SOCIAL SUBSTANCE - THE WORKSHOPS
Caitlin Kiely & Clem Rousset, Sam Lucas, Daby Obiechefu, Camille Biddell
08 – 29 October, 2023
Throughout William Cobbing's SOCIAL SUBSTANCE, alongside the weekly performance programme, we will also be hosting weekly creative workshops, all offering skilled responses to Cobbing's exhibition themes.
The workshops are open to ages 14 and upwards though those aged 14-16 must be accompanied by a guardian.
The workshops are all FREE to attend, though booking is required in some instances. Please click on the links for booking information.
WORKSHOP 1
Sculpting Stories
Caitlin Kiely & Clem Rousset
October 8th
12.30-4.00pm
FREE tickets HERE
Working with an archive of visual material which is both closely and abstractly associated with the clay as a material, participants will treat the images as a raw material in which to think, with which to sculpt, and to tell stories through. Themes in the exhibition such as the merging of forms and identity, connectivity, narrative and relationships will offer a range of lenses through which to see, connect and make associations with the images.
Whilst sifting through the image archive, we will do a word association exercise in relation to a selection of the images. This will support our participants to form more abstract / personal connections and observations.
From this we will explore the process in its own right and how what we do with the image becomes a visual demonstration or investigation. Whether that be the sequencing of images or the process of adding, layering, cutting, extracting, removing, assembling, scrunching up, folding out.
Each participant will leave with their own Zine
This workshop is open to ALL skills and abilities - and ALL materials will be provided.
WORKSHOP 2
My Body in My Hands
Sam Lucas
October 15th
12.00–5pm
FREE DROP-IN
A facilitated drop-in workshop where visitors of any age would be given some terra cotta clay and encouraged to create a palm sized form exploring and describing how it feels in their body. This can be as naïve, humorous, poignant, or sophisticated as the individual chooses. There is a catalogue of the objects already made to show the previous creations. With the visitors permission, the object will then be photographed in their hand and uploaded onto Instagram with the hashtag #mybodyinmyhands and #exploringtheneurodiversebody and added to the curated online gallery @theweightofbeing. The artefacts can be taken away or they will be fired them and added to a final iteration as an installation at a future date.
This workshop is open to ALL skills and abilities - and ALL materials will be provided.
WORKSHOP 3
Slabbed and Slipped
Camille Biddell
October 22nd
12.00–4.00pm
FREE tickets HERE
In this workshop, we will be using textured plaster moulds taken from around Stoke-on-Trent to create experimental slabs with coloured slips and terracotta clay. Participants will be taught how to use the moulds, build surface texture, apply slip and oxides, and make slabs. This technique is intrinsically playful and loose, and participants will be encouraged to experiment with the materials available.
Participants will take inspiration from William Cobbing’s exhibition Social Substance to create form with their slabs. They might decide to work collaboratively or individually, creating a new exhibit of sculptures we will reflect on at the end of the day.
This workshop is open to ALL skills and abilities - and ALL materials will be provided.
WORKSHOP 4
Set In Charcoal
Daby Obiechefu
October 29th
2.00–4.00pm
FREE tickets HERE
Join multidisciplinary artist Daby Obiechefu for a 2-hour workshop, where you will be guided through a therapeutic journey of stress and tension release, whilst creating imagery with charcoal. A sensory experience, interacting with the space and each other, using art as a form of expression and communication. Set in Charcoal aims to inspire and promote drawing, mark making and shadows as an enjoyable practice, in hopes to allay nervousness and fear that some people might have with drawing. This workshop is inspired by William Cobbing’s solo exhibition Social Substance, where we will be exploring the notions of storytelling with materials and interactions with senses of touch and sound.
This workshop is open to ALL skills and abilities - and ALL materials will be provided.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
CAITLIN KIELY & CLEM ROUSSET
Cait and Clem are two friends and artists who once shared a studio and still share a common love for the land around them, as well as for publishing and storytelling.
Caitlin Kiely (she/her) is a practice-led-researcher based in Birmingham. Her practice connects with industrial landscapes through a human feminist lens, by the way stories are unearthed, imagined or told. She is also an educator working across a range of university courses.
