Nathalie Roset

Artist-in-Residence 2008-2009

Nathalie Roset: From Darkness to Light
Ceramics Inspired by the Watts Chapel
The Lewis Elton Gallery, University of Surrey
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1 - 17 December 2009

"Nathalie Roset’s practice as an artist is driven by challenge…The body of work she has created is reflective, intensively-researched and poetic… The ceramic work is monumental, heavy like stone, fitted into an exact pattern (like the building blocks of a church or cathedral).

The vibrancy of colour sings out in these new works, using a combination of arabesque and naturalistic motifs. The patterns flow against the stern terracottared; or they sit on top of a fluid, restless colourway in the large-scale prints. This new body of work… is both a personal account of research and an emotionally-intense evocation of place. It is respectful, energetic, massive and fluid. It is an exhibition where opposites have found an enriching and contemplative conclusion.”

Professor Simon Olding
Director, Crafts Study Centre
University for the Creative Arts, Farnham

From Darkness to Light reveals a diverse collection of ceramics and prints inspired by Watts Cemetery Chapel. It is the outcome of the work Nathalie Roset has done over the past year during her residency at Watts Gallery. Nathalie was born in France in 1970 and her early artistic interests in Paris focused on 'Art Plastique'. Moving to London led her to the College of Printing in Graphics and Media Design where she graduated from in 1995. Following this she worked as a freelancer and as a lecturer in Graphics. In the Summer of 2008, Nathalie graduated in Three Dimensional Design in ceramics from the University of the Creative Arts, Farnham.

Disscussing her work, Nathalie comments:
“The Chapel was designed by a woman (Mary Watts) who utilized the local community to build it. I was excited by the challenge of working on such a large scale as well as attempting to unify the lavishly coloured interior with the bright terracotta exterior. I enjoyed converting the controlled training I had got in graphics into a freer form of expression. Yet from the outset, I included comprehensive research, planning and development including the intellectual rigour and narrative that forms the backbone of my work”.

Watts Chapel was completed by the early twentieth-century. It is a fusion of Art Nouveau, Celtic, Romanesque and Egyptian influence combined through Mary’s own style. Watts Chapel is open to the public daily. It is located outside Guildford, just a short walk from Watts Gallery, in the village of Compton.

Watts Gallery wishes to thank Patricia Grayburn and Jo Baker at University of Surrey, Man Group Plc Charitable Trust and KPMG Foundation.

July 2009

Nathalie Roset
Watts Gallery Residency
I was requested to produce a work that related to the Gallery as part of my residency. I chose the Watts chapel and graveyard as its strong symbolism, colour and architectural decoration along with the contrast between inside and out appealed to me. The fact that it was designed by a woman (Mary Watts) using the local community to build it gave it particular resonance for me.

Having researched the archives to gain a better understanding of Mary Watts, I decided to explore the idea of a simplified approach to inside/outside. Many visitors spoke of the difficulty in taking everything in when they visited the chapel as it was so intertwining and overpowering – it was hard to absorb its full intent.

I selected certain elements and applied my own interpretation of them. The body of work is divided in two – the first are three large scale pieces, each divided in four. The first is about the small flower detail in the chapel, the second is about the peacock represented both in and outside of the chapel and the third is the decorated headstones in the graveyard – most using a botanical flower design. The second part of the body of work is about the history and how the chapel has developed over time. I have created four domes representing the chapel, the graveyard, the well, and the community who made it. Both bodies of work explore the inside/outside dimensions both in how they fit together as well as different imagery, pattern, texture between the outside and the inner side surfaces.

July 2008

Natalie Roset will begin her Residency at Watts Gallery this autumn, and will be leading six workshops as part of Watts Gallery’s outreach programme, A Gallery Without Walls. Natalie will be working on a new body of work, inspired by Watts Gallery and the Watts Chapel, which will culminate with an exhibition of her work at the Lewis Elton Gallery in Farnham.

Nathalie Roset, said, “This is a wonderful opportunity for me, and I am incredibly excited at being the first ceramic artist to be awarded the Watts Gallery Artist in Residency. Mary Watts’s Compton Pottery brought ceramics to the Compton community and I am very much looking forward to building on this legacy today.”

Biography

I was born in France in 1970 and studied “Art Plastic”, I left Paris in 1988 and graduated from London College of Printing in Graphics and media design. I’ve worked as a freelancer as well as a lecturer in Graphics.
I graduated in Three Dimensional Design in Ceramics from the University for the Creative Arts at Farnham in 2008. I was honoured to be offered the residency at Watts Gallery from September 2008.

The Watts Gallery residency combines two parts the first was working with the community. This included being involved in working with Young Offenders where they had to produce a book object. There was also the “Just a Bit of Us” project where over 300 pebbles where made by the Park Barn and Westborough Community. Those pebbles will be a permanent sculpture in that community. This has been a great experience to be able to follow the ethos of G.F Watts and Mary Watts.

The second part of my residency is to produce a body of work based on the Watts Gallery but more precisely on the Chapel. I found it was the larger scale work that I found most challenging and exciting; it allowed me to move from a controlled and contrived environment representative of my past graphics training, into a freer form of expression. However it still included comprehensive research, planning and development including the intellectual rigour and narrative that forms the backbone of my work.