A new strand of the ‘Back to the Drawing Board’ exhibition & events series kicks off tomorrow in the Media Building. It’s an exciting mix of interactive installations and art work in dialogue with the work & lives of Pat Albeck & Peter Rice, focussing in particular on their association with Stoke on Trent. Many of the exhibits engage with the spaces and products of the Emma Bridgewater factory in Stoke, building on the exhibition’s theme of exploring the fascinating family dynamics of creativity, for Pat and Peter are the parents of Matthew Rice, husband and business partner of Emma Bridgewater.
Starts tomorrow morning at 11 AM in the Media Building!
Here is a sampling of what’s on offer:
‘Pictures of the Future’ Installation (CASIC/NEW VIC BORDERLINES)
This CASIC installation is part of the ‘Back to the drawing board’ exhibition and will run from November 23rd until January16th.
The installation contains a projection of Peter Rice’s mural, which you can draw yourself into and create an image of a “Bright Future for Stoke on Trent”; you can make boats that represent your journey from the past into the future, write Haiku and Cinquain poems on tea towels and create your own Pat Albeck style design.
The installation also includes voice overs and films made by diverse communities which took part in previous CASIC research projects. Using Cultural Animation techniques of community engagement and knowledge co-production, pioneered in the UK by Sue Moffat, Founding Director of New Vic Borderlines, and developed further via the Connected Communities research, participants will be encouraged to create and visualise a bright future for Stoke on Trent.
This living and interactive installation will act as a bridge between past, present and future and as a boundary object that can unite communities around ideas about the future.
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Dull Pasts to Bright Futures: Women in the Pottery Industry (Lauren Else, Student-work, Media Communications & Culture-Independent Study Project 2015-2016)
Lauren Else’s installation focusses on women’s roles in Stoke on Trent’s pottery industry. In her project, Else wanted to uncover historic transformations in the jobs undertaken by women. Using a rich mix of different media (including audio, photo-montage and objects produced by local industry) she has created a miniature museum, revealing differences & inequalities experienced by women workers in the past who were limited to a narrow range of subordinated tasks and denied skilled and supervisory roles. The exhibit tells the story of change by focussing on the success of Emma Bridgewater in leading a creative and entrepreneurial regeneration of the pottery industry in Stoke-on-Trent.
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The Potteries: Reconfiguring the Ruins (Marc-Aurele Legoux, Student work-Media Communications & Culture- Independent Study Project 2015-2016)
Marc Aurele Legoux’s photo-documentary project engages with the historic decline and recent resurgence of Stoke-on-Trent’s pottery industry. The work is made of three sets of images. The first presents an encounter with abandoned ruins of pottery factories in the parish of Burslem; the images communicate the trauma of deindustrialisation and the region’s struggle to cope with loss of livelihood & identity. In the second set, seeking a way to find meaning in these spaces and objects of ruin, Legoux examines the work of Neil Brownsword, an experimental ceramic artist born in North Staffordshire. In his acclaimed body of sculptural work, Brownsword has sought to salvage the ruins of the Potteries by transforming fragments of historic industrial production into ‘poetic sculptural assemblages’. This artistic reconfiguration of the past provides the movement forward into the final set of images. These images celebrate the energy and skills of present day workers at the Emma Bridgewater factory, an establishment that alongside others, has been powering a Potteries revival. Overall, the project seeks to reflect on the revitalisation of the region’s past through creative interventions in both art and industry and, in doing so, signals the promise of a brighter future.
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Work from Geopoetics Workshop at Emma Bridgewater Factory (Keele students & staff led by Dr Ceri Morgan, Senior Lecturer in English)
Texts and photographs from a geopoetics (walking and creative practice) workshop at Emma Bridgewater Factory, April 26, 2016. Thanks to Emma Bridgewater Factory for the hospitality shown to Keele undergraduate and postgraduate students and staff.
In addition to all of the above, we also host an exciting selection of drawings for the theatre produced by Peter Rice. Not to be missed!
