Possibilities is an assembly of seven distorted and deformed ceramic vessel shapes. Before firing the vessels they have undergone a process filling, falling, spilling and shapeshifting in their soft state. They echo the moment of a medieval miracle story where a chalice was dropped but no wine had spilled. Each shape evokes a sense of misadventure and loss but brings to mind that changed shapes are not lost shapes. Possibilities was first shown in the exhibition ‘Together We Rise’ in the summer of 2021 at Chichester Cathedral curated by Jacquiline Creswell.

Wiela consists of four boat forms made from adobe clay, recycled wood and roof slates. The boat shapes indicate the presence of water and movement while the dried adobe with its prominent cracks suggests weight, stillness and drought. The roof slates act as load and obstacle, but also as protection, shelter and sanctuary. The work was completed in summer 2023 and first shown at Wells Cathedral for Wells Art Contemporary 2023.

Mae Possibilities yn gynulliad o saith ffurf llestr cerameg dadffurfiol. Cyn eu tanio, mae’r llestri wedi mynd drwy broses o lenwi, cwympo, llifio ac addasu siâp yn eu cyflwr meddal. Maent yn adlewyrchu’r eiliad o stori gwyrth canoloesol lle gollwyd cwpan ond ni ollyngwyd gwin. Mae Wiela yn cynnwys pedwar ffurf cwch wedi’u gwneud o glai adobe, pren wedi’i ailgylchu a llechi to. Mae ffurfiau’r cwch yn awgrymu presenoldeb dŵr a symudiad tra bod y clai adobe sych gyda’i chraig amlwg yn awgrymu pwysau, tawelwch a sychder. Mae’r llechi to yn gweithredu fel llwyth a rhwystr, ond hefyd fel gwarchodaeth, lloches a sanctum.

Barbara Beyer’s work reflects on the markers and traces we leave through interventions with our environment, social and material world. In her sculptural practice she re-enacts and plays out formative actions, echoing observations she makes outside the studio often questioning our perception of forming and deforming. Her forms have ambivalent qualities, workshop explorations reveal a frantic urge to shape, reshape, form and deform; dropped forms carry a sense of shapeshifting and change.

Barbara Beyer was born in Germany. She studied sculpture with Prof. Ansgar Nierhoff at Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz from 1993 to 1997. In 1998 she moved to Edinburgh where she had a studio at the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop until 2002, when she moved to London. Barbara has extensive experience in public engagement and participatory artwork, has taken part in exhibitions nationally and internationally, taken up artist residencies, and collaborated on public commissions in Switzerland, Norway and the UK. She is a member of the Royal Society of Sculptors and of Rochester Square ceramic studios. She was recently shortlisted for the 2021 Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize.

barbarabeyer.uk

Photos by Mud and Thunder.

RESOURCE FOR MEDITATION

Thanks be to you, our Lord Jesus Christ, for all the benefits which you have given us, for all the pains and insults which you have borne for us. Most merciful Redeemer, Friend and Brother, may we know you more clearly, love you more dearly, and follow you more nearly, day by day. Amen.
Prayer of Richard of Chichester (who once dropped a chalice of wine which landed without spilling a drop)

There are numerous medieval miracle stories, from around Europe, that tell of a spilled chalice, mostly involving the transformation of wine into blood. Misadventure and loss form changed shapes – not lost, just reimagined.

• We are all misshapen in some way – how have your deformities shaped you?

• Think about misadventure and loss in your life – what miracles may have transformed them?

 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side.’ And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great gale arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. Mark 4.35-39 

• Create a place of sanctuary in your mind – allow yourself to rest there for a time, oblivious to the storms, in the knowledge that divine power stills the seas.

• Remember all those from dry and devasted lands who travel in boats looking for safety.

Written by Julia Porter Pryce for Art and Christianity