Research Camp, Making Narratives, International Ceramic Workshop, Gyeonggi International Ceramic Biennale 2017

For Research Camp, Gyeonggi International Ceramic Biennale (GICB) 2017, Brownsword was invited to disseminate his artistic research through processes of making and conceptualising, in collaboration with a group of esteemed Korean artisans including Kwangsu Seo, (6, 9 May 2019), Yongchul Yu, (7, 11 May 2019) and Daewoong Kim (10, 13 May 2019), to audiences attending the GICB. Throughout these public facing sessions, the nuances of material knowledge and indigenous craft traditions were exposed through cultural exchange and reimagining two distinct historic ceramic traditions – Korea and North Staffordshire. Ex-industrial artisan Rita Floyd demonstrated and coordinated the practice of bone china flower making (indigenous to North Staffordshire) to international visitors (3, 5, 8 May 2019). Exchange ‘To initiate cultural exchange between two very distinct ceramic traditions, Brownsword’s interventions with craft practices indigenous to Stoke-on-Trent, will be extended via collaborations with Korean artisans. A process of cross-cultural borrowing and practical experimentation will yield new modes of improvisation that draw upon the traditional language of the past. Complex systems of embodied knowledge - haptic and material knowledge, decision making, timing and pace, repetition, and tool use, will be exposed and deconstructed into new forms of expression on a public platform. Research undertaken during this experimental workshop will explore how traditional Korean gestures can interfere/compliment non-uniform modes of ceramic manufacture. The outcomes inform the content of Brownsword final ‘Factory’ performance in the main exhibition space’