Clay in Conversation 9: Terra

Clay in Conversation 9: Terra

Clay in Conversation runs in partnership with the Ceramics Research Centre-UK (CREAM), University of Westminster.

Venue: Portland Hall, Basement, 4 - 12 Little Titchfield Street, London W1W 7BY.

The curated conversations provide a platform for presentation, dialogue and discovery, bringing together a diverse range of artists with a practice using clay and ceramics.

Each conversation centres on a specific theme - acting as a lens through which the artists present a piece of work or project. The conversations offer the opportunity to dig deeper into the work, exploring it formally, materially and conceptually, from the perspective of the artists themselves.

The presentations are followed by a conversation chaired by Tessa Peters and a Q&A session with the audience.

Clay in Conversation is curated by artist Julia Ellen Lancaster @juliaellenlancaster_ceramics https://www.juliaellenlancaster.com/ in partnership with the Ceramics Research Centre-UK (CREAM), University of Westminster https://cream.ac.uk/

For this ninth episode in 2024 we are pleased to present artists Jo Pearl and Kim Norton

Jo Pearl’s hybrid practice combines clay stop-frame animation with ceramic sculpture. She breathes life into clay, and transfixes it in the kiln, celebrating its many states of being. Underpinning this is activism. Pearl’s politically and socially-engaged practice focuses on existential threats facing our planet.

Jo Pearl lives and works in London. Since graduating in 2019 from Central St Martins’ BA Ceramics, her clay animated films have won the Best Short Film Award at the 2023 ICF in Aberystwyth, opened CICEMA – the International Ceramics Film Festival in Spain and been exhibited at the Royal Geographical Society’s, Earth Photo 2024.

Recent exhibitions of her hybrid installations: Alchemy, Thrown Contemporary 2024, Dialoghi del Suolo, Il Conventino, Florence 2024, Gasping for Air, Rainham Royals, 2023, Unfamiliar Ground, Berlin 2023, Undisclosed, Norwich Cathedral, 2022, On Air, a group show about air pollution which she co-curated at Ceramic Art London 2022 and Moving Darwin, a solo show at the home of Charles Darwin, 2021.

Pearl’s current work uses clay to celebrate soil biodiversity and will be showcased in Somerset House’s SOIL: The World at our Feet, Jan – April 2025.

www.JoPearl.com

Kim Norton is a trained ceramicist but increasingly finds her practice encompasses other materials, while adhering to her core focus on process, space, geology and environment. Collaboration is pivotal to her practice, fostering new conversations and working methodologies.

Kim often uses material from the site's locality, in some cases in their raw state – this can include soils, plant materials, coal, chalk and pigments - to draw attention to their historical and geological significance. This process often includes a narrative around place or a reimagining of the nuances that can be regarded as unimportant or ordinary.

Kim co-founded haptic/tacit in 2013 with ceramic artists Jane Cairns and Grant Aston and together they make, show, and explore ambitious modern craft through a series of thematically-driven exhibitions, events, and publications.

She recently completed a six-month residency at Stuart Road Allotments, Nunhead and has exhibited nationally and internationally, including the British Ceramics Biennial; Siobhan Davies Dance in London including a collaboration with Entelechy Arts at the Garden Museum, London; The Trade Show presented by Faye Toogood; London Design Festival; Groundwork Gallery, Kings Lynn; The Salone del Mobile, Milan. She has led a studio session with A-B Projects USA and is a participating member of Soil Dialogues with Eco Art Space in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Kim will also have work showcased in Somerset House’s SOIL: The World at our Feet, Jan – April 2025.

www.kimnorton.co.uk

Tessa Peters is Senior Lecturer in the History and Theory of Art at University of Westminster, an Associate Lecturer at CSM, a researcher, writer and independent curator. Her curatorial projects include Cultural Icons for the British Ceramics Biennial at the Potteries Museum, Stoke-on-Trent, and Hove Museum & Art Gallery in 2019-2020. Since 2020 she has facilitated a series of inclusive cross-cultural dialogues, assisting an understanding of issues faced by ceramics practices in different global regions.

@UoW_CREAM Ceramics Research Centre - UK

Julia Ellen Lancaster is an artist working out of London and Kent, UK. Graduating from the Royal College of Art she spent time in Tokyo, exhibiting at Youkobo Arts Centre, Tokyo. Lancaster was subsequently selected for the Leach 100 Residency, St Ives, UK in 2020 as part of the Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada pottery centenary celebrations. In 2021 she was awarded a further residency with Leach Pottery, being one of the first artists to take up a residency at the historically significant Anchor studio, the original home of the Newlyn Art School.

Most recently she was awarded the first international Residency at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Ceramics, culminating in a sell-out show of new work produced during her residency. Exhibiting across the UK, Japan and Australia, Julia also teaches ceramics and sculpture in a professional capacity. She is a member of the Royal Society of Sculptors and the Craft Potters Association.

@juliaellenlancaster_ceramics

www.juliaellenlancaster.com

This is an ‘in person’ event to be held at venue:

Portland Hall, Basement, 4 - 12 Little Titchfield Street, London W1W 7BY.

Please get in touch if you have any access requirements, we will do our best to offer support. Please arrive in good time and no later than 5pm.

All welcome. Places are limited so please book early.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Portland Hall, 4-12 Little Titchfield Street, London, United Kingdom