The Fitzwilliam Museum - In plain sight, I

An image of Studio Ceramics. Ceramic Assemblage. Ceramic Installation. in plain sight, I – III. Edmund de Waal (British, b.1964). 20 porcelain vessels in three aluminium, glass and plexiglass vitrines. The vessels are thrown, with straight sides and flat bases. They are small, less than a thumb’s depth and little more than a thumb’s diameter. Some are smooth, but most are slightly ridged or have slight shape to the surface; the thickness of the walls varies. The clay and/or glaze has been varied such that the colour of the vessels ranges from creamy white to pearl-ware white; some vessels are shiny, some have a matt glaze; two are unglazed. The vitrines are rectangular with thick white frames and are open at the bottom. The vessels within each vitrine are grouped in twos, threes or fours in a single line; vitrines I and III contain seven vessels each, vitrine II only six. Height, vitrines, 18 cm, width, 42 cm, depth, 13 cm, 2013. Production Notes: This is a unique, site-specific installation made for display in a Georgian display cabinet, as part of ‘On White: Porcelain Stories from the Fitzwilliam Museum’, November 2013 – February 2014, in which Edmund de Waal made installations of his porcelain ‘talk softly with’ porcelain from the Fitzwilliam collection. In the exhibition brochure, he explains: 'The essence of porcelain is its whiteness. But white is not a singular colour, it is a possibility. White in China means clouds and mist, egrets, paper … mourning. Here is a compendium of whites … .’. On this piece he writes: ‘There is a real pleasure in hiding things; it allows for serendipitous, unconnected and unexpected encounters to happen, for discoveries away from your favourite known paths and places. … Somewhere nearby is a group of three small, white vitrines tucked away, each with six or seven modest pots. It is called in plain sight.'

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Studio Ceramics. Ceramic Assemblage. Ceramic Installation. in plain sight, I – III. Edmund de Waal (British, b.1964). 20 porcelain vessels in three aluminium, glass and plexiglass vitrines. The vessels are thrown, with straight sides and flat bases. They are small, less than a thumb’s depth and little more than a thumb’s diameter. Some are smooth, but most are slightly ridged or have slight shape to the surface; the thickness of the walls varies. The clay and/or glaze has been varied such that the colour of the vessels ranges from creamy white to pearl-ware white; some vessels are shiny, some have a matt glaze; two are unglazed. The vitrines are rectangular with thick white frames and are open at the bottom. The vessels within each vitrine are grouped in twos, threes or fours in a single line; vitrines I and III contain seven vessels each, vitrine II only six. Height, vitrines, 18 cm, width, 42 cm, depth, 13 cm, 2013. Production Notes: This is a unique, site-specific installation made for display in a Georgian display cabinet, as part of ‘On White: Porcelain Stories from the Fitzwilliam Museum’, November 2013 – February 2014, in which Edmund de Waal made installations of his porcelain ‘talk softly with’ porcelain from the Fitzwilliam collection. In the exhibition brochure, he explains: 'The essence of porcelain is its whiteness. But white is not a singular colour, it is a possibility. White in China means clouds and mist, egrets, paper … mourning. Here is a compendium of whites … .’. On this piece he writes: ‘There is a real pleasure in hiding things; it allows for serendipitous, unconnected and unexpected encounters to happen, for discoveries away from your favourite known paths and places. … Somewhere nearby is a group of three small, white vitrines tucked away, each with six or seven modest pots. It is called in plain sight.'

Image data

Accession Number: C.1.1-23-2014
© Edmund de Waal. Photograph copyright © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Aperture: f/4.2
Focal length: 40
Camera: NIKON D600
Photographer name: Michael Jones
Image height: 1025 pixels
Image width: 624 pixels
Processed with: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.4 (Windows)
Filesize: 641.98kB
Exposure time: 1/60
ISO Speed: 800
Fnumber: 42/10
Captured: 2013:11:27 10:38:27

Key words

21st Century _WF_Copyright aluminium British ceramic assemblage ceramic installation ceramics de Waal Edmund de Waal Fitz_AA glass glazed hard-paste porcelain installation view perspex plexiglass porcelain studio ceramics thrown vessel

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            The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024)
            "in plain sight, I – III, by Edmund de Waal"
            Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/image/media-204968 Accessed: 2024-11-04 18:31:56

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        <figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">in plain sight, I – III, by Edmund de Waal</figcaption>
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