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The materiality of print: Issues of artifice and integrity relating to the printed ceramic surface

Brown was invited to contribute a chapter, ‘The materiality of print: Issues of artifice and integrity relating to the printed ceramic surface’ to the section ‘Depth, Im/Permeability’ in the book Surface Tensions: Surface, Finish and the Meaning of Objects (2013). The book, co-edited by Glenn Adamson and Victoria Kelley, gathered 16 essays concerned with the theorising of ‘surface’. The chapters are reworked papers originally presented at academic workshops convened by the University for the Creative Arts and the V&A Museum in 2009 and 2010.

Brown’s essay explored issues surrounding the contrasting ideas of artifice and integrity in terms of perceptions of the printed ceramic surface. Drawing from historical, commercial production and studio practice case studies, it provided a contextual insight into this dichotomy. Brown argues that the majority of ceramics and print practices separate the surface and printed image. Forms are produced and finalised; prints are then produced and image and form are finally brought together. The essay offers a case study developed from Brown’s practice-led research on the physicality of print, funded through an AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award (RCA and the V&A Museum, 2006–11). Brown offers ceramists an alternative methodological approach which integrates print and surface at the production stage.