#3 Spode Works

#3 Spode Works

This project echoes the group residency haptic/tacit founding members took part in alongside other makers from the Crafts Council Hothouse scheme for emerging makers as part of the 2013 British Ceramics Biennial programme and is part of the 2021 biennial programme.

The Spode Works site has continued to have creative resonance with architecture and space/place a recurring theme and it is through that lens that we approach this project, viewing the site in aesthetic, visual and phenomenological terms.  Responding to it’s fabric and the material qualities of its buildings and construction, picking up on observed details and juxtapositions or dealing with a sense of the space itself.

For this project we have invited Dan Southward, photographer and ACAVA studio resident and, in keeping to the spirit of the original residency as emerging makers, three recent graduates to join in creating new work and new viewpoints onto the Spode Works.  

Invited Exhibitors

Dan Southward

My practice lies somewhere between fine art and photography. 

I seek out neglected, overlooked areas, exploiting the loopholes and anomalies, which are often inherent in such places. 

I prefer working from the shadows, adopting a backstage, or behind the scenes approach to my photography.

Processes include painting with light on plastic coated film in emulsion, made from crystals of silver salts, suspended in gelatin. 

https://www.instagram.com/dsouth35mm/

Rhyann Arthur

“I have recently been producing work that questions interpretations of history that are told through museum curation, considering how people see their place in the world with these narratives. Using the simple and beautiful dichotomy of porcelain and grogged terracotta I have been playing with metaphors and representation of the hierarchy of materials; of what is “pure” and what is “primitive”. Experimenting pinching and carving processes, I have taken accumulative and reductive approaches to explore the manifestation of ideas. Repair has become a part of my practice as a way to reclaim the discarded and mend the distressed, this piece incorporates kintsugi to bring light to each object’s past.

The assemblages are made up of collections of curious objects; handmade and found, encircling a fragmented figure. I find that using figurative elements provokes introspection, whether as the artist becoming immersed in the creation, or the viewer when taking in the sculpture.”

https://www.instagram.com/rhy_configured/

Nadire Gokmen

The urban landscape is simultaneously dotted with traces of our presence in, and separation from nature. Orange hues that stream the exteriors of steel, to darkened stains on a wall suggesting the recurring passage of water, exist both as physical displays of an action and the progression of time.

Nadire Gokmens process led practice is motivated by the desire to physically capture these traces rather than mimic their appearance. Currently working predominantly in ceramics, Nadire also uses steel to collect and record these primary traces.

https://www.nadiregokmen.com/

Yunji Shin

The beginning of my exploring began with the question of the historical background and limitations of the field of slip casting. Ceramics are theoretically in the category of crafts, but the background of industrial ceramics’ development and process are closely related to the design process, and moulds have been used as a method and tool to produce predetermined designs. What if we could go beyond the implicit rule of mass-producing one design and incorporate modules into the mould to produce various designs? Furthermore, what if we could incorporate a kind of ‘play’ concept that does not follow the set rules? I believe that the process of my exploration is not uniform and limited design, but the direction of design that values living space and creates a new relationship between objects and humans. Also, l believe that it can be a way of interpreting the inevitable craft’s process called ‘techniques’ with the concept of design.

https://www.instagram.com/yunjishin_ceramics

Exhibition dates

11th September – 17th October 2021
British Ceramics Biennial
Spode Works
Stoke-on-Trent
https://www.britishceramicsbiennial.com/