I have visited a number of local exhibitions by Lakeland Arts in the last few months. Blackwell Arts and Crafts were showing "Class, Covid & Cumbria", stories of everyday people told through textiles and photography. Set against the context of the recent pandemic, the exhibition provided a personal perspective about community, wellbeing and social inequality. Although not ceramic based I wanted to go to the event as Grayson Perry was showing part of his travelling exhibition, who I view as a brilliant storyteller.
His tapestries are very busy but everything in them has meaning and purpose, there are no empty casual fillers. The lecture by Barry Purves on 11th February also reiterated this aspect, that he only includes something in his work if it has purpose and meaning. Both their perspectives have impacted on my work immensely as I start to introduce meaningful layers into each piece.
In Grayson's 2012 tapestry series, The Vanity of Small Differences, he investigated, through a collection of public interviews, how people are often shaped by their environments and the social class they were born into. In an attempt to capture the impact on peoples lives, the idea that where people start in life can have a significant influence on where they end up. Grayson highlights the importance of place and alludes to the dream that many working class people have of escaping their roots for a better life as a result of shame, trying to cover up where they came from, culminating in the identity crisis it can cause.
Blackwell itself is also a reflection of those who resided within. The Rowan tree motif winds its way along the panelling, commissioned by the Holt family who amassed a great fortune through hard work from humble beginnings. Seen as a common weed, Rowan can grow and thrive under almost any conditions, its presence throughout the building acts as a purposeful display of resilience.
The second exhibition I visited is installed permanently at Windermere Jetty. A collection of important local boats through history together with their restoration and conservation project.
Ferry Mary Anne was a working boat built in the early 19th century. The pictures below show detailed photographs of the condition of the vessel to help inform my work together with a picture of it being used on Lake Windermere. It is the last surviving rowed Windermere boat used to carry people, goods, animals and vehicles before steam powered boats were introduced in 1870.
Collect 2022 were hosting a series of talks and interviews as part of their weekend event in London which was opened up to others via Zoom. I was lucky enough to get a ticket for Halima Cassell. As part of her 25 year career she shared that she was always learning and pushing the boundaries, for her carving is creative. She expressed that she doesn't make mistakes as she maps everything out which is something I will try to emulate. Halima classifies this as a technical process rather than part of her creativity. It comes as no surprise that she loves architecture and geometry and has written a book titled "Craft".
She uses different materials because she likes a challenge. Each material has limitations which means she has to think about different solutions. Her practice includes working with six different clay bodies and prefers black clay, but chooses her clay for its colour rather than for other properties. It was interesting to hear her comment that in Europe we focus on drawing but in Japan the focus is on clay. The work she produces looks at identity via the patterns in different cultures. This idea of belonging, people can relate or be interested in it which I though was informative, you don't have to belong to a certain place to appreciate the concept of belonging. She started work in 2009 on a project called Virtues Of Unity where a clay vessel is constructed using raw materials from each country showing a shared commonality of the humanity, allowing the viewer to explore the theme rather than on a final piece.
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