usually igneous rock. She is interested in showing inclusions and additions and taking the work to the extreme. Regel f inds these additions on building sites in London, from manufacturers of kitchen worktops, and roadworks where cobbles might be. She uses slips and simple glazes, usually commercially available. She f ires pieces multiple times, allowing the kiln itself to be creative. She will join unfired clay to f ired clay, trusting that by f iring really slowly they will fuse by the hand of the kiln.
She named Phyllida Barlow as an inf luence and that she feels close to the way she works, its materials, its clarity and its relation to music, and that Barlow’s kindness, generosity and humility also comes to mind. She mentioned Anselm Kiefer, for the same reasons, but also for his critique of history; Alina Szapocznikow, and how her work relates to the body; Ewen Henderson for his attitude to clay and its received rules; and Claudi Casanovas for the release from the convention that clay vessels needed to be thin walled.
Other ceramicists walk on by, tut-tutting at Regel ’s work, or they are intrigued. Many resort to asking technical questions, perhaps a way of f inding a way into the work. Many have questions about whether it qualifies as beautiful. It took her years not to feel affected by the rejection.
EXUDING LIFE At this point it is crucial to note that Regel joined the Harrow Course at the University of Westminster, which, for several interesting reasons, is no longer with us. There she completed the whole curriculum, including throwing, glaze-making and wood-firing (she still loves wood-fired work). What stayed with her was clay as a thing in itself, and how, when f ired, it is f ixed into a monolith that is permanent but capable of exuding life. This she carried through to her MFA at the Royal College of Art, where Emmanuel Cooper was her hero, and where I f irst encountered her work. Still in my mind’s eye is the sight of a thigh-high sculpture on the f loor, heav y, red and glowing, asserting itself unambiguously.
To Regel, a work is successful when it has mystery about it, when it has life. When it is as fresh at the end as it was at the beginning. A work is successful when it thrills her as she opens the kiln. She does not seek approval elsewhere.
Her main challenge at the beginning of her career was to survive and remain honest to her work. There was no business training. She is not good at promoting herself and networking and hopes her work speaks for itself. She no longer f inds creative blocks challenging, but sees them,
LE F T: Huba Buba, 2023 RIGHT: Raining Stone, 2022
16 May/June 2023
