'Ground up' Exhibition
Groundwork Gallery, King's Lynn
12th October - 14th December 2024
This summer I was thrilled to take part in the 'Extraction' residency programme with the Groundwork Gallery in King's Lynn as a local 'Associate Artist'. As with previous years the artists were invited to explore ideas and issues related to extraction and extractivism, with a specific focus on the concept of 'Ground up'; what is taken from the earth and the seas, what we do with it, what we ought to be concerned about, and how we communicate these ideas and issues more widely. Over 20 UK and international artists took part and the first of two exhibitions associated with the residency programme is running at Groundwork Gallery, King's Lynn, from 12th October to 14 December 2024. Go to GROUND UP Page to see how my residency developed over the summer and to follow the creative journey that led to my exhibition pieces.
'Between River and Reed' Exhibition,
8th-25th June 2022, Skippings Gallery, Great Yarmouth,
9th August-31st October 2022, The Assemby House, Norwich.
In 2021 I was selected as one of five artists to work for a year on a Broads Authority project ‘Water, Mills and Marshes’. Alongside Liz Brandon-Jones, Louise Dougherty, Kazz Morohashi and Simon Nunn, we were asked to engage with a particular community and landscape within the Broads and to develop and create site-specific artworks for an exhibition, curated by Caroline Fisher. The exhibition ranged from film, sculpture/ceramics, painting, drawing and print, bringing this subtle, yet complex landscape to life.
I chose to explore an area of agricultural land to the west of the Broads at Wickhampton. This farmland overlies a landscape of ancient settlements, fields and trackways known only from cropmarks that are temporarily revealed on the surface of agricultural fields and pasture. I sought to explore the continuing stories and practises embodied within these fleeting ‘ghost’ boundaries and the legacy of this farmland; it’s traditions, rituals, and architecture. The discovery of photographs of Plough Blessings, a modern resurrection of ancient rites, in Wickhampton Church threw these ideas into sharp relief. Subsequent site visits and meetings with the local church and farming community led me to explore the ways in which the grain and the land, as well as the church, become vessels for ideas of faith, permanence and community identity, and a connection with the past. Using a clay, enriched with flax fibres, and slip casting traditional straw craft – harvest favours and corn dollies commissioned for the project and made by the talented Janine of 'May Queen Crafts' - a series of fragile organic forms, pebbles and contorted landscapes were developed, alongside an ‘Urn’ vessel. Monoprinting techniques were used to produce flaking and ephemeral surfaces that reference the fragile medieval church paintings and dilapidated village sign - exploring contrasting ideas of impermanence and fragility, compared with memorial and monumental. The final exhibit was part museum exhibit, part archaeological assemblage waiting to be excavated – fragmented remains of stories, traditions and landscapes.
'Golden heads dancing in the sun. The last sheath is cut; a drink taken, a shout, a song. With faith, with trust, with care; knowing hands knotting, twisting, tying, transforming. Following the footsteps of generations gone. Creating a home for the spirit; for community, for hope, for tradition. An ancient promise for harvests to come'.
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'Winter Group Show'
The Old Harness Makers Gallery, Harleston. December 2020, 2021.
I'm so pleased that my archaeologically inspired ceramics will be included in 'The Old Harness Maker's Gallery' Winter group show and selling exhibition again this year. Showcasing pieces from a wonderful range of East Anglian artists and makers, curated by the talented abstract artist Lisa Henshall. The show and sale will run from throughout December in Lisa's beautiful gallery in Harleston.
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'Palimpsest' Anglian Potters Exhibition
Ferini Gallery, Pakefield. 2nd October - 1st November 2020.
Selected pieces of archaeologically and geologically inspired vessels have been included in the Anglian Potters 'Palimpsest' Exhibition at the Ferini Gallery in Pakefield. Running from 2nd October to 1st November 2020, the show includes a wonderful variety of work from Anglian Potters group members on the theme of Palimpsests - an idea that is central to much of my work!
