Returns

Returns is part of an on-going collaboration between Nottingham Trent University and Sheffield Hallam University (SHU). Established in 2012, it formed out of an International Research Project titled Topographies of the Obsolete, set up by Bergen Academy of Art and Design, Norway; and focused on the disused ceramics factory in Stoke-on-Trent, Spode Works.

The aim of the research is to deepen and develop our understanding of the post-industrial landscape with specific reference to the industrial ruin. Through a series of residencies and workshops, a cross-disciplinary group of artists and researchers from a range of international art institutions, set out to explore the socio-economic histories, industrial architecture and production remains of the former Spode Works. The results of the research were exhibited and published during the British Ceramics Biennial in September 2013 and Seconds, in the Lace Market Gallery in March 2014.

This exhibition at Bonington Gallery was the first showing of newly generated outcomes, with a subsequent exhibition taking place at Sheffield Hallam SIA Gallery in Winter 2016. Each exhibition will be a new development from the work previously exhibited, demonstrating the progression of the research.

The exhibition brings together artistic research from: Andrew Brown, Joanne Lee, Danica Maier, Debra Swann; and Chloë Brown.