British Ceramics Biennial

Launched in 2009, the British Ceramics Biennial presents work from the UK's leading contemporary ceramic artists in a series of special events and new exhibitions including FRESH, an exhibition showcasing the best of the current crop of UK ceramics...

[bcbfestival]

The Flower Army add the first flowers.

This week sees the opening of the British Ceramics Biennial festival 2015. ‘Resonate’ is almost complete and ready for the addition of the thousands of ceramic flowers created by our amazing flower army.

To signify their valiant efforts it only seemed right that they got to be the first people to add their very own flower with a paper tag telling of their personal connections with WW1. Putting their flowers onto the installation, everyone felt such a sense of achievement that they had been a part of such a moving commemorative piece. Making a vast number of flowers both in workshops and at home, the piece wouldn’t have been possible without them.

I wanted to know what each person enjoyed most about their experience with the BCB and what they will be taking away from it.

The retired flower ladies were just really glad to see old friends again and be a part of the project. Jean said she was so glad to have found out about the workshops as she would have been really disappointed to have missed it. She has had a wonderful experience getting back into making as she finds the process really relaxing and therapeutic.

Eileen and Philippa knew each other from when they worked in the factories over 20 years ago and really enjoyed getting back in touch reminiscing about old times and filling each other in on their lives since then. The atmosphere at every meeting was great. One of the highlights for Kate Windsor, a past lecturer from Newcastle College, was listening to their stories about their working lives. The Spode factory has always been a part of Kate’s working life as she used to deliver prints to the site when it was up and running and lives just a stones throw away. Not only has she enjoyed learning a new skill and listening to these fascinating stories but she has also enjoyed seeing the factory buzzing with activity again.

All of the participants said they would do the project again and would be involved in other projects the BCB have to offer in the future. They also want to continue flower making should there be a call for it. Philippa would like to pass her skills on though teaching now that she has got back into making and helped the other volunteers grasp the techniques. All of the retired ladies would love to see the process return and keep the hand making processes alive through passing what they know onto the next generation.

The Flower Army session taking place every Sunday from 2 till 4 throughout the festival, which runs from the 26th September to the 8th November, will see some of the army return to show off their talents and get you the visitors having a go yourselves. Please come along and get some clay under your finger nails and see whether you might be the next generation of the Flower Army.

[bcbfestival]

The Flower Army is out in force.

This week the Flower Army has continued their valiant effort to produce 5,608 ceramic forget me not flowers ready for the 2015 BCB launch.

In the final workshop before the festival opens, the volunteers met our retired flower makers for the first time. Growing from week to week, the final meeting was the biggest group yet. Volunteers helping with the install of the show also came along to lend a hand.

An open call for volunteers to help at all stages of the festival went out earlier in the year to give both artists and the BCB team a hand in setting up and running the show. Many have a ceramic interest and aim to gain valuable experience of the industry and its leading practitioners. Steve Dixon, present on site again, was able to meet the new recruits and give them an inside look at the project.

The studio itself has become a real hive of activity with Jo Ayre, our studio manager, producing hundreds of ceramic dog tags whilst also creating her own one off pieces. Her work will be available to purchase from the BCB Gallery Shop so keep an eye out for those!

This busy, working environment added to the recreation of the factory atmosphere the ladies used to work in. The camaraderie and socialisation ran through the entire workshop encompassing everyone in the room.

The conversations started the previous week started up again with more old stories of past colleagues and work places being shared throughout the group.

As well as sharing their stories, the retired flower makers shared their skills with the new recruits. Sharing out their hand made tools, they taught the group, including me, traditional ways in which to create the flowers. The pace and ease at which they seemed to produce each flower still astounded everyone, making a perfectly formed flower in as little as 30 seconds.

The Flower Army has also helped further the skills of some of the lecturers from the local colleges. Kate and Cheryl, both influenced by ceramics, came to experience a new process and further their knowledge of the material and its possibilities.

