clay matters

Curated by Cinda Manins, Facts of Matter is a group exhibition co-presented by Linden Projects Space and Climarte. Our exhibition explores issues which reflect the diversity of individual interests in Clay Matters, a group of artists that came together online for the first time in 2020 during the lockdowns whose goal is to explore shared concerns over the impact of the artistic ceramics industry on climate change. On our minds were the issues of firing electric kilns (carbon), the source of materials (the extraction of clay and minerals) and the ongoing impact of rampant consumerism.

The word ‘matter’, both in our collective name and the exhibition title, has several meanings that we draw upon; matter as material substance that constitutes the observable universe (and thus our ceramic materials); matter as the events or circumstances of a particular situation, and; matter as issues of priority. Each artist responds to selected references in relation to their own environmental concerns, offering solutions, advocating for action, and promoting hope. Our message is that every action matters!

The exhibition raises a range of climate- and environmental-related topics for audiences to contemplate. Lene Kuhl Jakobsen considers the issue of food security, genetic modification, and natural adaptation in food agriculture through the lens of childhood memories and a series of text titles. Jane Sawyer’s universal bucket forms are offered as a response to a piece of writing by Carolyn Leach-Paholski (2016), in which she contemplates the value of water as it fluctuates from abundance of a flood to the scarcity of drought.

Claire Ellis’ extensive research into materials and her aim to encourage political change results in her work highlighting successful climate protests in which local rock byproducts are used to fuse a form inspired by the Franklin River where dam protests in 1982 led to the formation of The Greens. Vicki Grima works small, understanding the subsequent smaller environmental impact from this decision, being inspired by articles such as ‘How Size in Art Matters’ and ‘How Scale in Art Influences the Viewing Experience’. Her series of small bottles and brooches create an intimacy between the object and the observer. Pattie Beerens examines human kinship with materials and the ephemerality of such relationships in her woven sculptures made with plant fibre and unfired clay. Each of the 10 artists offers a unique perspective on contemporary environmental issues represented through our much-adored medium of clay.

Featured artists: Pattie Beerens, Amelia Black, Amanda Bromfield, Claire Ellis, Vicki Grima, Lene Kuhl Jakobsen, Cinda Manins, Elnaz Nourizadeh, Jane Sawyer, Madeleine Thornton Smith.

IMAGE > [Top] Lene Kuhl Jakobsen, Memento (un)known (detail), 2023. Image courtesy of the artist.