Sunderland 10 x 10 Artist in Residence at Hilton Garden Inn and SAFC

In May, I was one of the artists selected for the Sunderland 10 x 10 residency programme, which paired ten artists with ten local businesses. I worked with Sunderland Association Football Club and the staff of the newly-opened Hilton Garden Inn to make a collaborative artwork for the hotel. This process was intended to give the staff a sense of ownership and engagement. I established an informal focus group with several of the hotel's front of house staff, as well as marketing staff from SAFC. 

A mug decorating workshop as part of the focus group with staff at the
Hilton Garden Inn, Sunderland. 

Sunderland 'til I die (2016), a prototype wall piece developed for the
Hilton Garden Inn based on a traditional Sunderland pottery jug form. 

AHRC Cultural Engagement Fellowship

Between February and April 2016, I was an AHRC Cultural Engagement Fellow based at the National Glass Centre, University of Sunderland. Capitalising upon my doctoral research, this project involved devising and delivering a ceramics workshop programme in collaboration with the National Glass Centre and Forward Assist, a charity supporting military veterans in the North East. The project explored what role ceramic practice might play in commemoration and wellbeing and I supported the veteran participants to make their own ceramic work. 

Veterans Colin, Alan and Peter decorate mugs with decals based on their respective regimental cap
badges and tattoos.

Flotsam and Jetsam (Osaka)

Flotsam and Jetsam (Osaka), 2013, by Christopher McHugh. Porcelain, mixed media. approx. 80 x 100 x 100 cm. Photo copyright of Christopher McHugh, 2013.

A solo exhibition at UAPS Gallery during my AHRC international placement in,Osaka, Japan (January-April 2013), gave me the opportunity to rework Flotsam and Jetsam, an ever evolving installation piece which began with my contribution to Unfinished Business at Wallington. In Japan, I hoped that it would develop new resonance in the wake of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami of 2011. 

The installation in Osaka exploits the ability of damaged objects to occupy a no-man’s land between presence and absence. By using found objects, including a set of rescued vintage drawers, to display a range of distressed and marked porcelain objects, Flotsam and Jetsam evokes the impromptu shrines which grew up in devasted neighbourhoods after the Tohoku disaster. The incorporation of a cardboard box wrapped with a blue plastic sheet in the installation references the ubiquity of such materials in encampments of the homeless throughout Osaka. Also, in some areas of Fukushima, in the north of Japan, spoil heaps of radioactive topsoil are covered in such blue sheets, waiting in limbo while an appropriate form of disposal is decided. By combining durable elements with an ephemeral, re-workable, mode of presentation, it is hoped the ‘scarred’ porcelain fragments in the Flotsam and Jetsam installation occupy an ambivalent position somewhere between absence and presence, thereby manifesting a sense of enduring loss and melancholia. 

Detail of Flotsam and Jetsam (Osaka), 2013, by Christopher McHugh. Porcelain, mixed media. approx. 80 x 100 x 100 cm. Photo copyright of Christopher McHugh, 2013.

Detail of Flotsam and Jetsam (Osaka), 2013, by Christopher McHugh. Porcelain, mixed media. approx. 80 x 100 x 100 cm. Photo copyright of Christopher McHugh, 2013.