Charles Bound
Teabowl,
2006/7
Wood fired Ceramic
Born in 1939 in New York City, Charles Bound now lives and works in Otley, Yorkshire. His work is influenced by living and working in Yorkshire and elements of the natural landscape and earth can be seen : rough walls, tree bark, knarled trees and rusting farm machinery.
His travels are also influential in his artistic output; having spent a number of years in Africa, he also has American origins where space and large scale ceramics are abundant.
I have heard Charles Bound compared to, and categorised with, other potters who have chosen wood-firing as the medium to achieve their work. That Charles uses fire and clay is undeniable, but the similarity ends there.
Charles pushes the materials to the limit over and over - both in his handling of the clay and the repeated firing. I never think of him as a potter - for me he is an artist who happens to use clay and fire to achieve form and colour in the same sense that Tapies uses his native Spanish earth to make the concretions that are his paintings.
For those who can only see Charles Bound’s work in the context of ceramics he has to be one of the very best that we have.
Anthony Hepworth