PERFECTION IN CLAY

Stoneware Bowl

Alev Ebüzziya Siesbye (Turkish)

This stoneware bowl was my first ‘serious’ ceramic art purchase, years ago at New York’s legendary Garth Clark Gallery. It’s the creation of Turkish artist Alev Ebüzziya Siesbye, whose bowls reside in museums around the world.

My attraction to this piece was immediate. I think it was its turquoise color, and its tiny ‘foot’ that supports a generous volume. Beyond that, I’ll let ceramics authority Garth Clark provide a more erudite rationale for its appeal…

Siesbye is able to levitate volume and give her pots the sense of floating in space. They do not give the illusion of spinning as these kinds of full-formed pots often do. Instead they hover and vibrate in a mesmerizing spatial stasis.

Clark explains this is because her work is hand built—using the slower process of coiling rather than throwing on the wheel.

While Alev has lived in Paris for years, I met her twice: first at New York’s Garth Clark Gallery, and later at a gallery in Istanbul. (She didn’t remember having ever met me.)  

The tiny foot (base) of Alev’s bowl.