In 2016 the first invited residency for artists was hosted by The Ceramic House, as part of Landscape : Islands. Since then, residencies have become one of the main aims in The Ceramic House’s objectives, an integral component of the development of the international, wide-ranging and multi-faceted projects we strive to achieve. Residencies are usually associated with a project involving artists collaborating towards an outcome, typically an exhibition, with additional events such as touring shows, performances, workshops and talks.

Landscape : Islands (2016)

Iris Garrelfs and Ingibjörg Guðmundsdóttir with their installation Littoral Assembly

Landscape : Islands was the first project to focus on collaborative sound art and ceramic practice, initiated when Kay Aplin teamed up with sound artist and curator Joseph Young to develop an ongoing investigation into the intersection between craft and digital media.

The Landscape : Islands residency programme brought together two pairs of international ceramic and sound artists to collaborate in the making of new work in response to ‘landscape’. The resulting work was exhibited as part of Brighton Digital Festival at Phoenix Brighton, curated by Aplin and Young, alongside a touring version of their own collaborative exhibition In A Shetland Landscape at In Camera Gallery. See Landscape : Islands residency here.

Made in Korea (2017)

Shadow Workers, Jin Kim & Kyung Won Baek, Photo: Sylvain Deleu

In 2017, Made in Korea provided the context for the second residency, in which two Korean ceramic artists collaborated on new work in response to the ceramic manufacturing traditions of Wedgwood in Stoke-on-Trent. The work they created, Shadow Workers, was exhibited at British Ceramics Biennial 2017, alongside Pavilion, an installation by Kay Aplin, inspired by traditional Korean roof tiles. The two installations evoked a cultural conversation between UK and Korean ceramic making traditions and were further linked by a four-channel sound, Handmade Automation, by Joseph Young, composed of the sounds of hand-made clay making processes recorded in artists’ studios in Korea and industrialised ceramic production in factories in Stoke-on-Trent, creating a multi-layered soundscape. See Made in Korea residency here.

Interbeing (2020-1)

Interbeing, a China-UK ceramics and sound collaborative project taking place throughout 2020-21 offers several opportunities for residencies.

In response to the global Covid-19 pandemic, all of the planned residencies had to be conducted as either hybrid or remote, due to travel restrictions; with artists typically making work in their home studios and shipping work to the UK, whilst collaborating with partners through video calls, email and messaging.

The Interbeing project pages document how The Ceramic House re-imagined the residency and exhibition process during this period.

Residency Opportunities

We no longer offer self-directed residencies at The Ceramic House.