AVA COPP
Born to British parents in rural Lions Bay on the Pacific coast of Canada, the ceramicist Andrea Copp is united with the sea and the forest, the places where she swam and hiked in childhood. Her gold-prospector mother later took her through the green English Cotswold hills, LA, and to great learning in Africa where she shared a home with monkeys and chimpanzees
More recently, she returned to live and create among the treasures where she took her first breath, between the fresh torrents and the salty waves, in a cottage nestled in lush forest by the sea — where she says “I fly, and am earthed.”
I am the Vessel — and I create vessels.
Vessels carry; they cross oceans and continents; they inspire loyalty— and they are inseparable from the names of women. In these and otherways, my journey and my work are one.
Vase Of the Water
In this substantial sculpture, here is mindfulness, where beauty, line and purpose flow as a single stream. The artist has manifested what she terms her ‘dreamy mind’, recalling the movement of ocean swims and the slow breathing of meditation. A gold line represents the eternal journey of Andrea Copp’s mother,one of several appearances in this body of work.
Thrown into my clay, across many forms, is the torrent of my life’s experiences — the tragic and the magic — interpreted as only an autodidact can.
The story reveals itself through my heart and hands, as form and decoration grow into freedom and balance, united. Above all, I love to share concentrated movement and mindfulnessthrough line, shape and purpose. In a slow, single breath, I form myvision listening for the now, to create for the future, and to disarmwith honesty.
Golden Hour Sculpture
A mirror of society: the basic elements are left as raw as possible, then united for a dual purpose. Cylinders grow organically from the prepared Maple’s silky black-charred mountainscape, crowned by a flat horizon. Overhead, a Maple slice becomes a cloud whispering past.
The porcelain elements’ individual deconstructions reflect how fragile we are as time passes, yet they symbolise the hope of rebuilding. We release expectations and plans, to embrace acceptance and freedom. Torn ceramic edges are a further symbol of wild mountain ranges.
Beeswax candles inside the porcelain glow the colour of the beloved“golden hour” at sunset. Here, we count our blessings, and gaze across distant granite ridges toward our hearts’ desires.
The Roots Underneath Soundscape x SIMON BENNISON
Simon Bennison is a designer trained in both England and America, in lighting,design, architecture, architectural lighting and music composition. The piece is anaudio document of the making process of Golden Hour. A series of audio images with Additional content from Studio Rö, bridging Lions Bay and Milan.
“ I was invited to spend time with the ceramicist Ava Copp for two months over the planning and design of her sculpture/installation, Golden Hour. We developed a concept for a companion soundscape piece, to document the making of the work in Vancouver, a piece to transport and include the natural environments found there with those in Milan. The material was edited from a wide set of field recordings and interviews, threaded with some beautiful recordings also made by Studio Rö. The material has largely been left unaltered and a layering of true sounds without effects. They have then been interwoven across a series of classical guitar pieces, one improvised, one composed, a study from Antonio Lauro and another from Heitor Villa Lobos. And finally a piano improvisation using Ava’s daughter’s piano, the whole making a journey to instal the atmospheres and sounds of sculpting, with those of the forest, sounds of ritual and of Lions Bay.”