Essays and Publications - Kochevet Bendavid

“Ritual and Sensuality”

Ceramic Review 251, September/October 2011

Bendavid explains how her continuing interest in the relationship between people, food and ceramics led her on a journey starting from making traditional functional tableware to creating unusual ceremonial serving dishes.

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“Dinner Party Politics”

Ceramic Review 216, November/December 2005, pp40-45

As a tutor at the Royal College of Art, Emmanuel Cooper read Bendavid’s MA dissertation, and commissioned her to write this article in anticipation of the exhibition “Table Manners: International Contemporary Tableware” at the Crafts Council Gallery in London (Dec 8 2005 – Feb 26 2006). The article explores some strands from the rich web of subliminal meanings contained in and transmitted by handmade tableware, and argues that this art form can answer the intellectual, emotional, psychological and spiritual needs of makers as well as users.

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“Feeding the Hungry Soul:
A discussion of the relevance of handmade tableware in our society today”

MA dissertation, Department of Ceramics and Glass
Royal College of Art

In this paper Kochevet questions and examines whether the making of handmade tableware is still a relevant artistic endeavour. As there is little specific material written about the subject, she drew upon material from interviews she conducted with several prominent functional potters, and applied some theories of Material Culture to make her case for the defence of this often-disparaged craft. The dissertation concludes that the relevance of handmade tableware items lies in their capacity to express, symbolise and convey subjective and cultural feelings, values and ideas both through and beyond their utility. Their genuine value lies in their contribution to the bolstering of the human spirit, in their ability to nourish our souls while holding the food that sustains our bodies.

Kochevet was awarded a â€˜Distinctionâ€™ for this paper, the first to tackle this subject seriously.

Dining Rites: “The Maker”

Dining Rites, Call Printers, 1996.

This essay is part of a the catalogue which accompanied the 1996 exhibition ‘Dining Rites’.
It discusses handmade tableware from the point of view of the maker.
The exhibition took at ‘Primavera’, Cambridge, and was co-curated by Kochevet Bendavid and Mr Ronald pile – the gallery proprietor at the time.