Arts & Culture  News

Firing local imagination: clay workshops continue across Vauxhall and Nine Elms

Young people from Lambeth and Wandsworth are learning the Japanese art of Kintsugi at a series of clay workshops at Gasworks gallery in Vauxhall.

Published on
February 6, 2017

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Young people from Lambeth and Wandsworth are learning Kintsugi – the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with seams of precious material – at a series of clay workshops at Gasworks gallery in Vauxhall.

The ongoing arts engagement project – called Material Action – invites young people from both boroughs to explore clay working in its many different guises.

At the Gasworks workshops, participants are being encouraged to bring personal items of pottery and merge them together to create ‘New Heirlooms’ which represent their area.  Budding sculptors will then discover how digital design compares with more traditional clay making techniques at a further session (18 February).

When:

‘New Heirlooms’ 10 February – Sunday 12 February.  Please pre-book your place

Saturday 18 February – drop-in 12pm – 6pm.

Where: Gasworks, 155 Vauxhall Street, London SE11 5RH

The workshops are free to attend and open to 14-25 year olds.

The workshop programme is being run by arts group Collective Matter, and is a collaboration between Gasworks, Beaconsfield Gallery Vauxhall (BGV) and Pump House Gallery, three key venues within a growing cluster of galleries in the Vauxhall and Nine Elms regeneration area.

The six-month project was commissioned by the Nine Elms Vauxhall Partnership as part of the area’s cultural development programme and is part of Tate Exchange. The last workshops move to Pump House Gallery in Battersea Park later this month and the programme culminates in an interactive showcase on March 10th within Tate Exchange at Tate Modern, one of the world’s most prestigious arts venues.

So far hundreds of local residents have been contributing to an evolving clay ‘building site’, sculpting our own collective version of Nine Elms and Vauxhall.  The transitional nature of clay is the perfect metaphor for the area’s evolving heritage.  Vauxhall was once home to the renowned Royal Doulton pottery company and clay brick is a key building material across the regeneration area. Battersea Power Station, which sits at the western end of Nine Elms, is reportedly Europe’s biggest brick building.

Ravi Govindia, leader of Wandsworth Council and co-chair on the Nine Elms Vauxhall Partnership, said:

“We have big plans to re-enliven Nine Elms and this year we’re kick starting an ambitious three-year cultural programme.  Top of mind is how we continue to create new opportunities and skills-based learning for our local communities.  What better way to start than by working in partnership with Tate Exchange and these three fantastic local galleries, on a fun project that re-connects us with the very foundations of the place, clay.”


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