This thesis analyses how the dialogue between ceramic practice and museum practice has contributed to the discourse on ceramics. Taking Mieke Bal’s theory of exposition as a starting point, it explores how ‘gestures of showing’ have been used to frame art‑oriented ceramic practice. Examining the gaps between the statements these gestures have made about and through ceramics, and the objects they seek to expose, it challenges the idea that ceramics as a category of artistic practice has ‘expanded.’ Instead, it forwards the idea that ceramics is an integrative practice, through which practitioners produce works that can be read within a range of artistic (and non-artistic) frameworks. Focusing on activity in British museums between 1970 and 2014, it takes a thematic and broadly chronological approach, interrogating the interrelationship of ceramic practice, museum practice and political and critical shifts at different points in time. Revealing an ambiguity at the core of the category ‘ceramics,’ it outlines numerous instances in which ‘gestures of showing’ have brought the logic of this categorisation into question, only to be returned to the discourse on ‘ceramics’ as a distinct category through acts of institutional recuperation. Suggesting that ceramics practitioners who wish to move beyond this category need to make their vitae as dialogic as their works, it indicates that many of those trying to raise the profile of ‘ceramics’ have also been complicit in separating it from broader artistic practice. Acknowledging that those working within institutions that sustain this distinction are likely to re-make, rather than reconsider ceramics, it leaves the ball in their court.

This thesis examines usurpation in the Seleukid empire between the third and second centuries BCE. Since the title ‘usurper’ was attributed by ancient authors to defeated opponents of the Seleukid king, this study is essentially a study of constructed historical narratives. If usurpers are placed in their historical context, however, the histories of their claims to the diadem can be reconstructed. By analysing the literary and documentary evidence, chapters 2 and 3 assess the interaction between kings, usurpers and the groups within the kingdom (such as cities, dynasts and the army). More precisely, an investigation of usurpers’ strategies and the royal images they employed in their interactions with the groups within the kingdom is undertaken, and, wherever possible, the groups’ perception of and reaction to usurpers is examined. By focussing on usurpation, conclusions regarding the possibilities and limits of monarchic rule in the Seleukid kingdom, the kingship of the Seleukid rulers and the structure of the Seleukid empire can be drawn. This study argues that the Seleukid kings were in constant competition with other internal power holders, illustrating the precarious position of the Seleukid kings to sustain the monopoly of power in the empire. The dynamics between the Seleukid king and different power holders within the kingdom are demonstrated in chapter 4 in two case-studies on the Attalids of Pergamon and the Baktrian kings. Chapter 5 reviews the possibilities of usurping the diadem as well as Seleukid reaction to usurpers. The concluding section fundamentally challenges scholarship’s reassessments of the ‘strength’ of Seleukid kingdom. It is argued that it was a kingThis thesis examines usurpation in the Seleukid empire between the third and second centuries BCE. Since the title ‘usurper’ was attributed by ancient authors to defeated opponents of the Seleukid king, this study is essentially a study of constructed historical narratives. If usurpers are placed in their historical context, however, the histories of their claims to the diadem can be reconstructed. By analysing the literary and documentary evidence, chapters 2 and 3 assess the interaction between kings, usurpers and the groups within the kingdom (such as cities, dynasts and the army). More precisely, an investigation of usurpers’ strategies and the royal images they employed in their interactions with the groups within the kingdom is undertaken, and, wherever possible, the groups’ perception of and reaction to usurpers is examined. By focussing on usurpation, conclusions regarding the possibilities and limits of monarchic rule in the Seleukid kingdom, the kingship of the Seleukid rulers and the structure of the Seleukid empire can be drawn. This study argues that the Seleukid kings were in constant competition with other internal power holders, illustrating the precarious position of the Seleukid kings to sustain the monopoly of power in the empire. The dynamics between the Seleukid king and different power holders within the kingdom are demonstrated in chapter 4 in two case-studies on the Attalids of Pergamon and the Baktrian kings. Chapter 5 reviews the possibilities of usurping the diadem as well as Seleukid reaction to usurpers. The concluding section fundamentally challenges scholarship’s reassessments of the ‘strength’ of Seleukid kingdom. It is argued that it was a kingship without a strong dynasty and supporting aristocracy which formed the basis of a weak empire.ship without a strong dynasty and supporting aristocracy which formed the basis of a weak empire.

This research by practice into the visual and aesthetic qualities of ceramic glaze investigates its ability to create an impression of depth. Because perspectival depth alone can not fully account for my artistic concerns, and the requirements of perspectival illusion are at odds with some of my major artistic preoccupations, such as an interest in accidents and imprecision in material rendering, I raised the hypothesis of a poetic dimension of depth, posing the research question for this project: “What is poetic depth in a ceramic glaze?” Traditionally, research into glazes focuses on aspects of material science, craftsmanship, archaeology or art history, and optical depth has been the subject of investigations into the microstructure of glaze. By seeking to address the aesthetic dimension of glaze I am moving away from such concerns. While the aesthetics of ceramic glaze is a new field of research, with little existing material, I am seeking to find parallels with practice, theories and research from the field of literary poetry, even though by ‘poetic’ I am referring to a quality that is not only mediated by language and goes beyond the field of literature. Further, I am also referring to Gaston Bachelard’s approach to material imagination through his poetics of the natural elements and to the concept of transitional space developed by psychoanalysts of the British Independent Group, Donald Winnicott and Marion Milner. My thesis consists of a threefold dialogue between my artistic practice of glaze, theories and practices of literary poetry and the concept of the transitional phenomenon. My findings are at the intersection of those three elements, and they are the results of my investigations through both making and writing: • ‘Poetic tension’ is a paradoxical and conflicting process between authority – the ability to control – and subjectivity on the one hand and factors of dissent, questioning the very possibility of authorship, on the other: among these are the unconscious and the materiality of the glaze. • The concern for interiority is a central element of poetry, the transitional phenomenon and my works. • My practice of glaze is an attempt to re-enact and objectify the fusion between the self and the world, addressing the issues of the illusion of all-encompassing subjectivity and the disillusion of objectivity, both key elements of the transitional phenomenon. • Play has been a natural development of my practice of glaze and I further established parallels with the literary poetic in a shared aspiration for subversion, dissent and laughter. • The concept of the formless permeates Bachelard’s material imagination and my practice of glaze. Moreover it is often a prerequisite for Winnicott’s and Milner’s approach to creativity and play. • Failure is the essence of a certain form of poetry, which Georges Bataille summed up as the ‘Impossible’. It is also a key aspect of my practice of glaze: an essence of flux or a further element of play whose irresolution or unlikely balance can create yet another dimension of the poetic. • Flux is a necessary element of glazes but it also summarizes the dynamics and dialectics of the transitional phenomenon and of the Bataillean ‘Impossible’ and the playful poetic. All three strands: my practice of glaze, the literary poetic and the transitional phenomenon intertwine, cross-fertilize and develop in parallel. Together, they have helped articulate the concepts and the artistic vocabulary through which the poetic and the transitional phenomenon have become operative categories of aesthetics, artistic practice, and of research processes.