THE BURTON AT BIDEFORD, CERAMICS RESIDENCY
A material research project tracing the movement of clay through North Devon’s rivers, industries, and vernacular architecture.
My residency at The Burton at Bideford in Bideford forms part of the gallery’s Artist in Residence programme, inviting contemporary artists to engage with its ceramic collections and the wider material history of North Devon. Central to the residency is the opportunity to study the RJ Lloyd collection of Devon Slipwear, a body of utilitarian objects that reflects the region’s long relationship with clay as both a domestic material and a local industry.
My research considers how the clay beneath our feet has quietly shaped the environments and built landscapes of North Devon. Bricks, tiles, drainage pipes, and everyday vessels produced from local earth form part of a vernacular language of making, where geology, labour, and daily life are closely intertwined. These objects reveal how material extracted from the ground moved through networks of water and trade, shaping both rural industry and urban development.
Working along the tidal landscape of the River Torridge and its surrounding estuary, I am exploring the role waterways played in the movement of clay and ceramic goods across the region.
Rivers functioned as transport routes and material corridors, carrying bricks, tiles, and slipware between kilns, quays, and settlements. The ceramics held within the RJ Lloyd Collection reflect these utilitarian networks, where clay objects were embedded in the rhythms of working life and the infrastructure of place.
Through walking, gathering, and close material study, the residency allows me to trace these ecological and industrial entanglements directly within the landscape. I am collecting and testing clays and sediments from riverbanks, construction sites, and marginal spaces across the town. These edgelands and overlooked terrains often hold traces of extraction, deposition, and urban change, where natural and built environments blur together.
Approaching clay as both material and archive, the work explores how geological matter carries layered histories of movement, industry, and use. By working with locally sourced earth, I am interested in how sculptural forms can emerge through a dialogue between landscape, water, and vernacular making traditions, allowing contemporary work to reconnect with the material histories that continue to shape the place.
