BBC's Richard Coles introduces potter Phil Rogers - Goldmark

Good morning, good morning everybody. It's very special for me to have this man here. He's been very supportive for years and years and years, in all sorts of ways. And as a customer, he actually comes and buys things from us. The Reverend Richard Collins. I was doing Saturday Live this morning and as I was leaving they said what are you going to do this afternoon? And I said, well I'm opening an exhibition of pots. And somebody said, pots? You're painting, not pots. Consuming ceramics came along a lot more recently. And my sort of first point of engagement, with the delights that lay ahead, happened in this gallery and happened actually with another show of Phil's. Which I think of Pot of Yours, Phil, was the first pot I ever kind of seriously engaged with. It was a chawan and it sat in my hand, as chawans do. And something kind of spoke to me about that moment and said, I belong to you. Also I think as I've spent more time with the work and got to know it a bit better, and surrounded my life with examples of it, something about the way ceramics quite uniquely capture the fleetingness of the passing moment. There's something about what happens in a kiln when malleable material all of a sudden takes on permanence. Something magical about what happens when you throw a handful of salt or whatever it is into a kiln and the surface of that pot reacts chemically and that's somehow fixed for eternity. What an expensive habit it's proved to be. And why I'm so delighted to be here today and recommend the work and Phil and Mike to your careful study, enjoyment and attention. And thank you very much. As I started collecting pictures, when I had the means to collect pictures, then as I gradually got poorer, the stuff I wanted to buy was just more and more out of reach. And then I discovered ceramics. What I discovered is you can get work which gives as much if not more pleasure and satisfaction. They're so much more affordable.