Author Archives: Bridget Macklin

I am an artist working in the field of ceramics creating fragile porcelain pieces which are inspired by the environment or by peoples relationships with the environment and with each other and which often incorporate finds to support their narrative.

The Best Thing about Invigilating Your Own Exhibition

is that you get to know what people really think. The last two and a half weeks have been amazing. I have had conversations about so many things. I could not begin to list them all!

But another of the best things has been spending time with the work and remember what it was during the making that was important.

There is a message about habitat loss and our impact on the planet. There were found materials involved. But at the end of the day I think the big one for me is ‘why clay’?

When I began the Masters program I was told that the tutor did not expect me to be still working with clay by the end. He didn’t know me very well! He also didn’t seem to know clay very well. He didn’t understand about the feel of the material, the magic of the kiln, the endless possibilities which had to be explored. Clay is intoxicating – it has so many ways to express itself. Below are 9 close up images from the exhibition. 9 ways that porcelain will behave with other materials. The options are almost endless.

Its a Mossy Topic

I am so enjoying my time in the gallery with the Surface Tension exhibition. It has been a joyous affirmation of so much that I believe in. The lovely conversations that I have had with visitors to the gallery have been so interesting. I shall never forget the lovely gentleman who dropped in on Friday, stayed chatting for about 40 minutes about the work and the ideas behind it and then, just as he was leaving, he suddenly said

‘Oh yes, I meant to ask you, how do we solve global warming?‘

An hour later we had not solved that particular issue but we had thrashed some ideas around and come up with a great idea of carbon rationing for all. Why is that not a thing?

Someone has leant me Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book Gathering Moss to read during the exhibition. It is a beautiful read; poetic; poignant and thought provoking at every turn of the page. It has brought home to me just how utterly dependent we all are on the little things – the things that we take for granted and which were the jumping off point for the topic explored in this exhibition – the mosses of Blacknest Fields, Binsted, Hampshire which are being rewilded by volunteers and from where all the mossy images used in this exhibition came from.

Its the little things which support everything else.