- Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media
About me
Employment history
Biography (B Ipswich, Suffolk, 19 December 1968). British artist, researcher, and curator I am a researcher in the area of Ceramics at the Ceramics Research Centre UK. This role encompasses my practices as an artist, researcher, and curator (b 1968). I studied Ceramics at Edinburgh College of Art (1991-1994) before going on to do an MA in Ceramics and Glass at the Royal College of Art, London (1994-1996). I have established after 15 years of making leading models of practice for ceramics in the applied arts; I am an advocate for craft as commensurable to the wider visual arts. For a great deal of my projects my practice can be understood as 'post-studio ceramics', my work engages with clay yet often at a critical distance. I have in the past five years negotiated the realms of performance, serial production, and transience, and often involve site-specific installations. I am especially concerned with the affective relations that bind people and things, and how objects can enable a dialogue with the viewer. Clay is my constant medium as it embodies notions of permanence and inheritance, and has a profound connection with the everyday.
Teaching
Current research interests
My research currently addresses the role of craft and skills as a tool for deconstructing narratives in and around museum collections. The role of the audience in creation and destruction of the final works in the museum context is also a vital part of this ongoing research. The role of contemporary crafts and skills can be a lens through which to view current practice and investigative roles of the impact of making. Ceramics is a central part of my research as a material as well as a lens. The current research is framed by the Ceramics in the expanded foeld research project undertaken in the Ceramics Research Centre UK. Research group/area
Ceramics Research Centre (CRC-UK) I work within the Ceramics Research Centre at the University of Westminster. The broadening agendas and interdisciplinary dialogues within contemporary ceramics are the main focus of the Ceramics Research Centre (CRC-UK) at Westminster. Re-examining the discipline through history, whilst engaging in new approaches to presentation through installation and intervention, are keys areas of research. At the CRC-UK my colleagues and I are largely involved in the development of this expanded field of ceramics, the history of these practices and the subsequent engagement with audience. Research projects
Currently the CRC-UK are engaged in a 3-year project Ceramics in the Expanded Field - Behind the Scenes at the Museum which explores the relationship between contemporary ceramic art and museum collections and identifies this agenda through a regularly updated website (www.ceramics-in-the-expanded-field.com), intervention exhibitions and a range of symposia and conferences. This project is funded for three years by The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). Doctoral researchers supervised
Completed thesis titles (since 2009) As well as the theoretical PhD scholarship student attached to the above research project, there are currently 3 practice-based research students in the CRC-UK exploring a range of issues such as the history of faience, architectural ceramics and body/performance art. The CRC-UK welcome applications from prospective research students with projects that reflect this broad approach to what is seen as a stimulating and challenging development in the discipline. Membership of professional bodies
Board member Craft Potters Charitable Trust
Publications
For details of all my research outputs, visit my WestminsterResearch profile.