For 4 weeks across November and December Mina Heydari-Waite took part in Residencies in Clay, which supported artists exploring the transformational potential of clay within society and contemporary arts practice. The residency culminated in Building the Clay Commons with Eva Masterman, which brought together local community members, makers and artists from the North East and beyond. Mina shares a collection of reflections along with some beautiful photos from her time at SSW.
Notes on ‘A Residency in Clay’ and ‘Building the Clay Commons’
All words and images by Mina Heydari-Waite.
A month in the ceramics studio is not enough time to rectify experiments gone awry. Weeks pass before you realise that the kiln isn’t reaching the temperature you thought it was, and then it’s time to leave.
———-
The isolation of the site and the lack of external deadlines or prescribed outcomes untethered me. I grappled with ingrained ideas of productivity and worth in a way that was both liberating and challenging. Embracing ‘process over outcome’ is easier said than done, and unlearning my expectations of WHAT I SHOULD GET DONE feels like it will be a lifelong process for me. Clay forces me to wrestle my obsession with efficiency. You rush dry something, it cracks.
———-
You envision the amazing things you would produce if only you had a month of focussed time to experiment and make. But then you get that time and you are confronted with the realisation that the amazing thing might not always manifest. What if you graft hard and only make some mistakes, some false starts, some presents for family, some unfinished experiments you remain unsure about?
———-
Short circular walks, lentil soup, saunas, blaring heating (luxury).
———-
Me, Josie and Nic have very different practices and lives, but together we create a temporary commons between us. While working individually, we discover an organic responsiveness to each other’s works and ways of working. The ceramics studio accommodates different rhythms: Nic, an early riser, systematically experiments with material and refines technique (witchy scientist), Josie, almost nocturnal, watches Strictly while steadily coiling huge figures that have to be chopped in half to fit in the kiln (magician’s assistants). I bounce between them and off the walls during strange long shifts in the studio alone, relieved by moments of coming together to express excitement and frustration with our shared material. I make walnut-shaped perfume bottles, drape parian-soaked cloth, smooth golden hoops, throw mugs (Christmas presents) and build a fountain head (unfinished at time of writing).
———-
Eva’s Building the Clay Commons workshop brings together a wider group of artists, makers and educators for the last week. With guidance and provocation from Zoe, Bisila, Mark, Oren and Rabi we speak about soil, care of site, care of collective, care of self, usefulness, industry, unruly commodities, learning-through-doing, indigenous land knowledge, disintegration, deep time (the dead and the the long dead), access, slowness, intuition, the sensuous, trembling, being cooked for, community, early nights, mugs, the ethics of authorship, sticky toffee pudding, pleasure, paper kilns, historicization, low-fire ware, studio models, pastels, hacks.
———-
Thinking, talking and writing about the possibilities of a clay commons has a heartbreaking significance at a time when Palestine – its land, people and commons – are being raised by a genocidal coloniser state. If you are part of a cultural organisation or academic institution, an art worker or an academic, I urge you to pledge your support for The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) now. No culture without Palestinian culture.
