Mapping Privilege Evaluation

This project felt like a really good exploration of materials and making things from scratch. When we visited Newstead for the first time, the story that struck me the most was how the Mahogany furniture was a product of the slave trade, and that the felling of trees caused even further suffering when floods hit and there were no natural defences to protect native communities. The idea of flooding and taking natural resources is what lead me to the river, but first I had to research the local geology to find out if there was clay that I could dig. 

Going out and discovering it was really exciting and it felt surreal to find actual clay out in the wild, I knew straight away when I saw the a redness in the earth on the embankment that there was iron rich clay there, and I want to acknowledge my partner Matt Smith who was a massive help on this expedition. I enjoyed the hands-on process of cleaning the clay, removing each little root that had infiltrated it over time. Digging the clay and then transforming it into decorative objects is how I mirrored the journey of mahogany from being felled in Jamaica and the Caribbean, to becoming ornamental chests and tables at Newstead. 

I wanted to get a better idea of the art culture among native Caribbeans, which is when I discovered Taino sculpture, and from this I was inspired to make small clay figures and design motifs based on Byron's animals as well as mahogany leaves. Taino peoples believed nature to encompass the sacred; aspects of the landscape like trees were inhabited by deities and ancestors, while animals appeared in ceremonial performances as spiritually charged sculptures and regalia. This context makes it even more tragic that most of the mahogany trees on their land were felled. 

I thought it was sad that until now, the truth about where the mahogany really came from was not talked about, so my project is all about the origins of the things we take for granted. Artists like Nick Rands and Nicola Hicks demonstrated how effective raw materials can look, and I loved the idea of something like that being juxtaposed with the opulence of Newstead Abbeys historical interior.

When I brought the clay into college, James the ceramics technician was incredibly helpful and supportive even though he didn't like the colour of my raw clay at first - this obviously changed when it was fired though. When he threw the first pot as an experiment, we didn't know what the fired thing would look like, and it was so exciting to find that it turned an amazing orange colour with red streaks, so we made more and used up the rest of the clay. He suggested making an ash glaze, which I hadn't heard of before, so I went out on another quest to gather sticks from the location of the clay - it felt very primal and I really like that feeling of being out in the world, foraging and gathering resources. Throughout this project I feel like I have learned a lot, and I especially have a deeper appreciation of the world of ceramics and how involved it is, plus it was amazing to get Simon's insights on the black history of Newstead, it offered an entirely new perspective which really helped drive me forwards in terms of my own creativity.