Clem Rousset (they/them) is a French graphic designer,art director and educator based in London. Their practice as a designer focuses on printed media and aims to convey information in a bold and friendly manner.
https://www.caitlinkiely.co.uk
https://hereth.fr
Instagram - @caitkiely @hereth_stuff
SAM LUCAS
Sam Lucas is a ceramic artist, who creates ambiguously figurative forms. She does not make pretty things; her work explores the idea of being in the body and social awkwardness, being, rather than being seen, with vulnerability, uncertainty, and a dark humour. Her practice is driven by her own personal experience and observations of others.
After completing the MA ceramics at Cardiff in 2018, she was a finalist in AWARD 2019, the headlining exhibition at British Ceramics Biennial, and this work was exhibited with Taste Contemporary Gallery at Art Geneve 2020. Later in the year she was selected for the Crafts Council Hothouse programme and in 2021 she began undertaking an AHRC NBC funded part time practice-based PhD at University of Sunderland in ceramics and wellbeing. Sam’s research is exploring diversity in bodily experience and how creativity, especially in clay can be used as a coping strategy.
https://www.sam-lucas.com
Instagram - @sam___lucas
CAMILLE BIDDELL
Camille Biddell makes sculptural pottery rooted in traditional ceramic processes that are reimagined playfully, nodding to their origins whilst questioning the ideas of functionality and ritual. She advocates using clay as a catalyst for conversation and collaboration and is driven to use its heritage to pose social and environmental questions. She engages with complex and layered notions of identity, socio-economics and rewarding interpersonal connections.
Camille is currently a diploma student at Clay College Stoke. She studied Fine Art at Edinburgh College of Art and was part of the Open School East Associate Programme in 2020-21. She has exhibited at Edinburgh Arts Festival, Folkestone Triennial, Land Art Mongolia Biennial, Turner Contemporary and San Mei Gallery.
www.camillebiddell.com
Instagram - @camo.pots
DABY OBIECHEFU
Daby Obiechefu is a multidisciplinary visual artist. Her practice is primarily inspired by emotions, thoughts and experiences; aiming to challenge perceptions, ideas and thought processes through the creation of immersive and intriguing depictions/environments. Experienced in realism, digital and traditional painting, videography, performance, installation and sculpture, Daby often incorporates some of these mediums within her projects, based on their suitability and ability to convey the concept efficiently. Being curious and observing the world around her, plays an integral role to develop her concepts. These concepts start with questions, wonders or interests that she will then unravel through visual cues and sometimes auditory, which structure an idea and starting point. Human figures are mostly present in her work to connect with the viewer by introducing a familiar attribute.
Instagram - @dabart._
The workshops are open to ages 14 and upwards though those aged 14-16 must be accompanied by a guardian.
The workshops are all FREE to attend, though booking is required in some instances. Please click on the links for booking information.
WORKSHOP 1
Sculpting Stories
Caitlin Kiely & Clem Rousset
October 8th
12.30-4.00pm
FREE tickets HERE
Working with an archive of visual material which is both closely and abstractly associated with the clay as a material, participants will treat the images as a raw material in which to think, with which to sculpt, and to tell stories through. Themes in the exhibition such as the merging of forms and identity, connectivity, narrative and relationships will offer a range of lenses through which to see, connect and make associations with the images.Whilst sifting through the image archive, we will do a word association exercise in relation to a selection of the images. This will support our participants to form more abstract / personal connections and observations.
From this we will explore the process in its own right and how what we do with the image becomes a visual demonstration or investigation. Whether that be the sequencing of images or the process of adding, layering, cutting, extracting, removing, assembling, scrunching up, folding out.
Each participant will leave with their own Zine
This workshop is open to ALL skills and abilities - and ALL materials will be provided.
WORKSHOP 2
My Body in My Hands
Sam Lucas
October 15th
12.00–5pm
FREE DROP-IN
A facilitated drop-in workshop where visitors of any age would be given some terra cotta clay and encouraged to create a palm sized form exploring and describing how it feels in their body. This can be as naïve, humorous, poignant, or sophisticated as the individual chooses. There is a catalogue of the objects already made to show the previous creations. With the visitors permission, the object will then be photographed in their hand and uploaded onto Instagram with the hashtag #mybodyinmyhands and #exploringtheneurodiversebody and added to the curated online gallery @theweightofbeing. The artefacts can be taken away or they will be fired them and added to a final iteration as an installation at a future date.This workshop is open to ALL skills and abilities - and ALL materials will be provided.
