Joseph Bull likes to call his narrow necked containers bottles; pilgrim bottles, Korean bottles and tear drop bottles - they could be flasks, carafes or pitchers but pottery bottles and bowls suggest plain functional ware which underplay Joseph’s luxurious aesthetic.
Joseph Bull has wide-ranging interests which converge in his porcelain and stoneware vessels. Following a BA in literature, he decided to study ceramics under studio potter Michel Francois in Falmouth and the Leach pottery in St Ives. Bull’s enthusiasm for ecology manifest in his use of tree ash and iron oxide glazes - the results are random and beautiful like abstract expressionist paintings. Joseph is part of a research group at Oxford university who use anthropological methods of to investigate creativity in wood fired contemporary-hybrid Japanese inspired ceramics. The focus is on the preservation and protection of our natural woodlands through visual arts and craftsmanship. Joseph experiments with individual tree species and their unique glazes - which are evident in his work on show at Circle.
Like all studio potters Japan is the go-to place to learn traditional wood firing and glazing techniques, but for Joseph it was his nine month residency at Egyptian painter Mohamed Abla’s Fayoum art centre in Egypt and study of ancient pots and lustres at the Cairo museum which awakened his spirit and animated his making - archeology, ecology and pottery all begin, end and begin again - with earth.
