The Ceramics Research Centre-UK (CRC-UK) has played a central role in changing the way the British public and the art world engages with ceramic art practice.
How can clay practice contribute to society in a meaningful way?
When the Ceramics Research Centre-UK was established by Christie Brown and Edmund de Waal over 20 years ago, its focus was on ceramic installation and experimental clay practice that challenged traditional expectations of the medium.
In recent times, CRC-UK has explored interdisciplinary practice, played with clay’s temporal form, and searched for imaginative, thought-provoking ways to engage people from all backgrounds.
This approach can be summed up as: ‘Clay + Culture + Society.’
Professor Clare Twomey MBE and the ‘Factory’
Professor Clare Twomey’s philosophy as artist and academic is about challenging the conventions of museum display, by installing dynamic content to be transformed by its audience.
Her two-week installation, Factory: the Seen and Unseen (2018), transformed the Tate Exchange (TEX) space into a ‘factory’ where visitors joined a 30-metre production line and made every-day objects.
This installation, which brought more than 4,800 members of the public to work on the factory floor, formed part one of Production (2017-18) – a larger 12-month collaboration with TEX.
This three-stage project involved Twomey collaborating with communities where they lived and worked, developing their artistic skills and revising the Tate’s strategy in the process.
Twomey's inclusive model of participatory practice has helped re-frame Tate Exchange’s approach to its programme and the kinds of creative practitioner it engages.
– Cara Courage, Head of Tate Exchange
Production was “a step change for us”, Courage added. “The ‘society meets art’ outcome of Clare’s time with us has gone forward into our curatorial statement for 2019 onwards.”
Piece by Piece (2015), at the Gardiner Museum, Toronto, is another example of Twomey’s participatory ceramics practice.
Inspired by the museum’s collections of rare Commedia dell’Arte figures, Twomey produced an initial replica collection of figurines which were then reproduced by local ceramics students, at a bench within the gallery space.
Through the course of the exhibition, the new collection expanded to over 2,000 pieces, giving visitors a unique experience every time they visited.
In a further challenge to the fixed nature of traditional exhibitions, all visitors were invited to take a figurine home at the end of it.
“The media attention was higher (double) than most of our contemporary exhibitions,” says Rachel Gotlieb, Curator at Gardiner. “The performance nature, and the fact that the exhibition increased in size over time attracted repeat viewers which was also unusual for the Gardiner.”
Phoebe Cummings’ time-based ceramics
Phoebe Cummings’ approach to ceramics centres around temporality.
Her sculpture, Triumph of the Immaterial (2017), at the Victoria and Albert Museum was designed to slowly disintegrate over time as a form of performance art.
Crafts Council Executive Director Rosy Greenlees, believes Cummings’ Triumph of the Immaterial’s public exposure as Woman’s Hour Craft Prize 2017 winner, has been seminal in shifting perspectives.
Since then there has been a growing interest by the contemporary art world in ceramics and craft related processes.
– Crafts Council Executive Director, Rosy Greenlees
Karen Dalziel, Editor of Woman’s Hour and Late Night Woman's Hour, BBC Radio Four, feels Cummings’ work “challenged how many of our audience viewed craft”.
“Phoebe’s work specifically questions the concept of longevity in finished pieces – as her work disintegrates,” Dalziel says. “This was very new to many of our audience and an interesting area for on-air discussion.”
The programming particularly appealed to their “Instagram audience”, she says, which is younger than the general Radio 4 listeners.
Going a step further, Cummings created her artwork A Ripening Surveillance (2018), before allowing it to decompose across the course of her show at Tetley Gallery, Leeds.
This transformational influence in the curatorial strategies of exhibiting institutions has also widened opportunities for younger practitioners.
British Ceramics Biennial Award-winner Tana West and Icelandic visual artist Erna Skúladóttir, both agree Cummings’ innovation has meant galleries and museums are now more open to working with artists with different approaches.
“I have been given the space to explore, fail and develop,” West says.
Tessa Peters’ Cultural Icons
Tessa Peters’ exhibition Cultural Icons: Remaking a Popular Pottery Tradition, which featured in the 2019 British Ceramics Biennial (BCB), centred around public participation and reconnecting locals with Stoke-on-Trent’s Victorian pottery legacy.
Six leading ceramic artists, including Christie Brown, were commissioned to create new artworks and to develop designs for limited edition Staffordshire flatbacks – cheaply made 19th century figurines of popular people and subjects.
These designs were interpreted, handmade and painted at BCB workshops over four months by members of underserved communities, including health service users, refugees and asylum seekers, and an LGBT+ social group.
The final pieces were exhibited at two museum galleries across 2019 and 2020.
Many participants who were new to ceramics found the experience of learning this skill was both empowering and therapeutic.
“Clay = Therapy,” one participant summarised, while another agreed: “I have been going through a rough time in my home life. This has given me a way to vent positively.”
There was a true feeling of community, sharing and support amongst the makers, many of whom didn’t know one another before.
– BCB and The Audience Agency report on the launch of Cultural Icons.
One maker described the workshop as a “wonderful inspiring environment to spend time in”, while others said they “really enjoyed team working and exchange between members”.
Some participants were also keen to continue with the craft after the workshop, demonstrating the ongoing impact such art engagements can have.
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