other?

LB: Vessels, of course, can be traced back to earliest man. Essential to humanity, they are firmly embedded in the human psyche – for, without storage, there is no settlement, no growth, no development. Mangion’s latest collection of ceramics recalls that period as she hand-builds individual pieces using flattened ribbons of clay - slowly and patiently, working with nature. With its origins deeply rooted in the earth itself, clay, is in Mangion’s hands a powerful medium with which to explore and discover, to overreach and experiment and set boundaries anew.

There is most certainly a wonderful fluidity in her pots, especially when one sees them displayed together, in an enclosed space

In this collection of raku ware, there are indeed several sculptural pieces, long and slender and biomorphic in essence. Initially built as pots, they have been transformed into pure sculpture as bases are hollowed out and necks are sealed with a twist and a pinch. With close observation, one can see that, in these cases, they have been held firmly against the potter’s body, with just the right amount of pressure leaving her imprint upon the still malleable clay. With surfaces that are so smooth and undulant, they are just begging to be handled.

Impressions in Light Blue

JA: The artist says that the sea is of major inspiration for her. She admits that she ambitions of becoming a marine biologist. Is the flow of the sea reflected in the flow in the structure of her pots? Or maybe it also refers to the creative process?

LB: The sea has for a long time been Mangion’s main source of inspiration. She is interested in observing nature’s patterns in our marine environment as well as the atmospheric effects associated with it. The patterns formed by erosion on the rocks, by the motion of waves and currents on the sandy seabed; the outline of our coastline seen from a boat while sailing; or the everchanging colours of the sea’s surface – all this eventually or at some point, ends up part of or on the surface of her pots.  She collects driftwood and seaweed and other bits and bobs found on the beach and these, once dried, are used as fuel for her combustible experiments. 

Blue Blush

As far as flow goes, there is most certainly a wonderful fluidity in her pots especially when one sees them displayed together, in an enclosed space – where structure and colouring merge quite seamlessly. In terms of the metaphorical ‘flow’, Mangion has immersed herself in creating this collection, working in solitude and for lengthy periods of time, experiencing the constraints of her clay and pushing it to its limits (the walls of her pots are thinner than raku normally permits).

Working intuitively, she usually has four or five vessels that she labours on simultaneously moving methodically from the building stage to texturing the surfaces as the vessels allow.  Her creative flow functioning at its best when free and unencumbered.

Day

JA: Which other artists does Mangion find inspirational?

LB: All the greats. Henry Moore, Alberto Giacometti (one of my favourites too) and Barbara Hepworth for sculpture. Joan Miro, Antoni Gaudi, Victor Passmore and Richard England for drawing, painting, and architecture. As far as studio-potters go there are many: the well-known Kenyan-British Magadalene Odundo, UK-based John Ward, Jane Perryman, Gabriele Koch & Elizabeth Raeburn, Pippin Drysdale in Australia, Japanese- American Takuro Shibata, Sue and Ashraf Hanna and several others.  Mangion’s admiration is clear to see – all their works are simple, distinctive, elemental, refined and with a certain other worldliness to them.

JA: Flow refers to the feminine too. As the curator, how do you marry the artefacts with the display and interpretation?

LB: In its broader sense, yes – both artist and curator are, I believe, women of vision and creativity.  Occasions to curate sculptural/three-dimensional pieces are relatively rare so this was a heaven-sent opportunity. Essentially, Nadya Anne was left to do what she does best, while I focused on the interpretation and display. As three-dimensional objects, it was essential they were viewed from multiple angles. So, they are mounted in the centre of the gallery in a seemingly random order on plinths of varying heights allowing one to look inside and underneath. 

Night

Like many, I have a weakness for touching things, so that too had to be taken into consideration – all the pots (some of which are balancing on incredibly narrow bases) are securely fixed onto their respective plinths. At the launch of POTS, I could feel that people were keen to handle the pieces – feel their weight, run their fingers along the textured glazes. 

It’s a pity we don’t do that more often, there’s something quite elemental about it. The upper gallery at the MPM Arts Hub is the perfect blank canvas for all this colour and served its purpose well. Interpretation was kept to a minimum (outside the gallery) in order not to detract from the display.

POTS runs until June 30 at the MPM Arts Hub, in Valletta. Opening hours are weekdays 10am to 4pm, Saturdays 10am to 2pm. The artist will be in attendance on Saturdays from 11.30am to 1.30pm.