Following a successful career as the mind behind Atelier Fitton, Joshua Fitton has recently focused his attention on the art of ceramics. Having long practised ceramics as a hobby, in 2019 he undertook a deeper study under the guidance of a master raku ceramicist in Terengganu. Since then, he’s been consistently developing his skills and aesthetics, finally emerging into the art world with What Dreams May Come, a collection of a hundred ceramic eggs created over the course of a year.
Ceramics isn’t easy. Especially if you’re using an ancient burnishing method known as terra sigillata, meaning sealed earth, a Roman method of sealing ceramic pieces combined with smoke firing. All the eggs are fired in his own homemade kiln at temperatures of almost 1000°C, then polished, pigmented, re-fired, and polished again. Through repeated fires and polishes, the pigments are seared into the texture of the ceramic work, transforming them into the smooth, self-contained orbs presented in the exhibition.
The varied hues of the eggs are the result of happy coincidences, achieved by experimenting with different salts and minerals, thrown in with random fragments of fruit peel, rice husk, leaves, ground coffee, and even strands of the artist’s own hair (which give some of the eggs the illusion of fracture). Each egg is enclosed in a foil saggar (protective cover) sealing them into individual microcosms within the wider macrocosm of the kiln. From then on, they are beyond the artist’s control and each egg that emerges will be unpredictably, charmingly unique.
As a symbol, eggs have the positive connotations of birth, regeneration, and hope. But an egg also inspires fragility: its embryonic form contains mysteries of a life not yet born and easily destroyed. Riffing on these mixed associations, these hundred eggs are a catalogue of desires, hopes, and dreams, but also failures, disappointments, and heartbreaks. They are as personal and opaque as dream interpretation or palm-reading, requiring a certain vulnerability and imaginative faith in order to establish a connection. We invite you to take your time exploring this library of the undefinable and unquantifiable; they are as much a product of your own experiences and sentiments as they are the artist’s.
Joshua Fitton received his Masters in Architecture from the University of Lincoln, UK, in 2012. Upon returning to Malaysia, he worked in architecture for a time before moving on to fashion. In 2013, he founded Atelier Fitton, a bespoke menswear atelier based in The Zhongshan Building, Kuala Lumpur; in the same year, he made his debut at Kuala Lumpur Fashion Week and has been a regular presence at the yearly event. His interest in ceramics precedes his fashion career, but it was not until 2019 that he undertook a deeper study in ceramics under the guidance of a master raku ceramicist. Joshua is also a Level 2 practitioner of Reiki healing, which inspires some of the themes and concepts in his creative practices. What Dreams May Come is his first solo exhibition as an artist.