EVENTS

Ceramica

Friday 18 September 18.00-21.30
Saturday 19 September 10.00-17.30
Sunday 20 September 10.00-17.30
Throughout the V&A

A weekend of special events to celebrate the opening of Phase 1 of the V&A's new Ceramics galleries. Debate with Edmund de Waal or contribute to The Collection, an installation by Clare Twomey. Watch a kiln being constructed, fired and opened with Thiébaut Chagué, be thrilled and fascinated by the science of ceramics with the Material Library or try throwing, pinching and potting with the London Potters. Hear Willie Harcourt-Cooze talk about chocolate and ceramics and try his special traditional chocolate and truffles; watch Barnaby Barford's Damaged Goods; see French Fancies, a promenade performance by Debbie Does; or find out how to look after your favourite ceramics from our skilled conservation team.

Free, some events will be ticketed. Tickets available as specified below.

Programme

 

The Collection

Join ceramic artist Clare Twomey as she creates a new, site-specific installation. Fill empty vitrines with cherished memories of ceramic objects. 'The Collection' will be a unique display that will grow over the three-day Ceramica event, encouraging understanding of the ceramics collection in terms of everyday objects in the lives' of people in the past and present.

Clare Twomey is a British artist who works with clay in large-scale installations, sculpture and site-specific works. Over the past 10 years she has exhibited at the Tate, Victoria and Albert Museum, Crafts Council, in the UK and The Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto, Japan. Twomey continues to develop works, that pursue her interest in human behaviour, space, architectural interventions and the gallery as destination.
http://www.claretwomey.com/

Free, drop-in

 

Le Soif et la Source (The Thirst and the Well)

John Madejski Garden
Friday 18 September
18.00-22.00
Saturday 19 & Sunday 20 September 
10.00-17.30

Watch ceramic artist Thiébaut Chagué build and fire a site-specific kiln, creating one of his signature pieces in the process. The kiln will be constructed and lit on Friday evening. It will be at full heat on Saturday afternoon, when Chagué plans to open up the kiln Raku-style to show the ceramic object being formed at peak temperature.  Finally, the kiln will be left to cool and cracked open on Sunday afternoon to see the final piece emerge.

Thiébaut Chagué has been a practising potter and artist for the past thirty years. His work expresses the soul and the inner void. The pieces are built from the inside in the solitude of the studio and they are fed by the fire outside. The heat, pushes the clay to the limit of its resistance to its potential distruction. This risk taking is necessary for Chagué, by tearing the clay the fire reveals the energy that is contained inside the work.

Free, drop-in

 

Dark Chocolate Art

John Madejski Garden
Friday 18 September
18.00-22.00
Saturday 19 & Sunday 20 September
10.00-17.30

See Willie Harcourt-Cooze and his team demonstrating chocolate making from bean to 18th-century ceramic chocolatière. Savour the flavour of  Harcourt-Cooze's traditional truffles, hot chocolates and specially invented treats to celebrate the V&A's Ceramica weekend, available to buy and try from the V&A café.

Willie Harcourt-Cooze has been growing cacao for more than a decade at the Hacienda El Tesoro, in the heights of the Henri Pittier National Park in Choroni, Venezuela. 
http://www.williescacao.com/

Free, drop-in

 

Damaged Goods

Digital Studio, Sackler Centre
Friday 18 September
18.00-22.00
Saturday 19 & Sunday 20 September
10.00-17.30

See Barnaby Barford's animation of a tragic love story played out by porcelain figurines with shattering consequences and make a stop-motion animation yourself.

Stop motion (or frame-by-frame) is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The object is moved in small amounts between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames are played as a continuous sequence.

Free, drop-in

 

Basic Ceramic Techniques

Meet the London Potters who will be demonstrating basic ceramic-making techniques from pinch pots and throwing to coiling. London Potters is a voluntary organisation formed in 1986 to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and experiences of all those involved with or interested in ceramics. It is the only London-based society offering membership to both professional and non-professional ceramicists; all its members are united by the appreciation of ceramic art and a desire to further their knowledge and communicate with fellow ceramic artists and collectors.
http://www.londonpotters.com/

Free, drop in

 

We Are Not Amused

Join our inaugural Ceramics Resident, Stephen Dixon, in creating a large ceramic mosaic of Queen Victoria. Visitors are invited to place pieces of the mosaic itself, and even bring along their own broken ceramics contributions to be included. Professor Stephen Dixon is the V&A’s first Ceramics resident, with a studio built into the Ceramics galleries themselves. Dixon draws on the satirical tradition to make works that are rich in political and contextual detail as well as being masterfully produced objects.

Free, drop in

 

Materials Library Takes On Ceramics

Free, drop-in

 

French Fancies

Ceramics, Room 146
Friday 18 September
19.00, 20.00 and 21.00

Take a cheeky peek into the delicate rituals of 18th-century high fashion as Debbie Does brings to life the magnificent temporary exhibition Objects of Luxury in a playful promenade performance blending movement and contemporary dance to celebrate French etiquette of the 18th century from taking tea to la Toilette.  

French Fancies is a bespoke performance commissioned by the V&A to celebrate the opening of the new ceramics galleries in our
temporary exhibition Objects of Luxury. Produced by Debbie Does and
designed by Shanti Freed.
www.debbie-does.co.uk
http://www.myspace.com/shantifreed

Free, drop-in

 

Edmund de Waal and Michelle Ogundehin
In Conversation

BSL interpreted
Lecture Theatre
Friday 18 September
19.00-20.00

Hear Edmund de Waal, one of the UK's foremost contemporary ceramicists and professor of ceramics at the University of Westminster, discussing the nature of contemporary ceramics and design with Michelle Ogundehin, Editor-in-Chief of Elle Decoration.
http://www.edmunddewaal.com/

£8, £6 concessions

Book online or call +44 (0)20 7942 2211

 

Chocolate and Ceramics: A Lifelong Friendship

Explore the journey of chocolate from bean to bar with with Willie Harcourt-Cooze, from Willie's Cacao on Channel 4. The talk will touch on the development of chocolate consumption in South America and Europe with reference to special ceramic forms that developed as a result. There will be an opportunity for Q&A at the end.

Wilie Harcourt-Cooze has been growing cacao for more than a decade at the Hacienda El Tesoro, in the heights of the Henri Pittier National Park in Choroni, Venezuela. 
http://www.williescacao.com/

Free ticketed, tickets available from Sackler Centre reception from 10.00

 

Ceramics Surgery

Do you have a favourite jug at home that has lost its handle? Drop-in for demonstrations of ceramics conservation and repair from the V&A's skilled conservation team. Thousands of ceramics were conserved for the new galleries and our team will show a selection of the techniques and object handling that were used.

Find Conservation Journal articles on objects in the Ceramics collection here .

Free, drop in