Material Matters With Grant Gibson

Edmund de Waal is that rarest of creatures, a potter who has broken out of the crafts world into the fine art market. He also happens to be a best-selling author of books such as The Hare with Amber Eyes and The White Road as well as a lucid and thoughtful speaker and curator. His work has been shown around the world in places such as the RA, Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum, the V&A and the Ateneo Veneto in Venice. His first set design featured in the 2017/18 Season at the Royal Opera House for Yugen, a new ballet by choreographer Wayne McGregor.In this episode we talk about a childhood he has described as ‘odd’ (the Pope and Princess Diana both came around the house but not at the same time apparently), the relationship between making and writing, dealing with critics, and why some pots are ‘needy’. The thread running through it all is his love of the white stuff – in his case, porcelain.You can find out more about Edmund’s work here: edmunddewaal.com Support the show

Celia Pym is an artist who has taken darning out of the domestic sphere and into galleries and museums. In this episode we chat about a career that has encompassed studying sculpture at Harvard via jobs in teaching and nursing – as well as a stint at the Royal College of Art – to being a finalist of the Woman’s Hour Craft Prize in 2018. One of the intriguing elements of Pym’s work is that she uses the process of darning and the objects that are brought to her to get to know people. As she told me in our discussion: ‘Early on I heard tons of stories about grief and I wasn’t sure if that was to do with me or the way I was asking the question… I realised it’s the damage that interested me sometimes more than the repair. I wondered if subconsciously I’d been communicating that. Instead of showing me a hole, I was saying show me the damage.’ Her story of how she started to repair her late great uncle’s jumper is genuinely emotional. You can find out more about Celia here: celiapym.comSupport the show

Peter Layton is one of the pioneers of the British studio glass movement. During our interview Peter recounts an extraordinary life that has included fleeing Eastern Europe from the Nazis and settling as an immigrant in Bradford, studying ceramics under the likes of Ruth Duckworth (and not Dickinson as your tongue-tied host accidentally said) at the Central School of Art and Design, meeting the wildly influential glass artist Harvey Littleton while he was teaching in the US, and burning himself badly the first time he ever tried to work with the material. Naturally enough he discusses his love of glass but, perhaps as importantly, how he has managed to keep his workshop and gallery London Glassblowing – employing 10 other makers – going successfully in the heart of a city intent on gentrification. It’s really quite inspiring. Incidentally did you know that Peter’s son, Bart, wrote and directed the absolutely brilliant heist movie American Animals, which was released in 2018? They are one of those annoyingly t

Every now and again I break the format of the podcast and speak to a critic or someone who can provide an overview of the field. In series one I featured  the New York-based curator and commentator Glenn Adamson. The fact that he also had a new book out – entitled Fewer Better Things: The Hidden Wisdom of Objects – was an added bonus. I think it’s safe to say that we cover a fair amount of turf in our conversation: the relationship between academia and craft, the role of museums in our digital age, middle class consumption, and how his grandfather Arthur became a rocket scientist (I know what you’re thinking but he really did). The thread running through all this is the importance of what he describes as ‘material intelligence’. Incidentally did you know that Glenn can play the Irish pipes? No, me neither.You can find out more about Glenn and his work here: glennadamson.comSupport the show