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Opening at Watts Gallery – Artists’ Village on 13 July, Edges is a group exhibition bringing together international artists working in ceramics and sound.
The culmination of three residencies – including most recently a residency at Watts Gallery – Artists’ Village - Edges is an evolving collaborative project, featuring work by contemporary artists from Ireland, the UK and Estonia, three nations at the western and eastern edges of Europe.
During these residencies and international exchanges, artists explore what it means to work at the edge of something, and how we understand ‘the outsider’. Artistic practice as ‘cutting edge’ is also considered, along with an investigation of geographical boundaries.
The resulting work has been brought together for this exhibition, including new site-specific ceramics by Kay Aplin (UK) and a soundtrail by Joseph Young (UK) inspired by their residency at Watts Gallery. Aplin has created ceramic wall sculptures for the Reading Niche in Limnerslease and also for Watts Chapel, and Young has developed a geo-located soundtrail which invites the audience to walk between the two sites. This will be the first time this work has been exhibited.
Other featured artists are Suzanne Walsh (IE, sound), Dr. Linda O'Keeffe (IE, sound), Pille Kaleviste (EE, ceramics), Juss Heinsalu (EE, ceramics), Katharine West (IE, ceramics) and Patrick McGinley aka murmur (EE, sound) and Richard Carr (IE, sound).
Edges is produced by artist-curators Kay Aplin and Joseph Young of The Ceramic House, Brighton in partnership with Irish curator and sound artist Richard Carr.
Alistair Burtenshaw, Brice Director & Chief Executive, Watts Gallery Trust, said: “We are delighted to welcome Edges to Watts Gallery – Artists’ Village in this milestone year for our organisation. In April, we celebrated 120 years since Watts Gallery first opened its doors to visitors, and in November we will celebrate the 175th anniversary of the birth of our co-founder, Mary Watts.”
“The creative partnership of Kay Aplin and Joseph Young echoes that of our founding artists, G F and Mary Watts, and the work they have made for this exhibition demonstrates how the Wattses’ legacy continues to inspire creativity today.”
Kay Aplin said: “Arriving at Watts Gallery and seeing Mary Watts’s Chapel for the first time was a kind of revelation, particularly given my practice of tile making, and I feel honoured to have had the opportunity to respond so intimately during the course of our residency with Mary’s legacy especially in this year of her 175th anniversary.”
Joseph Young said: “Through walking and listening to the land and to the archives of the Watts Gallery estate, I created a geo-located soundtrail which connects Limnerslease and the Chapel, bringing together all of the various strands of the Edges project in a surreal and poetic manner, whilst opening up the listener’s “doors of perception”, to quote Aldous Huxley, who is buried next to the Chapel.”
Edges opens at Watts Gallery – Artists’ Village on 13 July (until 3 November). A programme of events accompanies the exhibition. To find out more: wattsgallery.org.uk
Tamsin Williams – tamsin@wigwampr.com - +44 (0)7939 651252
The first residency took place in April 2022 at The Ceramic House (supported by European funding) pairing two sound artists from Ireland, Linda O’Keeffe and Suzanne Walsh, with Estonian ceramicists Juss Heinsalu and Pille Kaleviste.
The second residency at Interface in the Inagh Valley, Connemara in June 2023, saw Kay Aplin and Joseph Young exploring the Connemara landscape, accompanied by curator Richard Carr, in a series of walks and wanderings, gathering binaural sound recordings and plant, fossil, lichen specimens as they went.
The third residency took place at Watts Gallery - Artists’ Village, Surrey (October -December 2023), focusing on Limnerslease, the former home of celebrated artist couple, George Frederic Watts (1817-1904) and Mary Watts (1849-1938). Here Aplin and Young explored a more personal take on encounters through partnership, both through the lens of their own relationship and the creation of The Ceramic House, their artist home, which was conceived and developed by Kay.
Watts Gallery Trust is an independent charity established in 1904 to enable future generations to connect with the art and ideas of George Frederic Watts, one of the leading artists of the nineteenth century, and his artist-wife, Mary Seton Watts.
G F Watts OM RA (1817-1904) was widely considered to be the greatest painter of the Victorian age. He became the first living artist to have a solo exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the artist’s ‘gift to the Nation’ made a significant contribution to the founding collections of Tate Britain and the National Portrait Gallery.
Mary Watts (1848-1939) was an artist, designer, writer, businesswoman and philanthropist. Her art supported and inspired the people around her, involving local communities in her projects. She was the creative powerhouse behind two significant enterprises: the Watts Chapel and the Compton Potters’ Arts Guild.
Today, Watts Gallery - Artist’s Village continues George and Mary Watts's legacy of Art for all by all. This vision to make art accessible to everyone is realised through a dynamic and multi-sensory programme of creativity, exhibitions, contemporary art projects and community engagement. Read more.