Body Vessel Clay: Black Women, Ceramics and Contemporary Art

Interesting exhibition at Two Temple Place looking at the ceramic traditions of Black women.

The show also looked at the evolution of ceramics from purely domestic objects to fine art. In places the story could have been told more clearly however it is a difficult venue to display in so information boards were not always directly with the display cases they referred to.

The show started by looking at the work of Ladi Kwaki  and how the pottery of the Gwari ethnic group is taught in female line

There was a large section on the Pottery Training Centre set up by Michael Cardew, a pupil of Bernard Leach in 1950 founded the  centre. He aimed to introduce ceramic techniques to men to make for new middle class market. The show also focused on people who had trained at the centre and their legacy such as George Sempagala who worked in Uganda.

Upstairs there was a section called the Politics of Clay, which looked at how three contemporary artists have looked at clay in a radical way. This included Jade Montserrat’s video of a naked body in mud in landscape which I have previously seen in York.

Closed 24 April 2022 

Review

Evening Standard


 


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