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Spanish Lobe. A group of 10 sculptures (clay, wood, wax, plaster, paper, glaze materials, paint) produced during a residency at Camden Arts Centre. Presented in solo exhibitions at CAC and Simon Oldfield Gallery. A ‘File Note’ publication was produced to accompany the CAC exhibition with an essay by Richard Dyer. An essay by Colin Perry accompanied the Oldfield show, which was reviewed in Time Out, Art Review and Aesthetica.

In this body of work Cuddon extended her research into the nature of surface in ceramic sculpture, proposing and exploring parallels between clay and painting.

Cuddon first refined certain manual approaches to achieve an ‘intensified’ surface: pummelling, kneading, fingering the clay and treating warping and cracking during drying as a semi-orchestrated part of the making process.

Through the mixing of clay bodies, applying glaze materials and progressively building up and rubbing back layers of acrylic and emulsion paint once the work was fired, the surface was further developed through an iterative sequence of propositions, revisions and re-revisions.

The methods deployed are rooted in painting: glazing, scumbling and rubbing back. Carefully worked surfaces, variously velvety, metallic or patinated, aimed to further occlude the spectator’s encounter with the surface of the work; distracting the gaze from an unmediated encounter with each finger-printed, pushed or prodded facet of the surface.

The relationship with the formal language of image making in painting is emphasised though the use of three-dimensional wooden frames that either surround (frame) or support. Where previously these wooden frames were used to carry the work (as a plinth would) Cuddon asks how they might become a central element within the work and introduce a different visual grammar to the display.

The research was developed whilst Cuddon undertook the inaugural and year-long ceramics fellowship at Camden Art Centre, a position awarded through invited competition by selectors Richard Slee and Jenni Lomax.

A ‘File Note’ publication was produced to accompany the exhibition with an essay by Richard Dyer. An essay by Colin Perry accompanied the Oldfield show. Reviewed in Time Out, Art Review and Aesthetica. Public events included Cuddon in conversation with Richard Dyer and an artist’s talk, and an R&D seminar instigated by Kunst-og designhogskolen i Bergen, all at Camden Art Centre.