MARGARET O’RORKE (1938–) has done much to stretch, literally and metaphorically, the structure of translucent porcelain in the last thirty years, treating it as an essentially sculptural medium that can lyrically convey and channel the light, both natural and artificial. She is a very un-English artist, her delicate and organic pieces owe more to avant-garde Japanese forms and northern European experimental ceramics and sculpture (one thinks of a range of Dutch work). But her art is not conceptual, but a very sensual and expressive enhancing of architectural space, her use of material is as crisp, complex and fluid as many forms in nature, but with a restraint and purity that is also very modern. It is its special quality of stilled movement and energy that marks it out. Born in 1938, O’Rorke studied painting at Chelsea School of Art and ceramics at Camberwell. She lives and works in Oxford.
David Whiting
