Jennifer Lee: the potter’s space

The Project

‘Jennifer Lee: the potter’s space’ at Kettle’s Yard displays 40 pots made throughout the renowned ceramicist’s career. The exhibition is open from 9 July to 22 September 2019.

We were pleased to be invited to design this exhibition inside one of the galleries we built for Kettle’s Yard’s major redevelopment in 2018. Our exhibition design evolved through visits to the artist’s studio and conversations with her about emphasising the scale of human experience and closely aligning the public with the private.

The role of any exhibition design is to create a context for the work which assists the viewer to understand it without overpowering it.

Jennifer's pots are created with immense care. They are delicate, yet hold great strength. These works require a setting of clarity and calm.

We created one large table — a monolithic plaster plinth — at precisely the height of Jennifer's studio workbench, where each of these pots was made. Here, the pots are displayed on a single surface, placed in careful conversation with each other.

Our second move in designing the exhibition was to demarcate the height of Jennifer's studio on the gallery wall. The putty-coloured walls are suggestive of an intimate, containing volume, shared by the visitor and the work.

Two benches line the walls, one along the length of the plinth and the other on the end wall. These allow quiet contemplation from a seated position where all the pots are seen together.

Photography ©Jo Underhill

Development

We spent a memorable morning together with Jennifer and curator, Sarah Griffin, in Jennifer’s studio. We talked about how she makes her work and she shared stories of her travels and much more. It was clear that this intimate space should somehow be present in the exhibition itself.

We began to think that a single surface precisely the height of Jennifer's workbench would be a powerful yet minimal response. We modelled the table as well as every pot in the exhibition and we gave these to Jennifer and Sarah to develop the placement of the pots.

Press

Burlington Contemporary – Marina Vaizey: “The design for the installation by Jamie Fobert is as sympathetic as one could wish. You can see everything in the round, and nothing is encased in a vitrine. And for once the comfort of the visitor too is paramount. There is plenty of space to walk around the whole and there are two long benches placed along the walls, from which to contemplate the work.”