About Things I Didn’t Know I Loved

The demands of the pandemic have caused so many of us to forget many of the meaningful things and connections in life. In this workshop we are looking to bring back and reinforce all these things that we have loved and to engage beloved memories.   

(20 minutes)  

Jacqueline Bishop (via video link) and Alice Thatcher (in-person) will begin the workshop by introducing themselves and their practice. 

(30 minutes)  

Based on previous workshops across the UK and USA, Bishop will bring together a small group of individuals to explore through language the things that they loved without knowing that they did. Bishop will begin the workshop by participants reading Nazim Hikmet’s gorgeous poem “Things I Did Not Know I Love” in a round robin format, before going on to discuss and dig deep for the memories, connotations and associations in the poems and how they relate to one’s self. Emphasizing trust, openness and vulnerability participants will then write about the things they did not know they loved. Bishop hopes to engender in the workshop participants a greater awareness for the small simple pleasures of life. Each participant will then choose a word, sentence or phrase to add to an overall collage of a group poem.    

(45 minutes)  

In the final section of the workshop, artist and ceramicist Alice Thatcher will assist participants to visually communicate their emotions by imprinting their words into clay.   

After the workshop is complete the plates will be fired (and possibly put on display). The group members will be able to collect their plates afterwards    

This workshop is a part of the rich creative offering through Hi Stoke Culture festival programme supported by Historic England’s Heritage Action Zone. 

Who

This workshop is for EVERYONE who wants to explore words, memories and clay. Children under 12 however would have to be accompanied and supervised by an adult. 

Delivered By

Jacqueline Bishop (via video link)

Bishop is a writer and visual artist whose book, The Gymnast & Other Positions, was awarded the 2016 OCM Bocas Award in Non-Fiction. She is also the author most recently of “The Gift of Music & Song: Interviews of Jamaican Women Writers.”  Awards she has received include the Canute A. Brodhurst Prize for short story writing, a year-long Fulbright grant to Morocco, a UNESCO/Fulbright Fellowship to Paris, and a Brown Foundation/Dora Maar visual arts award.  She is currently studying for her PhD at the university of Leeds. Bishop’s work ‘History at the Dinner Table’ which consists of brightly colours bone China plates used symbolically in Caribbean homes and explores how they hid the violent side of slavery and colonialism in European countries at this year’s biennial.
Jacqueline Bishop website link.

Alice Thatcher (in-person)

Alice Thatcher is a ceramic artist working with clay and people in Stoke-on-Trent. Her practice focuses on community, clay, people and place. She believes in the connections we can make using ceramic processes and is passionate about engaging with others whilst using clay as a tool for conversation.
Alice Thatcher website link.

Accessibility

The Goods Yard is accessible for wheelchair users and people with pushchairs. There is a lift to take people between floors once inside the venue and there is an accessible toilet on the ground floor. Visit The Goods Yard venue page for full accessibility guidelines or contact us on access@britishceramicsbiennial.com if you wish to discuss anything specific.

Supported By

This exhibition is supported by Hi Stoke Culture Festival and Historic England Heritage Action Zone.