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', initiated 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.

Moving forward, this exhibition at Bonington Gallery was the first showing of the newly generated outcomes, with a subsequent exhibition taking place at Sheffield Hallam SIA Gallery in 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: Chloë Brown (SHU) and Andrew Brown, Joanne Lee, Danica Maier and Debra Swann (NTU).

Recent NTU fine art graduates who participated in the original Spode project were in residence during the exhibition: Ciaran Harrington and Christine Stevens.

Throughout the Returns exhibition, researchers from the project led a series of discussion workshops. Each session was intended for a small group of invited speakers and participants who considered a specific area emerging from the concerns uncovered in Returns’ research through practice.

The discussions took the form of presentations, group conversations and practical activities. Their aim was to bring together professionals and practitioners to reflect upon three particular points of focus:

• Digging through Dirt: Archaeology past, present, precious and unwanted - Wednesday 11 February
• Artists will have your Ruin: Regeneration through the arts - Wednesday 18 February
• Ruins of Craft: Lost art of making - Wednesday 25 February