LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM

BEX SHAW

Hurkur Lidded Vessel

$120.00
Exhibition Submission Statement

My work is very much concerned with ideas about containment, largely of cultural and personal memory and ancestral locations which I explore through the creation of mostly non functional vessels as well as more adamantly sculptural pieces. As a practicing psychotherapist as well as  ceramicist the meaning of containment has a profound role in both my spheres of interest. 

This single small lidded vessel is made from porcelain and local clay dug from the shoreline of Scotland following a period of research in Eyemouth, Berwickshire where my great granny grew up.  In the bay at Eyemouth are a group of rocks known as the Hurkurs -no one is quite sure as to the origins of the word, it possibly has Norse roots in a word meaning 'to crouch' and they do have a crouching, lurking quality aesthetically. These rocks are an important feature of the seascape and protect the bay  from the North Sea, however they are also partially responsible for the wrecking of the fishing fleet which killed many of my great granny's male relatives on October 14th, 1881-known as the Eyemouth Fishing Disaster or Black Friday - it is  still one of the greatest maritime disasters in UK history with the loss of 129 men from the village.

Dimensions: 3.2"H x 2"W

Material: Porcelain and Eyemouth Clay

Artwork ships: beginning october 22nd

Hurkur Lidded Vessel

Bex Shaw, 2024
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Artist Statement

With a long standing interest in the sea, intertidal and liminal zones reflected in her early ceramic work in 2023 she began to develop her current body of work. This explores cultural inheritance, coastal geographies, migration and identity and uses collected local clay bodies, sand, seaweeds and jetsam from Scotland's shores.  Bex completed a residency at Linkshouse run by the Pier Art Centre in Orkney in 2023 and returning to London with some local clay, the work began to take shape.  In 2024 research took her to Eyemouth in the Scottish Borders where she again collected local clay to work with back in the studio in London. This year  continues with a visit to Fife, following her maternal ancestors migratory journey. Bex ultimately plans to go to Norway - from where her Norse ancestors arrived in Orkney. The resulting ceramic work is made mostly made in London where she now lives and works and has its own onward journey via exhibition. Eventually Bex aims to create a new, entirely unique clay body from a combination of all the clays she finds…

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About the Artist

Bex completed Art Foundation in Leeds before beginning a textiles degree in London, UK in 1990. Following completion of her studies and time spent writing exhibition reviews for City Limits Magazine in Manchester she went on to train and work as a psychotherapist, photographer and illustrator. Returning to art education via clay and learning to throw in 2015 she went on to complete various experimental ceramics courses at London's City Lit in 2022. Since completing her studies Bex has has taken. part in regular group shows in the UK and developed a ceramic practise which explored ancestral heritage and genius loci exploring her inheritance by visiting and collecting local clay from the Scottish coastal communities of her origins.

Artist cv

BEX SHAW

Other works from the WHAT HOLDS Exhibition