Base Materials

“How a group of adults undertaking great change in their lives worked with ceramic artist, Emilie Taylor to explore the potent metaphor of turning mud into gold.” Millenium Galleries, Sheffield

Base Materials considered the powerful impact of making on our sense of self, and in particular, the relevance of the British heritage craft of wood-firing pots in our contemporary urban environment. The exhibition, at Sheffields Millenium Galleries, was the culmination of a project which saw 10 adults, each in a process of change and recovery come  together to talk, think, draw and use clay to create monuments to their process and themselves. 

The resulting pots, made by the group during weekly meetings over a four month period, were fired in a wood firing kiln built on the Manor Estate, a post war council estate in Sheffield. The 12 hour firing took place on May Day or Beltane – the Pagan festival of fire – which sees out the old, brings in the new and welcomes change. Alongside the pots the exhibition also featured drawings they made in the weekly meetings, reflecting the thoughts and feelings borne out of the making process.  A range of sound pieces by Radio Producer Frances Byrnes, (working with the participants) conveyed how the alchemy of the clay firing and the meditative nature of craft influenced and shaped the participants’ experience of recovery.

Listen to the 30 minute radio programme, by Frances, charting the participants journey and the firing here.