SOLD WORK

Do you feel that the work that you are creating now will be seen in the context of its time and date? Do you think we will know some of your frustrations currently with the political landscape in what you’re doing at the moment?

I feel I am really lucky. I am white and male and that gives me privilege in society. I feel a huge sense of duty to not ignore that that is a privilege. I’m aware that, visually, I present as mainstream and so I get the opportunity to talk in venues that other people are not allowed into. I don’t take that privilege lightly.

You are known as a ceramicist but have been exploring other fields like needle work to considerable success. How did you start in this world and do you take a similar approach to producing work as you do as a ceramicist?

Well, all of it involves reappropriation and reworking of existing materials. There are some things about those textiles that I find particularly interesting. They were hobby kits probably made by anonymous women. But they are usually of paintings that were made by famous men. Then there’s me, a named artist who’s a male. I’m unpicking the work of women and reworking them. So at the moment, for me, the textiles are very linked to gender… But I think this plays with  gender on many levels.

I usually unpick the figures in a scene and then re-stitch them with a background pattern… I was looking at the idea of foregrounds and backgrounds with an interest in those marginalized characters in literature who can often be the more interesting people. Rather than wanting to explore a binary of foreground or background, of major or minor characters, the idea of taking all the players out and replacing them with background, starts working in a different way. It produces an environment where there's no subordination in terms of who gets a voice. Visually I like it that your eye can’t find rest. Because you’re trying to see who you should be looking at and when that person is gone. It’s not that they become quiet, rather that they become quite loud because you’re trying to make sense of the situation.

I see there’s a bit of textile work still in production, do you think this is a body of work that will continue with you?

I think so. I have worked with textiles in other ways. I recreated a 1930s stage costume by Oliver Messel for one of the National Trust properties. I’m very comfortable with a needle and thread. It is, unlike clay, very easy to unpick mistakes in textiles. And that’s really fun.

Do you find it cathartic working with needlework?

It’s a very labour-intensive process. If you didn’t enjoy doing it, you couldn’t do it. You really have to put in the hours to make the work.

When did you start doing that? I understand it was a major component of your work during your studies?

I was doing a PHD and reading a lot of cultural theory, and in particular queer and feminist reading of literature. I became interested in the concept of erasing people… I have a history of sewing in my practice, and it felt like the right way to explore some of these ideas.

You have a long academic career, MA in Museum Studies, Fine and Applied Arts, Ceramics, and a PHD. Could you talk a little bit about that?

I’m not someone who is particularly interested in making something which sells and keeping making it. That has never… it’s a bit of an awkward conversation to have with a gallery, isn’t it? It’s great to sell work, but that’s never been a prime motivation for me as a practitioner. It’s always felt like a byproduct of thinking through making. Usually my works end up as discreet products, either while working in a particular environment or with a museum collection, and a body of work will come out of that.

Does that mean that your current academic practice ends up being the kind of work that we will see in galleries?

My PhD was a practice-based degree, and there’s a really nice circular process of reading and research informing making, which in turn influences what you read and research.

There are things that don’t get talked about in academia so much: the physical knowledge you have as a maker and the time that is involved in physically making objects which allows you to reflect. That, I think, makes the academic process for practitioners a slightly different one, a much more enriching one; rather than simply being in your head and thinking, the physical aspect of learning through your body changes how you think or how you understand.