Conversations in Creativity: #BTB23 The Decolonisation of Ceramics & Textiles (Online)

This event is part of the Conversations in Creativity series in collaboration with Creative Lancashire.

The Decolonisation of Ceramics and Textiles panel discussion is a British Ceramics Biennial (BCB) and British Textile Biennal (BTB) partner event. Curator and artist Basil Olton will Chair this rich discussion with ceramics and textile artists Jacqueline Bishop, Theirry Oussou and Masimba Hwati.

The Zoom link will be sent out to all ticket holders on the day of the event.

The topic of discussion is the decolonisation of textile and ceramics, working from the perspective of each artist’s research and artistic practice using both textile and ceramics in telling powerful stories, revealing hidden histories in the legacies of colonialism and challenge the visibility of diasporic artists. 

Sharing the post-industrial heritages of pottery and textiles, both powerhouses of industrialisation, wealth and subjugation, the Decolonisation of Ceramics and Textiles panel discussion will explore the institutional memory and connections to colonialism and slavery and how any perceived trauma effects the working practices and ideas of contemporary ceramics and textiles. Exploring the colonial histories of both textiles and ceramics produced in the UK in a national and international arena is intrinsic to an understanding of both organisations, whether through examining postcolonial themes by re-appropriating archives and objects and presenting them in new contexts or through individual and collective histories and lived experiences.

• Thoughts and ideas will focus on understanding the mechanisms of a colonialist construct and recognise the heterogeneous nature of contemporary ceramics and textiles practice.
• How is the power and perception of colonialism embedded in ceramics and textiles practice? What is the colonisation of ceramics?
• What are the strategies, lines of enquiry and systems of knowledge to re-envision modes of representation and decolonise the Eurocentric narrative?
• Through interdisciplinary practice and discussion, this panel will seek to pose questions for practical possibilities for institutional change through artistic intervention.

This talk is supported by Potterycraft as a partner event between the British Ceramics Biennial and British Textile Biennial.

Booking online via Eventbrite.