July 23, 2020
I am excited to have been awarded this micro commission by Leeds Cultural Institute for their #BeyondMeasure conference, a programme exploring research and evidence in culture and health.
I will be questioning ideas of authorship and ownership in a new work made using moulds created by members of Changes Health and Wellbeing in Stoke-on-Trent during a six-week project with the British
Ceramics Biennial. This project was documented by filmmaker Blythe Taylor - full version available on the BCB website
Working with members of Manchester Ceramics Collective, Becky Morris, Sarah Crosby, Zoë Lanceley, Carla Lavin and Suzie McDaniel, we have been sending out clay activity packs for local people to get creative during lockdown.
I am so grateful to have been awarded Arts Council England’s COVID-19 Emergency Grant which is enabling me to continue to
develop existing ideas around architectural ceramics and community, building on what I learned during my time in Indonesia and the engagement work that I have been doing with the British Ceramics
Biennial (BCB) over the past year.
With workshops and teaching cancelled or postponed, I felt adrift, the grounding of clay, people and place no longer firm. It is such a relief to be able to use this time to make, reflect and plan
ways to continue working with others. Along with remote work that I am doing with BCB and smaller collaborative projects with Manchester Ceramics Collective, I am exploring new ways of engaging with
people through my work.
How to be useful to the community as an artist is the question that keeps surfacing, and one that resonates with my time in Java at Jatiwangi art Factory (JaF). Community and usefulness are at the
core of art and life at JaF. Emerging from lockdown, I hope to have had a good start at exploring this in a concrete way.