Over 400 flowers were made in the final session bringing us ever close to our target. As well as the workshops, the making has been continued at home with around 500 being produced throughout the previous week.

Although the workshops have come to an end, the Flower Army are still producing forget me nots at home not only to help make our target but because they just love making them. Each of them has also been invited to return to the festival to show off their skills to our visiting public. 

Please come along and have a go for yourself and meet the amazing Army themselves on the 17th September, 4th 18th 25th October or the 8th November. For more information visit our website at http://www.britishceramicsbiennial.com/programme. We hope to see you there!

[bcbfestival]

Install beginning of Standing on the Verge by Nao Matsunaga @natsko_seki (at British Ceramics Biennial - Spode Factory, Stoke)

[bcbfestival]

The Flower Army draft in their very own ceramic veterans.

With three weeks to go before the British Ceramics Biennial opens its doors to the public, our Flower Army are continuing to make thousands of ceramic forget me not flowers as part of Steve Dixon’s and Johnny Magee’s Resonate installation. 

Eileen Hammersley, a retired flower maker has continued to create forget me nots at home and has now attended a workshop at the Spode site along with a number of retired flower makers that have since come forward to help. These veterans of the skilled processes in flower making have now joined the Flower Army in making the rest of the flowers we need to reach the 5806 flower target.

Rita, our resident flower maker, and our Flower Army were joined by Eileen, Jean, Isabelle and Phillipa in the studio. There was a bit of a family reunion with cousins, Rita and Phillipa, meeting up for the first time since they were children. I went down to their first session together to have a chat with them and gain a bit of the history behind their experiences in the industry.

Each of the flower makers have years of experience, the shortest being 16 years and the longest over 40 years. As well as making flowers as a job, many went onto making at home as a hobby. Because of the long time they all worked in the ceramic industry, many had already met each other years before whilst working for companies such as Denton and Floral China.

I interviewed each lady individually as well just sitting and listening to their conversations. It was fascinating to watch them make these beautifully perfect flowers with almost no effort at all. It’s as though each step has been permanently etched into their memory, allowing them to create the same flowers they used to make 20 years ago. It isn’t just forget me nots they can make either. They began sharing what their favourite flowers were to make over the years and the strict rules they had to abide by to create good quality pieces.

Eileen, who worked for Denton and Floral China continues to make at home and says she could always tell which flowers were hers. She would always look at the finished floral bunches and be able to pick out which were the ones she had made. 

Jean, who began working the pot banks in Heron Cross in Fenton realised she loved making and painting flowers when she was taught in her 20s. She eventually worked from home when she started a family, allowing her to continue making money from the job she loved to do.

Having them sit around the table chatting and working away recreated the environment of the old factories they worked in that are sadly no longer running. They shared stories and reminisced about old bosses and colleagues. It was lovely to see them laugh about memories such as the girls who once ‘left off work to go to the pictures with two boys they had met on their break’ and how they used to play ‘Agie’s Bingo’ using wet clay as their dabber. All of this whilst creating over 200 flowers in around 2 hours.

Each lady is very keen to come back to the next meeting taking place on Wednesday 9th September not just because they enjoy making the flowers but they are all very proud to be part of the commemorative piece the flowers will eventually make up. Steve Dixon was on site to give the ladies the background behind the piece as well as show them his progress.

With only two more sessions to go, the group have taken a bag of clay home with them for the week so they can continue the effort to create the vast number of flowers needed in time for the public festival opening on Saturday 26th September. Come back to see how far we get at the next Flower Army workshop.

[bcbfestival]

The Flower Army

The production of Bone China flowers was a significant part of the historic ceramic industry in Stoke-on-Trent. Having employed over 700 highly skilled makers who once created exquisitely delicate and detailed fine bone china flowers each individually made by hand. These individual blooms would then be grouped into clusters and then glazed to create once highly desirable ‘florals’ once popular in the UK and beyond.

The festival team have worked with a number of community groups and in a number of locations across the City to stop these skills from disappearing altogether.

