CLAY: holding/transforming/performing is a season of clay at the National Sculpture Factory. It celebrates clay as a fundamental and complex material. A key tenet of this clay season is to be witness to experts in moments of live practice, to look into the complexity of clay production and material negotiation. This season of clay presents the breadth of material practice from the skills of traditional practices to the urgency of this material vital to expressive and sculptural live practices. The programme of live practice and keynote live conversations will present deep insights into the production and elemental demands of this ancient and current material.

This Festival is curated by artist Clare Twomey (UK), artist Nuala O’Donovan (Ire) and NSF curator Dobz O’Brien.

CLAY: holding/transforming/performing is a season of clay at the National Sculpture Factory, Cork. It will be run across 2 full weekends.

The first weekend is on July 15th & 16th and the second on August 26th & 27th

Detailed schedules alongside lists of participating artists for the both weekends can be found here.

Between the opening and closing event there will be a mould-making workshop and a ‘Live’ Bench housed within the National Sculpture Factory for the duration of the festival, where artists can come in and make a ceramic work which will be Raku fired on the closing weekend.

Please check all our social media and NSF website for all continuing details.

Our opening weekend, July 15th & 16th, begins on Saturday morning at the NSF with Clare Twomey, Aaron Angell & Troy Town, Susan O’Byrne and  Nuala O’Donovan introducing their clay practices under the conceptual framework of the festival; Holding/Transforming/Performing. Aaron Angell & Troy Town will be in-studio at the NSF in the afternoon testing, making & developing their production of medieval tiles resulting in creating a pavement of tiles.

Also on Saturday afternoon we will have an instructional talk on Raku techniques from Bernadette Tuite, and the live raku bench opens where members of the public are invited to create a piece to be fired later during the festival. Saturday evening we move to Cork Centre for Architectural Education (CCAE) for Clare Twomey in conversation with Linda Sormin, reviewing her practice through the lens of the conceptual framework of the festival and discussing how fundamental and complex clay is as a material and the breath of its material possibilities – this will be followed by a round table discussion where the audience can get involved.

On Sunday Aaron Angell & Troy Town will be in-studio all day continuing work on their medieval tiles. There will be live practice with Susan O’Byrne in the morning, and Nuala O’Donovan and Bernadette Tuite in the afternoon. We wrap up in the evening on the Factory Floor, gathering all participating artists to reflect, in a round table discussion, on the conditions of the Festival; Holding/Transforming/Performing and what we have captured and achieved over the weekend’s events.

Book your spot here. Day schedules here.