CLAY CARGO 2014: digging deeper into clay, canals and waterways

Clay Cargo takes inspiration from Josiah Wedgwood’s pioneering role in establishing the canals.  It sets out to renew the historic links between ceramics and the canal system by staging clay workshops on boats and canalside locations in three cities: London, Birmingham and Stoke on Trent.  This year we have also commissioned poets and ceramic artists to respond to each site.  The results will appear in a publication and exhibition from late November in the new Camden City Hall from late November with images and words from our adventures along the waterways from the Thames to Stoke on Trent.

Our busy summer has encompassed scuba diving in the canal at Middleport, Stoke-on-Trent; digging in Doulton’s ex clay pit at Saltwells, Dudley (courtesy of Ikon’s Black Country Voyages); clay workshops on the hospitable Fordham Gallery boat moored on the Regent Canal and at the Olympic Park; experimental kiln firings courtesy of Crisis and London Sculpture workshop and a symposium at Central Saint Martins highlighting the significance of hand skills today.

Two glimpses of our work on video can be seen by clicking here.

On 1st November, with Ikon, we marked the unveiling in Birmingham of Gillian Wearing’s A Real Birmingham Family.  Hosted at the City Library, we led a public workshop attended by around 400 people.  Participants were invited to celebrate family mealtimes and create in clay their favourite feasts.  A Birmingham Banquet was laid out on the 7th Floor of the library.

London – late November, Camden City Hall, 5 Pancras Road, London N1C 4AG

Launch of exhibition and publication with poems and images of ceramic works commissioned for Clay Cargo 2014

More details soon.