Edmund de Waal
Talk Art
Russell Tovey and Robert Diament c/o Independent Talent
4.6 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 28 November 2025
⏱️ 71 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The artist and author Edmund de Waal (b.1964, Nottingham) has curated the first major exhibition of acclaimed Danish ceramicist Axel Salto (1889 – 1961), considered one of the greatest masters of 20th-century ceramic art.
Salto was a radical polymathic figure who crossed boundaries from one discipline to another, producing an extraordinary body of ceramic work alongside paintings, wood- cuts, drawings, book illustration and textiles. Salto is internationally renowned for his highly individual and expressive stoneware inspired by organic forms, characterised by budding, sprouting and fluted surface textures that appear to ripple and burst with life.
Salto’s ceramics will be shown alongside lesser-known and unseen works on paper, illustrations, writings and textiles, with a major new installation by de Waal reflecting on Salto’s enduring influence.
Playing with Fire: Edmund de Waal and Axel Salto
is now open and runs until 4th May 2026 at Hepworth Wakefield.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Good afternoon, good morning, good evening, wherever you are in the world. I'm Russell Tovey. |
| 0:09.3 | And I'm Robert Diamette. This is Talkart. Welcome to Talkart. How are you today, Robert? |
| 0:14.4 | Today, Russell, I am feeling like a mutant. Sorry? Yeah, I know. It's unexpected. |
| 0:26.2 | But actually, I'm not feeling like a mutant because that's not specific or accurate enough for today's guest. |
| 0:28.0 | Because mutant means that you're kind of changed forever. |
| 0:31.8 | Like, you've mutated. |
| 0:32.4 | Yeah, you've mutated. |
| 0:33.5 | So you can't really mutate back. |
| 0:35.4 | So I was thinking a lot about changeability, not just because |
| 0:39.1 | of my moods and mood swings, but I was thinking about this quote, which is on the artist's |
| 0:46.2 | website who we're meeting today, which is about his fascination with the mutability of objects and |
| 0:53.1 | maybe sculptures, and how he was fascinated by how there's a potential for change, |
| 0:58.8 | essentially, in how we feel about objects, but also in how they appear or maybe how they are. |
| 1:05.3 | That out of all of the research that I did, I came to right at the end, because it was actually |
| 1:09.6 | on his website in his |
| 1:11.3 | facts section. And I just thought it was fascinating that you'd chosen that quote out of everything |
| 1:17.5 | you could have, you know, done in the whole of your life. And also you described yourself there as an |
| 1:22.0 | artist who writes. And obviously, we all know his best-selling books, the hair with Amber Eyes and all of these different writings, even the current book and archive, which Casey Hessel shouted out this morning in her interview with Christie's. |
| 1:37.5 | And also this new book, Playing with Fire, which is looking at the work of Axel Solto, the incredible historic sculptor who our guest today has |
| 1:46.4 | actually curated a show of which is opening on the 22nd of November at the Hepworth Wakefield, |
| 1:51.3 | which will also be exploring today. But I was really interested in this idea of knowledge as power |
| 1:56.6 | and how through the trajectory of today's guest's life, his seeking out of knowledge and education |
... |
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