Introduction
My art practice and research is socially-engaged, often
exploring the complex relationships between museum collections and their
associated communities of interest through a variety of media, including
ceramics and printmaking. I was awarded a PhD in March 2015 for research
undertaken as part of an AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award based at the
University of Sunderland and Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens. This
project developed innovative ways of engaging the wider community with the
Museum’s nineteenth century Sunderland pottery collection. As part of this, I
worked extensively with members of the local community, ranging from school
children to young offenders and British Army soldiers, to create new work and
museum displays inspired by the collection.
In addition to an awareness of historical and contemporary
issues in fine art, I have an interest in archaeological and anthropological
approaches to material culture due to my background in these disciplines (BA,
MPhil). The archival potential of fired clay appeals to me and I often use
digital techniques to incorporate photographic imagery into my work. Influenced
by recent archaeological studies of the contemporary past, I regard my creative
practice as a proactive intervention, where ephemeral or otherwise
unconstituted aspects of memory, identity and narrative can be materialised
through the creation of enduring art objects.
Research interests
- Collections-based/ site-specific art projects
- Artist-led museum engagement
- Working with historical archives
- Historical pottery collections
- Ethnographic and archaeological collections
- Contemporary ceramics practice
- Printmaking
Doctoral research
My PhD thesis was submitted to the University of Sunderland in September 2014. I passed my viva voce examination on 6 February, 2015 and my doctoral degree was confirmed by the University of Sunderland on 19 March 2015.
Research title
‘Community in Clay – Towards a Sunderland Pottery
for the 21st Century: Approaching Museum Collections and Communities
through Creative Ceramics’
Abstract
The result of an AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award, this research focuses on how the author, as a ceramic artist ‘embedded’ in the Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens, has reinterpreted its collection of nineteenth century Sunderland ‘lustreware’ pottery in order to engage and reflect the local community through creative ceramic practice. A series of ceramic artworks and museum displays have both responded to, and initiated, a range of person-object engagements linking the collection, the associated archive, and the contemporary community of Sunderland.
This research contributes to knowledge by
developing an approach to collections-based community engagement which may be
relevant to other contexts, including those where there exists an extant
originating community. As such, it may be of wider interest to creative
practitioners and museum professionals, and is timely as it follows recent
calls from theorists and government alike to place engagement at the core of
museum activities. It is novel as it adapts existing museum engagement
practices, notably object-based focus groups and reminiscence activities, in
order to develop alternative interpretations of the collection, which are then
addressed through ceramics. This adaptive approach offers an alternative to the
pervasive model of the artist as a ‘disruptive difference’ within the museum.
A range of archaeological and
anthropological theory is deployed in an original way to interpret and
contextualise the ceramic art work produced. Aiming to remedy the
‘forgetfulness’ often ascribed to modernity, ceramic objects are construed as
forming ‘micro-local sites of memory’ which have the potential to become
activated as dynamic loci of creativity and remembrance through display and
digital social networking. Taking inspiration from recent archaeological
approaches to the contemporary past, ceramic practice is regarded as a
‘creative materialising intervention’, where ephemeral aspects of memory,
identity and narrative can be materialised and transmitted inter-generationally
through the creation of enduring forms of ‘external symbolic storage’. Re-accessioning
the Scott’s Pottery Archive (1788-1896), a significant collection of paper
ephemera relating to the running of this Sunderland pottery, provides a further contribution by making an
underused resource more readily accessible. The approach is tested in a
substantially different context during a placement at the National Museum of
Ethnology, Osaka, and in subsequent research in the UK, where the changing role
and status of the historical George Brown Collection of Oceanic objects is
investigated.
Research team
Director of Studies: Prof. Kevin Petrie, PhD, University of Sunderland
Supervisor: Dr Andrew Livingstone, Reder in Ceramics, University of Sunderland
External Supervisor: Shauna Gregg, Keeper of Art, Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens
Research question
How might an artist-researcher use a collection of ceramics with a contemporary audience for mutual benefit?
Research aims
This research aims to:
- explore how an artist might use the Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens’ collection of Sunderland lustreware pottery to engage and reflect the contemporary community;
- and, in doing so, create a new body of artwork in ceramics which engages and reflects the community through reference to the collection.
Research objectives
As such, the objectives are to:
1. explore how current practice in museum-based community engagement might be adapted by the artist in order to engage and reflect the community through reference to the collection;
2. develop associated imagery and thematic content based on SMWG’s lustreware pottery collection which engages and reflects the contemporary community of Sunderland (and further afield if applicable);
3. materialise marginal and potentially ephemeral aspects of memory, identity and narrative in ceramics using form and surface decoration;
4. deploy ethnographic and archaeological conceptions of material culture where appropriate in order to interpret the collection and community and contextualise the creative output;
5. and use museum display to engage and reflect the community.
2. develop associated imagery and thematic content based on SMWG’s lustreware pottery collection which engages and reflects the contemporary community of Sunderland (and further afield if applicable);
3. materialise marginal and potentially ephemeral aspects of memory, identity and narrative in ceramics using form and surface decoration;
4. deploy ethnographic and archaeological conceptions of material culture where appropriate in order to interpret the collection and community and contextualise the creative output;
5. and use museum display to engage and reflect the community.
