Edmund de Waal is an artist who writes. Based in London, he trained as a potter, studying ceramics at Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation Scholarship in Japan. Both his artistic and written practice have broken new ground through their critical engagement with the history and ceramics, as well as with architecture.
The artist, whose porcelain is exhibited in museums and galleries around, has developed an international reputation in the art world as a master of pottery. He bringing refinement and passion to its creation and expanding the limits of preconceived ideas of his discipline, by questioning an object’s narrative, their place and how they are displayed. His work with this material is a journey of a lifetime that offers a comment on time, memory and objects. Therefore, he reminding the viewer that context is integral to the meaning of art. De Waal continually investigates themes of diaspora, memorial, materiality and over all the colour white with his interventions and artworks. The ceramist states: “Other things in the world are white but for me porcelain comes first”
In this video shows a unique view inside the studio of Edmund de Waal where he talks to Will Rycroft about his lifelong obsession with porcelain clay and why shards have become an integral part of his work.
