A Post from Polar - the British Ceramics Biennial

Hello bear friends!  It's Sonning's human guardian Polar here, with a few photos from this year's British Ceramics Biennial, held (as the name suggests) every two years here in Stoke-on-Trent.  The bears didn't visit, as they were afraid they might break things and, as you will see later, it's probably just as well!

 

This year's venue was Swift House, an unprepossessing structure from the outside but a revelation within, being a former transhipment warehouse between the Trent and Mersey Canal and Stoke railway station.  

 

The main exhibition was held on the lower floors, where the original vaulting still exists, making a decent exhibition space if not as impressive as the China Halls at the Spode site used in previous years. There are ambitious plans being drawn up to transform this site into trendy apartments and eateries, though these also transfer what is currently a public asset to the private sector. As the bears might say, "Boooo!"

I was about to say "moving swiftly on from politics to art..." but we're not, because the first installion I'm sharing is Ship of Dreams and Nightmares by Stephen Dixon, made in collaboration with local refugee support group the Burslem Jubilee Project.  Gathered into the rough shape of a ship, each of the suspended objects represents an element of one person's migration story, for good or ill.

I had to include Follicular and Luteal by Vicky Lindo and William Brookes, not just because they include a bear amongst the images, but because the quality and imagination of the decoration is so striking.  The inspiration is, apparently the menstrual cycle...

I think the bears would have approved of  Cleo Mussi's Phylum, Phylon, Phyllon and Phyllosilicates, since it was constructed entirely from recycled china - exactly the type of reuse Hanley wanted to see with the discarded ware at Middleport.  Cup handles as ears were a particularly clever little piece of recycling.

Ranging through all of human history, from our earliest common ancestor to the exploration of space, in part from the perspective of how our diets change and affect us, I kept coming back for another look at this exhibit.

Another favourite was Ghost Town Britain by Helen Beard, especially the allotment!  Inspired by the empty streets of lockdown, it was full of curious little details.

Combining charcoal sketches and ceramic figures, this work by Christie Brown was another striking exhibit, intended to make us consider the thoughts and conversations the various figures might be having with or about each other, and us.

There were several other outstanding works, including the thought-provoking Doggerland from Alison Cooke, a work considering climate change made from clay recovered from core samples taken from under the North Sea.

The lower ground floor is a more open space and was used to showcase the work of less established UK ceramic artists, as well as ceramics from Japanese artists from the city of Kasama and some local community projects.

These finely detailed pieces were produced by young artist Nico Conti using a 3-D printer.  It seems a little bit like cheating using this technology, though arguably coil potters might have said the same about early pioneers of the wheel and the artist's skill and imagination still has to be there.

And here is Pam Su's Lost and Found, the exhibit the bears really wouldn't have liked at all.  I couldn't relate to this either, as I can't help thinking that bear's heads belong on bears!

Community pottery projects feature in the Biennial and this year we had this excellent idea for greening a bare brick wall from the Portland Inn Project - a craft co-operative and community group who have revitalised a disused pub as a community hub.

There was also a Stoke Makes Plates exhibit of plain plates decorated by local community groups ranging from local schools to care home residents and the local LGBT pensioners' group.

And, returning to the professional potters, there were more thought-provoking plates from Jacqueline Bishop's History at the Dinner Table, fine bone china pieces, inspired by her grandmother's treasured collection of porcelain, but illustrated with shocking images taken from the history of the slave trade.

So that's a very brief look at this year's exhibition, which sadly has now finished.  You can see more on the BCB website here.  

Look out for the next Biennial in the autumn of 2023, when I'm sure Hanley Bear would be more than happy to welcome you to his home city.