Ceramics and Performance: Powerful Expressions in Clay

Ceramics and performance are not obvious bedfellows. Or are they? Ashley Thorpe discusses how ceramics perform in different forms and contexts. He begins by looking at the use of ceramics in performance art and scenographic installation. He then explores the idea of performance via the ceramics in our homes (how well pots ‘perform’ their function), in the craft of the artist (how the potter ‘performs’ techniques), in work that is ephemeral (which he regards as akin to live performance), and as performative expressions of ideology and identity. Drawing on a symposium he convened in 2024, he discusses how a wide range of contemporary ceramic artists reveal clay as a powerful medium for expression precisely because they recognise its performative qualities.

Ashley Thorpe is a Reader in Theatre in the Department of Drama, Theatre & Dance at Royal Holloway. He is a collector of studio ceramics and has written three books on the subject, Contemporary British Ceramics: Beneath the Surface (Crowood, 2021), Contemporary British Studio Pottery: Forms of Expression (Crowood, 2023), and Julian Stair: Memory, Material, Ceramics (Yale, 2024), as well as articles for Ceramic Review and Ceramics: Art + Perception.