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The clay kicking and poking form an interesting counterpoint to the work of Alexandra Engelfriet.

And the body-sculpture work in the video, strangely enough, to that of Bruce McLean – the Nice Style and plinth works:

You are invited to ‘Anthropology and Art: An Interdisciplinary Practice’, a talk by anthropologist and artist Elizabeth Hodson, at Stroud Valleys Artspace on Sunday 14th May, 2pm.

Elizabeth Hodson has recently been involved in the 5 year, Aberdeen based ‘Knowing from the Inside’ (KFI) research project held by anthropologist Tim Ingold. Her new book ‘Imaginations, Interiors, Surfaces’ will be published in May. She is coming to SVA as an exciting one-off event, part of the Open Studios weekends, and will talk about art and anthropology, especially focusing on her work with the KFI project researching Icelandic drawing, her own practice and the role of imagination within creative practices.

Tim Ingold. We like. Thanks for this Anna. Anyone nearby, looks well worth attending…

More on the project here: http://www.abdn.ac.uk/research/kfi/

One origin myth of ceramics: that far back in prehistory, basket makers packed their containers with clay to form a lining, and one day dropped one of these vessels into a fire, finding, when the ashes cooled, that the clay had hardened and remained where the woven structure was destroyed.(1)

(1) The story is circulated in, for example, Susan Peterson & Jan Peterson, The Craft and Art of Clay: A Complete Potter’s Handbook (London: Lawrence King, 2003), 263. For a more nuanced account of the evolution, see Peter Jordan and Marek Zvelebil (eds), Ceramics Before Farming: The Dispersal of Pottery Among Prehistoric Eurasian Hunter-Gatherers (London and New York: Routledge, 2016), 53.

Full review here

University of Oxford  | Department of Anthropology, Wytham Studio.

Anagama firing between 13th and 21st May. Information here:

http://www.oxfordanagama.org/copy-of-home

How Precious, Precious How?

Ceramic material and specifically Porcelain is perceived as special for many and in some cases precious. We esteem its qualities, in being pure (white), it has clear dichotomies: it symbolises strength and fragility, birth and death. These are the main reasons it has become the most powerful and predominant material in my work, in representing the natural world, both as we know it and as we imagine it. The other materials I use in conjunction with clay have their many purposes but they are used as reminder of our world being increasingly man-made, industrial/technological, plastic, concrete or throw-away. In showing precious ceramic in collaboration with these other materials I hope to highlight even more, clay’s particular beauty and strangeness, as well as its nastier side….(ceramicists will know, bisqued crank clay is nasty, what happens when a wet foam is added?)

Many known materials produce a ‘knee-jerk’ reaction. Even just by looking, our teeth can hurt, think of how ‘nails down a blackboard’ makes the nerves in our mouths/teeth set on edge, these sorts of visceral connections are linked to the mouth and involves taste. Babies explore everything with their mouths, it’s a primal sense but over the years we acquire memories of materials through our experiences with them. Perhaps you will have memories of a particular material. Whether you know clay well or not, it doesn’t matter, I would like to hear your thoughts.

If you would like to visit Aimee, you should RSVP through her website…

Open Studios