Culture24 editor, Richard Moss, picks his six favourite things from the British ceramics Biennial 2015

Rhiannon Crowley, The Salient Dead at the British Ceramics Biennial 2015© the artist
It's a chance to see new work by some familiar names and to discover some unfamiliar but exciting emerging talent in an environment steeped in the history and tradition of ceramic production in Staffordshire. Here are six highlights from a ceramics biennial showcasing the sheer breadth of talent and imagination in ceramic art today.
Sam Bakewell, Imagination Dead Imagine

Sam Bakewell, Imagination Dead Imagine© Photo Richard Moss
Its creator, Sam Bakewell, has spent some time in the studio of potter/author/traveller/clever-clogs Edmund de Waal and he certainly seems to have picked up some of De Waal’s skill for a studied ceramic intervention.
Venture inside and you will be rewarded with a series of exquisitely crafted objects imprisoned behind barred caves punched into the walls. With the aesthetic of the found object, seaside flotsam or the discarded toy, these strange objects manage to conjure thoughts that hover somewhere between beauty and the macabre.

One of Sam Bakewell's beautifully crafted objects imprisoned inside his ceramic hut© Photo Richard Moss

Inside Sam Bakewell's Imagination Dead Imagine© Photo Richard Moss
Rhiannon Lewando – The Salient Dead

Rhiannon Lewondo, The Salient Dead - like ancient relics at BCB 2015© Photo Richard Moss
There are 30 fresh talents to explore here and Rhiannon Lewando’s The Salient Dead takes the much-quoted TS Eliot poem, The Hollow Men, for inspiration. According to its text panel the work “explores a landscape of man made death that unifies the humanity of the hand with the metamorphosis of man into weapon.”
On first appearance it seems like a pile of archaeological finds and much like unearthed things from the past, there is a sense of mystery in their strange earthenware shapes. They have both a textile and tactile quality that recalls the Bronze Age as much as Eliot’s fragmentary world shattered by the First World War.

Rhiannon Cowlye, the Salient Dead© Photo Richard Moss

Rhiannon Cowley, The Salient Dead© The artist

Neil Brownsword's Re-apprenticed at BCB 2015© Photo Richard Moss
Currently learning these crafts from three former factory artisans, there is something particularly moving about the way he has peeled back the layers to reveal the inter-generational artistry and skills of people who worked in Staffordshire’s pottery factories and the incredible body of knowledge they carry with them.
Anthropology, archaeology and art come together for this atmospheric celebration via objects, films, live demonstrations and a series evolving installations celebrating the art of the factory floor.

Petals made by Rita, part of Neil Brownsword's experiment into the "archaeology of place" at BCB 2015© Photo Richard Moss

The master engraver's table© Photo Richard Moss

an atmospheric corner of the Old Spode Factory at the British Ceramics Biennial in Stoke on Trent© Photo Richard Moss
Natural light floods in from windows above the wave like-concrete ceiling while the new ceramic forms somehow manage to be freed and yet feed off the factory’s iron window frames and the peeling paint of the stripped brick walls.
It’s a minimal space that accommodates the many onsite commissions – some of them still developing – together with a shop and café. But it also offers a chance to explore the nooks, crannies and intriguing traces of the once booming centre of ceramics production. If you have time take a walk through the historic yards out back and visit the volunteer run visitor centre seeking to preserve its history.

The creations of Amy Hughes in the Spode Factory site© Photo Richard Moss

The quiet traces of a former life are everywhere in the Spode factory© Photo Richard Moss
Caroline Tatersall, Geysers

Caroline Tattersall, Geysers© Photo Richard Moss
It helps that they are fashioned from beautiful ceramic spheres, but the primordial gloop emanating from their centre reminds us where the ceramics and possibly even us, come from.

Caroline Tattersall, Breaking Through© the artist

Caroline Tattersall © the artist
Ian McIntyre: Icon, The Brown Betty Teapot

The Brown Betty at Airspace gallery© Photo Richard Moss
Ian McIntyre’s Icon: The Brown Betty uncovers that most British of objects, the Brown Betty teapot, made in their thousands in the kilns of Staffordshire since the 1930s and still produced locally.
McIntyre dissects this iconic object with a surprisingly forensic approach, tempered by an artist’s eye that emanates a warmth and love for often overlooked British design icon.
Tip: You can buy a Brown Betty, eight-cup teapot in the British Ceramic Biennial shop at the old Spode Factory site for a mere £14. Six, four, and two cup teapots are even cheaper.

Ian McIntyre's research for his Icon: the Brown bety at Airsapce Gallery© Photo Richard Moss

The stages of the tea pot laid bare bu Ian McIntyre at Airspace Gallery© Photo Richard Moss
- The UK’s largest ceramics festival, the British Ceramics Biennial (BCB), takes place in Stoke-on-Trent until November 8 2015. See www.britishceramicsbiennial.com for more details.
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