Marl Hole 3rd – 31st October 2009
at AirSpace Gallery
as part of British Ceramics Biennial, Stoke on Trent.
The concept of Marl Hole was to challenge the traditional ideas and methods that have been applied to clay, and demonstrate a fresh approach to the material whilst using very primitive techniques.
Neil Brownsword, Alexandra Engelfriet, Torbjørn Kvasbø, Johnny Magee and Pekka Paikkari joined forces to make this work possible. The artists visited Etruria Marl located in Staffordshire to embark on both a physically and mentally challenging task, to manipulate the landscape in order to create interventions which demonstrated the history and relationship between the creator and the material. Over a period of just five days, each artist was confronted with the material in its rawest state and had to decide in what way they would alter the landscape to create their piece of work.
The event was filmed by Johnny Magee which clearly shows the strength and determination of the five artists as well as the exhaustion they face along the way. The sheer scale of the Etruria Marl is daunting enough, but despite that the artists successfully created their work whilst enduring the elements and having limited resources.
Johnny Magee manages to capture the emotions and thoughts that the artists experience throughout his filming and this is achieved by focusing on the struggles and exertion that takes place. If the film were to solely focus on the finished pieces, then the purpose of the project would have been lost. It is only when you see the individuals using parts of their bodies to manipulate the clay and the sheer force needed to do it, that you start to appreciate the work on the level that it is intended. The exhaustion felt by the artists is sympathetic to the past workers of the pottery industry by both demonstrating the back breaking work that they would undertake daily and scale of the industry at the time. The fact the Etruria Marl exists from the now extinct pottery industry and that it looked so desolate and empty despite its vastness before the artists arrived; symbolises with the death of the industry and the large hole it has left within the area and its community.
continued…
