A project by Aaron Angell (hosted at OSE between 2014 and 2016)

Troy Town Art Pottery was hosted at Open School East between January 2014 and April 2016, when it relocated to Hoxton. Troy Town Art Pottery is a radical and psychedelic ceramic workshop for artists. It was founded in response to dwindling ceramics access in London, and to frustration with the established models of ceramic production. At Open School East, the workshop was fully equipped and was available to use for 4 resident artists at a time for two week periods.

Who is it for?

Troy Town Art Pottery is for artists wishing to use ceramics as a sculptural medium within their work. While the mainstream history of the ceramic medium is generally one of studio pottery and functional wares, it is our belief that ceramics is better suited as a free material, divorced from the context of craft and design.

TTAP resists the influence of the vessel form on ceramics and limits the production of functional or quasi-functional wares within the pottery. Instead we want to canonise and recall those truly sculptural ceramic types and movements which are scattered across the history of the material. From the votive terracotta body parts of ancient Italy, to aspects of the California clay movement of the 1950s, we aim to celebrate ceramics as an accessible means of sculptural production which can coexist naturally with other media.

How does it work?

No ceramic experience is necessary, but residencies at TTAP are not taught, and instead aim to function cooperatively. A mixture of skill levels is aimed at when selecting residents so that skills can be shared among the group. Additionally, a full technical library is available at TTAP, and a brief introductory reading list of technical articles is provided to residents prior to the making week. TTAP staff are always on hand to answer technical questions during residencies.

A residency consists of up to one week studio time for the making of pieces, followed by a two week break during which these pieces are biscuit fired by TTAP staff ready for glazing. Resident artists then return for up to a week for glazing, firing and finishing. This timescale may be adjusted on an ad-hoc basis, depending on the types of works produced. All works produced at Troy Town Art Pottery remain the property of the resident artists.

TTAP residents have been: Nicolas Deshayes, Jess Flood Paddock, Sam Keogh, Sophie von Hellermann, Caroline Achaintre, Alex Crocker, George Henry Longly, Marlie Mul, Berry Patten, Allison Katz, Cullinan Richards, Alex Rathbone, Esme Toler, Susan Finlay, Bruce Ingram, Isabel Mallet, Tom Gidley, Will Robinson, Leslie Kulesh, Paddy Gould, Roxy Topia, Matthew Smith, Rebecca Ackroyd, Andy Harper, Richard Healy, Nissa Nishikawa, Shama Khanna, Renee So, Candice Lin, Ruairiadh O’Connell, Frances Drayson, Julia Lancaster, Sarah Entwistle, Rhett Leinster-Evans, Nicole Wermers, Ed Hill, Kathrin Bohm, Justin Fitzpatrick, Phil Root, Ian Law, Sam Cotterell, Richard John Jones, Olga Cerkesova, James Unsworth, Anthea Hamilton, Pascal Nichols, Charlie Duck, Andrew Mealor, Hannah Regel, Andrew Munks, Ben Cove, Emily Speed, Zoe Williams, Raphael Weilguni and Viola Relle.

Troy Town Art Pottery is a project by Aaron Angell. While at Open School East, it received funding from Arts Council England and Create London.

For more information about Troy Town Art Pottery, please contact: troytownartpottery@gmail.com