What is it about a pot that makes the heart leap? It is not just the careful making process based on years of skill, though that helps. It is not the form, however original and refined. It is not the surface with its marriage of clay body and glaze or, in the case of pots by Gabriele Koch, burnished slip and smoke. There is something that lies beyond skill and experience: it is passion,
an intensity which is evident in the work of Gabriele Koch.

David Attenborough uses the word ‘elemental’ to describe her ceramics, emphasising the importance of earth and fire, common to all pottery but visually evident in Gabriele’s work. He recognizes her original inspiration, which was the anonymous pots from hot dry lands such as Spain and India, pots which come from the hand and from the heart.

In her work there is a continuous slow and purposeful development. Every exhibition includes new forms and surfaces as part of the process of enclosing space in a ceramic shell, often thin and tight like a membrane, complemented by a depth of surface patterning and subtle colour.

In collaboration with the potter to produce a book which documents over a quarter of a century of pot making, we have chosen illustrations of one hundred pots. I believe they show both serenity and the passion which makes the heart leap.

Tony Birks 2009