Occupational Folklore: Archiving Embodied Encounters

Description

There is an embodied choreography that takes place in the practice of ceramics,
a tacit knowledge honed through repetitive and focused activities that can inform an
artist’s subsequent encounters, weaving experiences in the studio into the life that
surrounds it. Herein lies the discipline’s occupational folklore, stories held in fingertips
and extended through the body’s movement into the world.

This presentation identifies examples of occupational folklore told through two
key sources: WA Ismay’s historic correspondence from Wakefield to the potter Michael
Cardew in Abuja, Nigeria, and the Flightlines oral histories project, contemporary
stories told by women in the wider field of ceramics. They are bought together to
demonstrate continuity in behaviors, actions and beliefs surrounding clay practice.
Both sources capture life stories through the intimacy of conversation, a distinct
mode of telling, where two people come together not simply to record life narratives
but foster a relationship over time. With familiarity, their thoughts become
increasingly shorthand due to the lessening need for fuller explanations, and a co-
construction takes place, where the transference of ideas can be seen as playing a
compelling role in constructing meaning.

Period	30 Jun 2025
Held at	London Centre for Interdisciplinary Research, United Kingdom
Degree of Recognition	International