I would like to share some images I took recently at the British Ceramics Biennial that was held at the disused Spode factory in Stoke. I found it very inspirational and was so pleased to see an exhibition of this standard in Stoke on Trent. I just hope that the old Spode factory gets to house more creativity very soon because it is seeped in so much history and every inch reveals so much about the massive amount of productivity that happened on the site, in fact the building was as much a part of the exhibition as the pieces on display, right down to the engrained aroma of the clay. I wanted to look at and photograph every inch of the building because of the stories embedded within its decaying walls. I captured a number of amazing textures that I'm going to use within my upcoming project which will be on public display in January 2014. The textures from the factory, created by both man and nature, intentionally and unintentionally, represent the stoic yet fragile history of pottery industry within my city. And on a personal level the textures represent the childhood memories I have of the pottery factory where my Dad worked; following him around on his floor walks on many a Saturday morning and how, as an unassuming child with an overactive imagination, I made up endless exciting possibilities for the abundant obscure objects all around, which to my Dad and his colleagues were just tools that helped them to get on with their daily banal.
For a unique insight into the production process and to see some of those obscure objects in action take a look at this video recorded at the Portmeirion Group Factory in Stoke on Trent, captured by the talented Johnny Magee.