WORKSHOP 3
Slabbed and Slipped
Camille Biddell
October 22nd
12.00–4.00pm
FREE tickets HERE
In this workshop, we will be using textured plaster moulds taken from around Stoke-on-Trent to create experimental slabs with coloured slips and terracotta clay. Participants will be taught how to use the moulds, build surface texture, apply slip and oxides, and make slabs. This technique is intrinsically playful and loose, and participants will be encouraged to experiment with the materials available. Participants will take inspiration from William Cobbing’s exhibition Social Substance to create form with their slabs. They might decide to work collaboratively or individually, creating a new exhibit of sculptures we will reflect on at the end of the day.
This workshop is open to ALL skills and abilities - and ALL materials will be provided.
WORKSHOP 4
Set In Charcoal
Daby Obiechefu
October 29th
2.00–4.00pm
FREE tickets HERE
Join multidisciplinary artist Daby Obiechefu for a 2-hour workshop, where you will be guided through a therapeutic journey of stress and tension release, whilst creating imagery with charcoal. A sensory experience, interacting with the space and each other, using art as a form of expression and communication. Set in Charcoal aims to inspire and promote drawing, mark making and shadows as an enjoyable practice, in hopes to allay nervousness and fear that some people might have with drawing. This workshop is inspired by William Cobbing’s solo exhibition Social Substance, where we will be exploring the notions of storytelling with materials and interactions with senses of touch and sound.This workshop is open to ALL skills and abilities - and ALL materials will be provided.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
CAITLIN KIELY & CLEM ROUSSET
Cait and Clem are two friends and artists who once shared a studio and still share a common love for the land around them, as well as for publishing and storytelling.
Caitlin Kiely (she/her) is a practice-led-researcher based in Birmingham. Her practice connects with industrial landscapes through a human feminist lens, by the way stories are unearthed, imagined or told. She is also an educator working across a range of university courses.
Clem Rousset (they/them) is a French graphic designer,art director and educator based in London. Their practice as a designer focuses on printed media and aims to convey information in a bold and friendly manner.
https://www.caitlinkiely.co.uk
https://hereth.fr
Instagram - @caitkiely @hereth_stuff
SAM LUCAS
Sam Lucas is a ceramic artist, who creates ambiguously figurative forms. She does not make pretty things; her work explores the idea of being in the body and social awkwardness, being, rather than being seen, with vulnerability, uncertainty, and a dark humour. Her practice is driven by her own personal experience and observations of others.
After completing the MA ceramics at Cardiff in 2018, she was a finalist in AWARD 2019, the headlining exhibition at British Ceramics Biennial, and this work was exhibited with Taste Contemporary Gallery at Art Geneve 2020. Later in the year she was selected for the Crafts Council Hothouse programme and in 2021 she began undertaking an AHRC NBC funded part time practice-based PhD at University of Sunderland in ceramics and wellbeing. Sam’s research is exploring diversity in bodily experience and how creativity, especially in clay can be used as a coping strategy.
https://www.sam-lucas.com
Instagram - @sam___lucas
CAMILLE BIDDELL
Camille Biddell makes sculptural pottery rooted in traditional ceramic processes that are reimagined playfully, nodding to their origins whilst questioning the ideas of functionality and ritual. She advocates using clay as a catalyst for conversation and collaboration and is driven to use its heritage to pose social and environmental questions. She engages with complex and layered notions of identity, socio-economics and rewarding interpersonal connections.
Camille is currently a diploma student at Clay College Stoke. She studied Fine Art at Edinburgh College of Art and was part of the Open School East Associate Programme in 2020-21. She has exhibited at Edinburgh Arts Festival, Folkestone Triennial, Land Art Mongolia Biennial, Turner Contemporary and San Mei Gallery.
www.camillebiddell.com
Instagram - @camo.pots
DABY OBIECHEFU
Daby Obiechefu is a multidisciplinary visual artist. Her practice is primarily inspired by emotions, thoughts and experiences; aiming to challenge perceptions, ideas and thought processes through the creation of immersive and intriguing depictions/environments. Experienced in realism, digital and traditional painting, videography, performance, installation and sculpture, Daby often incorporates some of these mediums within her projects, based on their suitability and ability to convey the concept efficiently. Being curious and observing the world around her, plays an integral role to develop her concepts. These concepts start with questions, wonders or interests that she will then unravel through visual cues and sometimes auditory, which structure an idea and starting point. Human figures are mostly present in her work to connect with the viewer by introducing a familiar attribute.
Instagram - @dabart._
