james rigler
Glasgow, Scotland
James Rigler with metal-leafed ceramic sculpture.
James Rigler, The Collector, 2019. Glazed earthenware, metal leaf, marble plinth, 330 cm x 150 cm x 80 cm
James Rigler, Column & Entablature, 2019. Glazed and metal-leafed earthenware, rope, 420 cm x 400 cm x 50 cm
Discoveries.
I still love playing with Lego, even with a 2 year old in charge.
I didn’t miss clay much, for a guy who’s worked with it for 25 years.
There’s currently nothing more exciting than black paint on white paper.
I love working from home. I’m still shocked about this.
I’ve still not found a way to balance the motivation of a deadline with the stress it instills.
I can still feel deeply, irrationally homesick for my childhood home.
My enthusiasm for DIY has limits.
Gardening is a profound and instantaneous form of therapy.
My neighbours are really, really great.
It’s funny the things you discover when you step outside your usual routines. Lockdown provided an unexpected and intense home residency, complete with a furloughed boyfriend, my co-parent Kitty (working full time) and our 2 year old kid.
I’d love to say that I was a creative powerhouse during the last few months—how intimidated I am by those artists that were!—but the truth is that these personal relationships consumed most of my time and energy (and repaid me handsomely, of course).
Commissions, shows, teaching and a planned residency all evaporated by mid-April, so I began lockdown feeling pretty bruised and apocalyptic. My studio was inaccessible from March until mid-July, and the facilities that make it awesome (kilns, wood and metal workshops, plaster room, lovely fellow artists) are still out-of-bounds. I’ve not made anything in clay for five whole months, which surprises me daily.
However, the continued good health of family and friends (and a delicious early summer) changed things. I’ve kept my hands busy with a (non-ceramic) church Tabernacle commission, and I’ve been drawing. This two dimensional work has kept me curious and enthusiastic, and it’s the most important practice-based development to grow from this strange experience. As things begin to return to ‘normal’—for good and bad—I’m left with the discoveries I made about myself, work and the kind of life that I want to pursue. I hope I’m brave enough to remember some of them and make the changes they may demand. I’m very, very lucky.
James Rigler, Block & Table, 2018. Glazed and metal-leafed earthenware, 60 cm x 40 cm x 40 cm / 100 cm x 55 cm x 35 cm
During the Lockdown, James Rigler fell in love with drawing and played A LOT (repeat, A LOT) of Lego
James Rigler, Tabernacle and Sanctuary Candlestick for a church in Glasgow, Scotland, 2020. Jesmonite, cherrywood, marble, ceramic, brass, 23.5 carat gold leaf. 45 cm x 60 cm x 45 cm and 120 cm x 18 cm x 18cm. “This was actually my one commission that I worked on during lockdown.”
James Rigler, from the Elevations series, 2020. Blackboard paint on paper, 42 cm x 59 cm. Of the series, Rigler writes, “They’re all hand-drawn (satisfyingly meditative for me) and hand-painted, using the same grid of 4 cm diameter circles.The blackboard paint came about as it seemed the most matte paint I could find in my local hardware shop when all the art shops were closed in the first lockdown.”
James Rigler, from the Elevations series, 2020. Blackboard paint on paper, 42 cm x 59 cm
James Rigler, from the Elevations series, 2020. Blackboard paint on paper, 42 cm x 59 cm
James Rigler, from the Elevations series, 2020. Blackboard paint on paper, 42 cm x 59 cm / 59 cm x 84 cm