This year’s collaboration brings together artists Steve Dixon’s and Johnny Madge’s commemorative First World War installation, Resonate. The work draws upon local experiences of the Great War, directly referencing the North Staffordshire Regiment of which 5,608 soldiers lost their lives.  Each fallen soldier will be remembered by a single handmade flower, which will be accompanied by personalised ceramic dog tag. The flowers will surround a clay centrepiece made from clay taken from Passchendale battlefield where the North Staffordshire Regiment fought in 1917.

To create the vast number of flowers needed for the installation BCB called upon experienced flower maker Rita Floyd with whom they have worked with over the past few years. An experienced maker for over 40 years, Rita has been commissioned to make over a thousand of flowers.

She has described the making each flower as emotional experience as it reminds you just how many brave men lost their lives during the conflict. However to produce the 5,608 flowers required for the installation, the team realised it needed extra help.

The idea of the ‘Flower Army’ was born aiming to bring a variety of creative people together to create thousands of ceramic flowers for the public to enjoy commemorating the Army that fought for us during the First World War.

Not only did the open call get people interested in the organised workshops we got a call from retired flower maker, Eileen Hammersley.

Unable to attend the workshops, Eileen has now been drafted in on her own making mission, making as many Forget Me Nots from home as she can.

Meeting with Rita to finalise scale and finish, she is now helping us reach our 5,608 target and also getting back in the making process which she absolutely loved.

The first workshop took place on the 14th August, with Rita working with ten volunteers teaching them the techniques used to create the flowers and to produce their first batch for the installation.

Over two hundred and fifty Forget Me Not flowers were made in just 2 hours, with more sessions planned for the coming weeks leading up the festival.

One volunteer, Liz, has been particularly taken by the project. Currently a Fine Art student at Staffordshire University, Liz became involved with the project to gain more experience with the material in a voluntary role rather than in her own time.

Not only has she enjoyed producing the flowers, she has particularly love the social environment that the workshop creates. She explained that the tactile, therapeutic qualities of the clay relaxed everyone in the group creating a relaxed, sociable environment. Rita herself said during a workshop that the atmosphere reminded her of the factory she used to work in making flowers around a table with her fellow flower makers, chatting whilst they worked.

The flowers will become something the visitors can interact with during the actual festival. To facilitate audience participation and communicate local stories about WW1 there is going to be the opportunity to add to the installation as the event progresses. The Flower Army have also been invited to pass on their flower making skills to some of the festival visitors through hands on workshops taking place in the festival hub on the 4th, 18th, 25th October and the 8th November.

The aim is to get people interacting with both the clay material and the story behind the piece. Flowers will also be available to buy in the BCB shop so visitors can own a piece of this fantastic project and add to the piece to commemorate a member of their own family.

[bcbfestival]

A sneak peak... unfired work for #bcb15 (at British Ceramics Biennial - Spode Factory, Stoke)

[bcbfestival]

The Buds of the Spode China Rose are beginning to Bloom

The first ‘Spode China’ Rose has bloomed outside the Original Spode Factory Site, with many more of the specimen plants anticipated to bloom in the weeks leading up to the opening of the fourth British Ceramics Biennial festival.

BCB visitors will walk through the Spode Rose Garden to the impressive China Hall exhibition space during the festival.

The Spode China Rose project hopes to illuminate the possibilities for future use of the abandoned city garden and following a 2-year project by AirSpace Gallery.

In 2013, AirSpace created a centrepiece - a circular raised bed - built with bricks salvaged from the Spode site, which is planted with a collection of ornamental grasses. Rising from the middle of the raised bed is a plinth, holding a glass dome. The glass dome houses an artwork: The Spode China Rose - a beautifully crafted, bone china rose, that forms the crux of the Spode Rose Garden project. The Spode China Rose is itself, an idea. It is a promise of new life, development, and the future. The Victorian Language of flowers rather aptly, saw the giving of a China Rose as a symbol of beauty, always new.

