Place and Practices

This exhibition was curated by Neil Brownsword for the 2019 British Ceramics Biennial as part of the UK/Korea 2017/2018 exchange - https://www.britishcouncil.kr/en/uk-korea-2017-18. It featured 4 works by Brownsword - Factory (2017), National Treasure (2014), Embodied Matter (2017), Mould (2017); 2 works by Juree Kim, 1 work by oH Hyangjong, 1 work by Lee Kanghyo.

Details from brochure:
Throughout history ceramics have played an important role in the phenomenon of cultural transfer. For centuries China, Korea and Japan have influenced each other’s aesthetics, practices and technologies. Subsequent trade with the West, and the imitation and assimilation of Oriental styles in the late 17th and 18th centuries greatly influenced the development of new ceramic traditions in Europe that were to gain historical dominance.

The British Ceramics Biennial 2017 sees a continuation of this cycle of exchange, through the site orientated residency Place and Practices, where artists Neil Brownsword (UK), Juree Kim (KR) and Oh Hyanjong (KR) present a cross-cultural response to themes of materiality, place and tradition. The project extends each artists’ ongoing investigations into architectural heritage, traditional craft, and the social and political histories of place and labour.

FACTORY. Neil Brownsword
Neil Brownsword examines inter-relationships between the past and present, through ‘reclaiming’ the former Spode Factory as a site of ceramic production. In his performative installation FACTORY, recently exhibited at the Korea Ceramics Foundation, Brownsword ‘re-orchestrates’ the specialist knowledge of former ceramic industry artisans, to highlight marginalised practices now in danger of being lost. South Korea’s safeguarding of intangible heritage, associated with its own ceramic history has ensured that associated skills are maintained for future generations. Brownsword presents insights into tacit knowledge from factory production in North Staffordshire, that is worthy of comparable status and preservation.

Embodied Matter. Neil Brownsword and Oh Hyangjong
In collaboration with Valentine Clays and Onggi trained potter Oh Hyangjong, Neil Brownsword arrests a range of intermediary forms that derive from mechanical and manual methods of processing raw clay. These culturally diverse rhythms of labour - from foot wedging to filter press cake, retain within their fabric nonchalant actions and bodily repetitions that occupy territory between raw geology and the crafted object. During the opening week of the biennial Oh Hyangjong will work live in the UK/Korea Exchange exhibition space providing a rare opportunity where the distinct traditions of South Korea and North Staffordshire collide.

Evanescent Landscape: Falcon Pottery, Stoke-on-Trent. Juree Kim
Juree Kim’s residency in Stoke-on-Trent has extended her explorations into architectural heritage and issues surrounding urban regeneration. Kim has engaged with numerous regional sites of historic ceramic production that remain ‘invisible’ due to disuse and decay. Painstaking scale reproductions of these buildings in raw clay, will be ‘activated’ in a performance on the opening evening of the Biennial. These destructive gestures return hours of meticulous craft back into a pulp of raw material, questioning issues surrounding the value of built heritage and its preservation.

Opening Performance – Kanghyo Lee
Internationally renowned Korean ceramic artist Kanghyo Lee will open this year’s Biennial with a live performance, that reinterprets the Korean traditions of Buncheong and Onggi ceramics. Lees work can be found in numerous collections around the world that include the Art Institute of Chicago; the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco; the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and more.