URBAN DECAY 2011

Urban Decay
British Ceramics Biennial 2011
Collaborative work with Zachary Eastwood-Bloom, for the British Ceramics Biennial 2011 show “Stick-Up” at AirSpace Gallery. For ‘Urban Decay’ Zachary Eastwood-Bloom and Behjat Omer A have made a series of urn shaped raw clay vessels, filled them up with water and filmed the resulting outcomes. This project examines the notions of dependency and erosion with a wider metaphor relating to Stoke-on-Trent and the ceramics industry. The water in the vessels is dependent on the structural integrity of the clay body to keep it contained, however it slowly weakens the material over a period of time resulting in a loss of both vessel and fluid.
This process is symbolic of the decay of Stoke-on-Trent as a result of the decline in industrial ceramic production. A place once heavily dependent on clay but now feeling the loss of its core material.