AirSpace worked with Gareth Fryer, whose family has been breeding roses for over 100 years, to cultivate an old-type rose, fragrant and pure white. 60 plants were produced with 30 going to BCB and 30 being sold to the public.

Additionally, a new segment of the garden has been cleared, with trees and shrubs pruned, opening up previously shrouded flower beds, whilst the main flower bed at the front of the Garden has been de-grassed and ploughed ready for new planting. The centrepiece of this transformative stage is the addition of a brand new circular rose bed.

The gabion-style new rose bed structure rises from the ground made of, a collection of Spode Biscuit-Ware - unfired porcelain dinnerware - rescued from the Spode site, and now forming an emblematic and symbolic home for the Spode China Rose.

[bcbfestival]

Jeremy Theophilus

9 March 1949 – 18 May 2015

We are deeply saddened to announce the death of our founding joint Artistic Director Jeremy Theophilus, who finally gave way to cancer that was first diagnosed in 2011.

Our heartfelt condolences go to Jeremy's wife Linda, his children Kate and Joseph and his wider family.

Jeremy had a long and distinguished career in the arts as an artist, writer and cultural director.  With a Fine Art degree and post-graduate certificate in Stage Design, Jeremy started work as a freelance stage designer and theatre consultant in the UK and abroad, before moving back into visual arts where he ran a number of galleries including Wyeside Arts Centre, Minories Art Gallery Colchester and Oriel Mostyn in Llandudno.  Jeremy spent 10 years at Arts Council England as the Senior Visual Arts Officer before setting up A Fine Line: cultural practice with Barney Hare Duke in 2004, working on international projects in Australia and India as well as numerous projects within the UK.  In 2008 Jeremy and Barney were appointed to set up and run the British Ceramics Biennial and have delivered three festivals together in 2009, 2011, 2013.

Barney Hare Duke, Artistic Director: ‘Jeremy was an extraordinary man to work with. A rare combination of intellect, purpose and humility, he touched many, generously supporting and sharpening peoples’ creative ambitions. He will be greatly missed.’

A Fine Line will set up a Memorial Award in Jeremy’s name.

Jeremy's Memorial There will be a memorial celebration on Saturday 1st August at 2.30pm. St Martins West Stockwell Street Colchester, CO1 1HN

[bcbfestival]

British Ceramics Biennial speaks to 2013 FRESH winner Sarah Worgan

Ahead of the fourth instalment of British Ceramics Biennial we’ve spoken to Sarah Worgan, winner of the BCB FRESH award in 2013 about winning, her residency at the European Ceramics Work Centre, and working BIG!

BCB: What were your initial thoughts on winning the FRESH award back in 2013 and being awarded the residency at the European Ceramics Work Centre (EKWC) as part of your prize?

SW: I was quite taken aback when my name was announced as the winner of FRESH 2013. Even though I had received positive feedback from the work being in the FRESH exhibition, the work itself and my ideas behind the work were presented in quite abstract form. So it was gratifying that it was considered to have substantial potential. My initial reaction was of genuine delight and excitement to have the opportunity not only to go to the renowned European Ceramics Work Centre in the Netherlands, but also a confirmed extension of involvement with the British Ceramics Biennial.

BCB: What were you expecting before you arrived at EKWC and how were your first impressions on arrival?

SW: I had only just completed my Masters in Ceramics at Cardiff University, and also moved house just before I left for the Netherlands, so I didn’t really get much chance beforehand to anticipate fully what I was about to embark with at the EKWC until I was on the flight on route, when I felt a bundle of tired and nervous energy! But my first impressions when arriving at the EKWC evoked immediate enthusiasm. I was given such a warm welcome from the Centre’s staff, providing tea, an introduction to my very own spacious studio, and a tour of the building…which afforded my first glimpse of the tantalisingly enormous kilns!

BCB: Did you have any idea of what you wanted to do before you arrived at EKWC and how did that change during the residency?

