For the month of May ceramic students from Working Men’s College will be participating on an intervention project at the Royal Veterinary College. Over 100 pieces of ceramic animals will be installed in the museum at RVC, sharing the space with skeletal models and animal specimens preserved in formalin. Participating artists include: Wendy Arnot/ Marcella Mameli Badi/ Joanna Baines/ Richard Bates/ Beate Bechtold/ ElizabethBordass/ Jimena Cancino/ John Clarke/ Liz Mendes da Costa/ Leviathen Hendricks/ Pische Hughes/ Charlotte Jarvis/Lesley John/ Kusum Nelson-Jones/ Erna Joy/ Rosh Keegan/ Valli Kohon/ Liz Love/ Sharon Lynch/ Sunil Modi/ Kuniko Oki/ Yiannis Pareas/ Gillian Rathouse/ Miriam Reik/ Margret Rich/ Tony Royle/ Dyan Sheldon/ Karen Sussman/ Anne Tickell/ George Deville/ Hideko Oka Ward/ Nicola Web
33 ceramicists had gathered together on this occasion to create a different experience in viewing ceramics. Distanced from plinths and pedestals, these works present a non-conventional way of looking and appreciating the medium. Situated amongst the delicate laboratory samples, the equally fragile ceramic beasts emphasise the multiple ways of imagining animal life forms and how one can gain ideas from animals, whether they be scientific or artistic inspirations. Amongst the ceramic works, the preserved animals also begin to take on a strange identity that was never before realised. Perhaps they gain more life, or lose a sense of reality when positioned next to art objects. The exhibition enunciates the abilities of these objects to influence one another in order to create a challenging context for viewers.
The concept of the project had developed from a large number of ceramic works that students at WMC had produced over the years. With the warm welcome of RVC this project has been made possible and was produced with much hope to inspire many visitors, including artists and scientists.
Exhibition is open via appointments only, from Tuesdays to Fridays 2 – 5pm. Please contact Erica Shiozaki at EricaS@wmcollege.ac.uk, or call 07539931113 to book your appointment.
For more information about the artists and for images of their works, please contact Erica at EricaS@wmcollege.ac.uk or through http://www.ruskingallery.com.
Installation images:
John Clarke “Large Owl” (2011)
Tony Royle “Monster Fish” (2012)
From Left: Elizabeth Boardass “Monkey” (2010) and Yiannis Pareas “Taurus” (2012)
Installation View: Cabinet
Hideko Oka Ward “Origami Birds” (2012)
Installation View Refectory Cabinet 1
Miriam Reik “Pinch Bird” (2011)
Installation View cabinet 2
Installation View Cabinet 2
Rosh Keegan – From far left in counter-clockwise: It Wasn’t Me – Great Whit Northern Rhino (2011); Warrior Ninjinsky (2010); and Kettling Warthog (2011)
Installation View Cabinet 3
Sharon Lynch “Terracotta Dog” (2011)
Charlotte Jarvis “Dachshund” (2010)
From Left, anti clockwise: Jimena Cancino Bird Vase” (2011); Wendy Arnot “Baby Bird” (2011) and J. Cancino “Kiwi Bowl” (2012)
All photographs by Andrea Heselton
© Andrea Heselton 2012
the Ruskin Gallery 
