Emilie Taylor’s monumental pots use the English heritage craft of Slipware to interpret and represent post-industrial landscapes. Taylor’s work combines studio ceramics with collaboration within the community to draw out local voices.
MAY DAY MAY DAY MAY DAY will showcase a series of large-scale slipware pots illustrated with narratives drawn from rural and urban sources. The pots will surround a huge birch maypole installed in the Gallery’s circular exhibition space displaying an embroidered call to arms. The exhibition will also show Taylor’s working drawings and mono prints, and a video with insights into her research and practice.
The exhibition considers the dual importance of May Day as a Pagan festival celebrating the land, fertility and abundance, and its modern identity as International Workers Day, or Labour Day. The title, whilst referencing these calendar events, also alludes to our current state of emergency. The social, economic and climate emergency, exacerbated by our relationship with the land and the polarity of wealth dividing the population.
The creation of artwork for this exhibition has almost entirely taken place during the various lockdown periods enforced by the Coronavirus Pandemic and place a new lens over this timely subject. Sheffield based Emilie Taylor is a Potter, making large scale studio ceramics that tell the stories of the communities she collaborates with. Interested in the vessel or container as a metaphor for how we seek to contain communities within British society, Taylor has an ongoing interest in the firing process as a symbol of change. She uses the English heritage craft of Slipware to interpret and represent post-industrial landscapes.