SW: I think in the back of my mind since winning the FRESH award – and previously - I had always been quite keen to make work on a large scale, particularly considering the EKWC’s reputation for being specialists in this area. My BA degree work, which had afforded me the FRESH award, encouraged phenomenological engagement on a human scale, with regards to my aim to create a life-size ‘sculptural version of an abstract colour painting.’ Then, the work for my Master’s degree, which followed, explored more the capacity of small scale ceramic objects/paintings, drawing a viewer to engage within as well as about. But, considering an emphasis during my recent Masters studies had been on ‘valuing the incidental,’ (e.g. utilising more immediate and fluid structuring/mark-making rather than relying too heavily on preconceived ideas), I was a bit concerned that making big (e.g. dealing with ceramic gravity) would involve too much pre-planning. However I soon came to appreciate that the incidental could only be valued – particularly on a large scale - if something was actually in position to respond to! An eventual decision to commit to the groundwork of making a big piece ultimately enabled me not only to more fully engage with and make use of the extensive technical expertise of the centre’s staff, but also afforded a structure/position from which to develop further the more fluid and immediate relations with ceramic materials that had satisfyingly surfaced through my Masters work. This kind of making at EKWC – in this new realm of the large scale – turned out to be, paradoxically, both a very focussed and disciplined experience as well as an exhilaratingly liberating one.

BCB: How did you find working at EKWC? How many other artists were there during your stay and how did their work differ?

SW: The working culture at EKWC, I think, can certainly be described as an enriching once in a lifetime experience. In addition to the very helpful and supportive staff members, ten other artists were officially in residency at the same time as me. These were an eclectic mix of people of all ages from the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, France, Poland, Quebec and Toronto. This diverse group of people with myriad style and approach to their work, including a number of established artists and some with no previous experience with clay, brought extensive wide-ranging focus, interests and discussions to the table – quite literally in that we cooked for one another as a group each evening. These evening mealtimes were also diverse, in that some would afford an opportunity for quiet contemplation and reflection, some, lively chat and debate, and some would encore with vibrant music and dancing; excellent opportunities to share and release, which provided a welcome empathetic balance to the often tense nature of reaching our ceramic deadlines! Indeed being in such an intense situation – time wise – with such a small amount of people, meant that we all got to know each other fairly quickly. I have made valuable friendships from my time at EKWC, offering further stimulatory grounding and perspective, as well as tangible opportunities to continue to ‘travel’. I was also fortunate to meet many other interesting people, such as some of the partners of the other artists, previous artists in residencies revisiting their work, audiences for the presentation evenings, and also people involved with interesting outreach and student projects taking place at the centre.

BCB: Had you ever been to the Netherlands before and did you get to see any of it?

SW: I had been to the Netherlands (The Hague and Amsterdam) about 10 years previously, so I had some idea of what to expect in terms of culture and landscape. Ultimately though, my experience this time felt predominantly dedicated to being at the Centre the majority of the time. Due to the timing of the completion of my Masters I was only able to spend two and half months at the EKWC rather than the initially intended three months. This meant that time was of the essence! Typically, artists at the Centre begin in their studios early in the morning and don’t leave until late at night, or sometimes even work through until the early hours. There is a feeling when you’re there of really wanting to make the most of the time and the availability of your dedicated studio space as well as the specialist equipment and advice. However, I did take the opportunity to explore the city of Hertogenbosch (where the Centre was based) as well as the surrounding countryside with some of the other residents. Enjoyment of the landscape soon inspired a routine late afternoon/early evening 1 hour walk, which was good for reflection. Indeed it soon became apparent to me how much my experience and negotiation of my local surroundings – and the enriching myriad perspectives of the other artists in residency, and the centre’s staff – were aesthetically and experientially influencing my work.

BCB: When and why did you decide to go BIG and what were the challenges?

