About Weekend Artist Talks

Join us at the BCB festival weekends to meet, ask questions and hear from many of the talented artists exhibiting with us this year. The artist talks will bring energy to the BCB festival weekends and share more in-depth and behind the scenes stories about how it’s been creating work over the past several months, their careers as artists, their greatest inspirations and the artwork they have created especially for BCB 2021. The talks are available to attend in-person or via private live stream.

When

Saturday 11th September 

14:30pm-15:00pm – Alison Cooke, AWARD 2021 Exhibitor, in conversation with Ho Lai, AWARD 2021 Exhibitor.

15:15pm-15:45pm – Ho Lai, AWARD 2021 Exhibitor, in conversation with Alison Cooke, AWARD 2021 Exhibitor.

16:00pm-16:30pm – Toni de Jesus, Fresh Talent Award Winner 2019.

Artists Involved

Alison Cooke

Alison Cooke is a ceramicist who works site responsively with clay dug from interventions such as mining, scientific research or construction. Her work revolves around the layers of history below a location, with a particular focus on hidden or underground networks where histories relate to, and impact on our lives today. The materials are used in their natural state and fired at an extreme range of temperatures.  

Alison’s work is self-initiated, project based and often includes public engagement and involvement of other artists. She is a founding member of ceramics collective the Associated Clay Workers Union (ACWU).

Alison Cooke website link.

Ho Lai 

Ho Lai is a ceramic artist from Hong Kong, based in London UK. Her work explores the contemporary nature of ceramics, experimenting with the materials and processes involved in its creation. She finds poetics in the transformation of material through working in the approach both subversive and experimental. The interrogation of an idea, colour combinations and material experimentation are prominent in her practice. Lai attained MA in Ceramics and Glass at the Royal College of Art (2019) and was awarded the Grocer’s Hall Scholarship during her study. Upon graduation, she exhibited at the British Ceramics Biennial FRESH and has since widely participated in various exhibitions. She is currently working in her studio at Cockpit Arts Deptford, located in the south-eastern part of London.

Ho Lai website link.

Toni de Jesus 

Toni de Jesus’ work and ethos is centred around the idea of ceramics and its strong association with craft – as a material and its context within the fine art spectrum. He is interested in the connotations porcelain and terracotta inherited, their history. Symbols of trade, status, function, hierarchy; all factors which compare with the constant debate regarding crafts and its position within today’s society. 

Questions raised by this discourse resonate through his practice. A fusion of coil building and levels of flux cause each form to oscillate, as if in response to attempts at fixed definition.

Toni de Jesus website link.

Where

This event is taking place in-person at BCB’s festival hub, The Goods Yards, and online via a private livestream.

Tickets

There are 10 tickets available to attend the talk in-person and 50 tickets for the private Livestream. Please ensure you choose the right ticket by clicking Book Now and checking the name of the ticket reads IN-PERSON or LIVESTREAM.

We’re introducing a sliding scale ticket system for ticketed events at British Ceramics Biennial 2021.