When I met Stephen Dixon in his studio at London’s Victoria and Albert (V&A) museum, he had just moved in and was working on a large-scale bust of Queen Victoria. Enlisting the help of the visiting public, the piece has been decorated with broken pieces of crockery. Dixon, who trained as a fine artist at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and studied ceramics at the Royal College of Art, is the first artist in residence at the V&A’s refurbished Ceramics Galleries. His studio for the next six months, the duration of his residency, will be surrounded by ceramic masterpieces from all over the world.
Positioned on the top floor of the museum, and filled with natural light, the Ceramics Galleries have been redesigned by British architecture practice Stanton Williams. They run the length of the Cromwell Road façade of the museum, which measures a staggering 219m, and is home to the V&A ceramic collection spanning 4,000 years, with artefacts dating from 2500 BC to the present day.The direct interaction between practising designers and the V&A’s collection is one of the aims of the new galleries, explains Reino Liefkes, lead curator for the Ceramics Galleries: ‘we’re aiming to find out how past masterpieces could inspire future research and development in ceramics’, he says.
The galleries have been left almost untouched since 1909 when the original architect, Aston Webb, completed the lavish design of the museum. Now they have been completely reshaped from a curatorial and spatial point of view, the result of an integrated project between the architect, curators and education department at the V&A, and the graphic and communication design firm Cartlidge Levene.
Dixon’s studio is part of the Timothy Sainsbury Gallery, where visitors can explore and understand the processes behind ceramics, with a wide range of tools on show, and items that form part of the collection. These are complemented by specially commissioned film footage to explain ceramic techniques which date to the Seventh century.
The idea is for the public to assist Dixon as he works. Next to him is a reconstruction of a medieval kiln used to fire terracotta tiles, and a partial reconstruction of Albion Mews workshop, the famous pottery studio run by Austrian-born ceramicist Lucie Rie.
Before taking up residency at the V&A, Dixon, who is Professorial Research Fellow at the Manchester Metropolitan University, held residencies in Australia, 2006, and in India, 2008, investigating, as he puts it, the indelible traces left by British imperialism. The outcome was a collection of pieces displayed earlier in the year at the Contemporary Applied Arts galleries in London and parts of it will be showcased at the V&A.
Dixon’s work appears subtle at first sight, yet is dense with meaningful layers of content that unfold before the viewer. ‘My two previous residencies marked a significant shift in my work’, he says. ‘I have also started to explore and combine ceramic research and techniques with textiles and enamel.’
The Bush Pantry installation, part of the work created after his trip to Australia, consists of a series of traditional enameled kitchen utensils, customized with designs Dixon had taken from the tattoos of British convicts sent to Australia, which he discovered in records held at Guy’s Hospital, London. The objects were fired again to embed the new design in the enamel.
While in India, Dixon explored the country’s colonial connection with Britain via the textile industry. The work he created as a result was a mix of ceramic (including a diary of his residency on ceramic tablets) and a patchwork British flag, in which the portrait of an Indian god has been superimposed on to the Saint George cross.
‘For many years I have been collecting the calico fabrics, which textiles students at Manchester Metropolitan use as covering for their printing tables,’ explains Dixon. ‘Now I’ve used them in this flag, combining them with fabric similar to that used by women printmakers in India.’
Dixon is also putting the finishing touches to a project to be unveiled in October for the first British Ceramics Biennial in Stoke-on-Trent. ‘For the event, I have constructed a large sculpture inspired by the battleship token from the Monopoly game,’ says Dixon. ‘It will be decorated with thousands of handmade bone china flowers in their biscuit unglazed form, which will have travelled from the Aynsley Bone China factory in Stoke-on-Trent. The idea is to make it look like a reef, as a way to address the current crises of capitalism’.
Dixon admits that his work develops slowly as he tends to research and collect material over a long period. For now, he feels it is too early to forecast what he will find in the Ceramics Galleries that will trigger his interest or connect with the work he made during his trips to Australia and India. With his open-minded approach, it is clear that Dixon will be at home among the V&A’s immense historical archives.
The V&A Ceramics Galleries reopened on 18 September. For more information visit www.vam.ac.uk.
The British Ceramics Biennial is on 3 October-13 December in Stoke-on-Trent. For details visit www.stokeceramicsfestival.co.uk