SW: I decided to go big a week before the halfway mark of the residency. I had spent my time before then developing an affinity with the Centre’s clays and glaze materials in researching ‘best’ combinations for ‘form and colour palettes’; I think always subconsciously with a large-scale form in mind, even though I found it difficult to commit to this idea until this stage. I guess ultimately I was concerned with how I could most effectively utilise my budget, contemplating that if I made big I would also have to consider how to get such a large item back to the UK. Also, during my Master’s studies, I had enjoyed playing with numerous variables within a colour palette; a key focus being multi-faceted and inter/intra-relational perspective of small objects and forms as part of larger installations. So it was quite daunting to have to commit to fewer colours on one large form, rather than my usual freedom and flexibility of having numerous smaller pieces to negotiate position with. So indeed, the halfway point of the residency proved a bit of a struggle with regards whether or not to make big, but it helped that I held onto a comment from one of my MA tutors, who had said “the struggle can often yield the value”. I also received much encouragement and insight from my fellow artists in residence, the very patient and experienced staff and also visitors to the Centre. For example, a timely meeting with a visiting artist who had been a resident himself previously, allowed for an empathetic discussion regarding our similar approaches to clay as a ‘3-dimensional material that you can draw and paint with.’ Through him sharing his rewarding experience of ‘making big’… I was soon inspired to climb a ladder of my own – quite literally in the making of the work – to new heights!

BCB: What did you hope to achieve through the residency and what was the final output? 

SW: A main driver of my BA degree ceramic work – which had afforded me the FRESH award – was a keen consideration of the paradoxes inherent in ‘modern’ art and its values; with some emphasis on the ‘complexities of compliance’ with regards clay as an artistic medium. My masters studies/ ceramic work explored these paradoxes further, becoming more involved with the ‘textures of experience’ inherent in this process and leading towards a developing personal philosophy/ creative stimulus, entitled Exploring Grey…Yielding Colour. This philosophy/stimulus encouraged more positioned, yet also more fluid and immediate, inter/intra relational ways of working with clay, colour, form and space, on a small object scale; something I hoped to continue with at the EKWC, but in a larger, more physically- involving, life-size scale capacity.

The final output of the residency was indeed a large scale piece of work described by others as having a “firm presence” but also could “be read, encountered and experienced in lots of different ways, via its exterior and interior.” As my script for my ‘final presentation’ at EKWC outlined: My ceramic work explores relationships between control and un-control, and between painting and sculpture.
This residency at EKWC has enabled colourful questioning and negotiating of these ‘territories’ on a much larger scale; offering diverse perspectives, flexible borders and also integrity in structure…open for consideration.

BCB: How do you think this residency and developing this new work has/will change your practice going forward?

SW: I have learnt a lot from an eventual commitment to making such a large-scale piece of work at the EKWC. One particularly intriguing learning curve came about as the result of two tension cracks – evident after firing – on the bottom sides of the work (as can be seen in the images below.) Whilst on first viewing from the kiln I was dismayed by these from a ‘ceramic technical’ point of view, I soon – on fixing the cracks – came to experience the work from another perspective, i.e. that the work wasn’t predominantly about the cracks. Indeed, some of the other artists commented on how they actually considered them a feature, offering opinion on “how the work appeared more confident and bold due to the fact that the cracks weren’t disguised” i.e. that “the work demonstrated a further strength via its vulnerability, rather like the Japanese tradition of Kintsugi.” 

Whilst the work retains certain ‘formalist’ qualities of my BA and MA degree work, it has also become more of a narrative, i.e. further revealing ‘textures of experience,’ of its own coming into being; hopefully offering increased invitation of negotiation and perspective.

Considering my practice going forward, I would definitely like to make additional large scale (as well as small scale) inter/intra-relational pieces which convey a continued commitment to ‘embracing the paradox’…exploring and revealing further capacities of clay not anticipated.

All images courtesy Sarah Worgan. 

The deadline to apply for the 2015 FRESH award is Monday 6th July.  For more information about FRESH and how to apply visit britishceramicsbiennial.com