School of Art

Contact Details

School of Art
Aberystwyth University
Buarth Mawr
Aberystwyth
Ceredigion
SY23 1NG

Tel: +44 (0)1970 622460

Fax: +44 (0)1970 622461

Email: artschool@aber.ac.uk

Display artist/maker:

Susan Halls

Born: 1966, UK, England, Kent, Gillingham

Ceramicist. Halls trained at Medway College of Art (1984-88) and the Royal College of Art (1988-90). Since childhood, she has been obsessed and curious about animals and their character and she drew, painted and modelled them. Her animal sculptures convey ‘a kind of animal truth’ rather than the mere appearance of things. Dogs, horses, cats and monkeys are of major interest although she is interested in many other species.

All ceramic techniques fascinate Halls and she uses whatever process best suits the subject to express and develop the form, which is sometimes abstracted to suggest only a minimum reference to the animal. She uses paper clay mixed with nylon fibre. Occasionally pieces are fired at stoneware temperatures, but most are low fired by low-technology techniques: sawdust, smoke or wood firing. The animal sculptures incorporate metal elements such as nails and steel pieces. She has also made large sculptural shoe forms and dinosaurs.

Halls has completed several public commissions in Britain and was awarded a Designers Guild Scholarship to study petrified remains at Herculaneum and Pompeii in Italy (1989). With the help of a Crafts Council Setting Up Grant and established a studio in London (1990). She had a six-month residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Alberta, Canada (1991) and attended the International Ceramics Studio at Kecskemét in Hungary (1996). She was a guest demonstrator at the International Potters Festival, Aberystwyth (1997).

Objects in the collections associated with this artist/maker

Fish Dog C1331 Ceramics



 
Gweinyddu