FACTORY. Exhibited in - Woman’s Hour Craft Prize (touring exhibition)

Dissemination context:
FACTORY was shortlisted as one of twelve entries out of 1500 applicants for the inaugural Woman’s Hour Craft Prize – a BBC, Crafts Council and V&A initiative which celebrates the most innovative contributions to craft practice in the last five years. It consisted of a strand of work developed out of Brownsword’s solo exhibition FACTORY at Icheon World Ceramic Centre, South Korea (22/04- 28/05/17), which comprised of two work station’s and a low-level plinth onto which an accumulation of discarded bone-china flowers were deposited. These resulted from Brownsword’s intervention into ex-industry artisan Rita Floyd’s craft, whereby he instructed every flower she made to be discarded - drawing attention to the rapid displacement of intangible heritage in North Staffordshire. During its tour FACTORY was sometimes activated by Floyd and her last remaining apprentice Stacey Wright, through a series of live performances in the gallery space.

Exhibition text:
'Neil Brownsword creates installations using ceramics, film and performance. His work takes the ceramics industry of his native Staffordshire as its primary subject, observing its people and production systems. He has sought to challenge the marginalisation of craft skill in industrial contexts, and to highlight the danger of specialist knowledge being lost. Recent work has been made in collaboration with former industry artisans, revealing their people-embodied skills and exploring the value of the industry's intangible cultural heritage. Brownsword was awarded the Grand Prize at the 2015 Gyeonggi International Ceramic Biennale, South Korea'.

See: https://vanda-production-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/2017/09/05/09/57/32/a5a71f90-8062-415c-8081-4bf274ac39c7/News_Release_WHCP_exhibition_FINAL.pdf

FACTORY was featured on BBC Front Row (9 /9/2017) BBC Radio 4, Front Row http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b092jw1m 9 September 2017, and BBC Radio 4, Womans Hour https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08xxdsl 21 July 2017

Tour details:
Victoria & Albert Museum, Cromwell Rd, London SW7 2RL, 7 September 2017 - 5 February 2018. (V&A visitor figures 146957) https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/womans-hour-craft-prize; The Forum, Millennium Plain, Norwich, NR2 1TF. 12 Mar - Sat 7 Apr 2018 https://theforumnorwich.co.uk/whatson/2018-03-28/Makers'%20Month%20Exhibitions%202018/Woman’s%20Hour%20Craft%20Prize%20Exhibition; Woman’s Hour Craft Prize, Mottisfont, National Trust, Nr Romsey, Hampshire, SO51 0LP. 25 April - 24 June 2018 https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/mottisfont/features/the-womans-hour-craft-prize-at-mottisfont; Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, Queens Rd, Bristol, BS8 1RL. 7 July 2018 - 02 September 2018 https://www.bristolmuseums.org.uk/bristol-museum-and-art-gallery/whats-on/bbc-womans-hour-craft-prize/; Rheged Centre, Redhills, Penrith, Cumbria, CA11 0DQ. 14 September - 28 October 2018. https://www.rheged.com/event/womans-hour-craft-prize/; Chester Visual Arts The Old Library, Northgate Street, Chester CH1 2EF. 30 November 2018 – 16 March 2019 https://www.chestervisualarts.org.uk/womans-hour-craft-prize-exhibition/; The Light House, 11 Mitchell Lane, Glasgow, Scotland G1 3NU. 30 Mar – 27 May 2019 http://www.thelighthouse.co.uk/visit/exhibition/womans-hour-craft-prize

Other exhibitors included - Laura Ellen Bacon, Alison Britton, Lin Cheung, Phoebe Cummings, Caren Hartley, Peter Marigold, Celia Pym, Romillly Saumarez Smith, Andrea Walsh, Emma Woffenden and Laura Youngson Coll.