Casgliadau Arlein

A group of 222 small pots, porcelain, each pot cylindrical with a turned base, impressed on the side with grouped or individual rectangular marks, and glazed with one of a palette of 17 different white glazes, the whole designed to be displayed on a vertical series of shelves.

For the 'Arcanum' exhibition (Cardiff, National Museum & Gallery, 4 June - 29 August 2005), Edmund de Waal created a dramatic porcelain wall comprising 167 individual pots; for its re-installation on the Museum's Main Hall North Balcony, de Waal produced 55 additional pots, delivered 19 December 2007. Each pot is individual, glazed from a palette of 17 different white glazes developed during research for the project and impressed on the side with grouped or individual marks in different positions. This wall is effectively a personal taxonomy of tones of white and of marks, in dialogue with the taxonomy of decorative styles that underpinned de Winton’s collection and its display at the entrance to the exhibition. It also addresses the issue of massed display of porcelain, raised both by de Winton’s prolific collecting and the 18th-century tradition of architectural display of porcelain. As de Waal has written, 'Though the domestic pot - the studio pot - remains important, ceramics now are much more than a domestic drama. They have a public, and interrogative face: the intersection between architecture, ceramics and sculptural installation has become a key site of exploration' (‘Medium Serious,’ Tate Magazine, Sept/Oct 2003).

Edmund de Waal is a highly influential ceramicist and writer whose public roles include being senior research fellow at the University of Westminster, academic advisor to the British Museum/Birkbeck Diploma in World Art and Artefacts, a member of the editorial boards of Crafts magazine and the on-line journal Interpreting Ceramics, as well as a member of the Art Advisory Group of the National Museums & Galleries of Wales. His published writings include a ground-breaking biography of Bernard Leach (1998) and 20th-Century Ceramics (Thames and Hudson ‘World of Art’ series, 2003), plus numerous academic articles and contributions to exhibition catalogues and other publications.

Edmund de Waal has exhibited widely in Europe, the United States and the Far East. Recent exhibition projects include the creation of a porcelain room at the Geffrye Museum in London (2002); the exhibition 'A Secret History of Clay' (Tate, Liverpool, 2004); an exhibition at the New Art Centre, Roche Court (2004); an exhibition at Blackwell in the Lake District (2005); and the exhibition at the National Museum & Gallery,' Arcanum: mapping 18th-century European porcelain (4 June - 29 August 2005).

De Waal has work in major public and private collections worldwide, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Victoria and Albert Museum; the National Museum of Scotland; the World Ceramic Museum, Ichon, Korea; the Los Angeles Museum of Art; and the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. In 2003 he won the Silver Medal in the World Ceramics Exposition, Korea.