The Cancellation of Art
An Evening with Claudia Clare and Rosie Kay
We are thrilled to announce that two wonderful artists, the ceramicist Claudia Clare and the dancer Rosie Kay, will be the stars of our next event on Monday 9 May at 7pm.
Please register here.
Cancellation has a long and varied history in the arts. Art has been cancelled for political reasons, for not propping up a nation’s view of itself for example, and for moral reasons, often by a prurient public outraged by the morally contentious nature of the artist or their work. How common is it, though, for artists to be cancelled by their fellow artists? Is the attack on free speech that we see in wider society to blame for the current wave of deplatforming in the art world? The protesters and cancellers argue that this is the start of a brave new world, that they are fighting for inclusion and diversity. Scratch the surface, however, and you may find the age-old phenomenons of misogyny and patriarchy lurking beneath the surface. Join us to hear the perspectives of these two fabulous artists whose lives and livelihoods have been at the sharp end of the current wave of cancel culture in the art world.
Claudia Clare is a distinguished ceramicist who was cancelled earlier this year by a prestigious ceramic art show held at Central Saint Martins. Rosie Kay is a renowned dancer and choreographer who was forced to resign from the dance company she herself founded. Read their biographies below.
We look forward to seeing you there.
Introduction (artist statement)
I make pots so I’ve got something to paint on - by ‘paint,’ I mean with slip - all my materials are ceramic. I trained as a painter but transferred to pots because I found the turning surface sympathetic to an unfolding visual narrative. Pots are our museum pieces, our archaeological and documentary evidence. Their human, cultural and historic associations appeal to me as a feminist artist interested in recording and interpreting women’s histories and contemporary lives. Pots also break and can be rebuilt. It is a compelling metaphor for the human experience of trauma and survival and one I deploy particularly in my feminist work.
Materials: I use a red earthenware mixed with black architectural Earthstone, coloured slips, sgraffito line, and clear glaze, sometimes with added enamel colour and lustre. The shattered pots are rebuilt using conservation grade adhesive and Gold or Aluminium leaf is used to gild the edges of shards to frame the internal images or emphasise a broken line.
About the Artist
Claudia Clare trained as a painter at Camberwell School of Art in the 1980s, followed by an apprenticeship with Winchcombe pottery in 1990. She became a regular contributor to Ceramic Review in 1997 and completed a Phd at University of Westminster in 2007. She has exhibited in numerous galleries and museums nationally and was shortlisted for the British Ceramics Biennial Major Award in 2013. In 2019 a major project with women@thewell prompted a growing interest in social and performance collaborations with feminist and community organisations including Filia International Feminist Conference. She is the author of ‘Subversive Ceramics,’ (Bloomsbury 2016) and co-wrote ‘The Pot Book’ (Phaidon, 2011) with Edmund de Waal.
ROSIE KAY
Biography
Rosie Kay (BA Hons) FRSA, MCR St Cross College, Oxford, born in Scotland, danced from a very early age, then trained at London Contemporary Dance School, graduating in 1998, before a career as a dancer in Poland, France, Germany and the USA. Kay returned to the UK in 2003, founded Rosie Kay Dance Company 2004-21 and is now setting up a new venture for her future works.
Kay’s works up to date include a contemporary adaptation of Romeo + Juliet (2021), and returned to performing on stage with the Absolute Solo II tour in 2021 with three personal solos danced by Kay, with Adult Female Dancer celebrated as the ‘Top 5 Dance Works of 2021’ by The Observer and Kay is nominated for a National Dance Award 2022 for Outstanding Female Performance (Modern) for Absolute Solo II. Kay is well known for the multi- award-winning work 5 SOLDIERS (2010- present) based on intense research with the British Army and large-scale development of this work, 10 SOLDIERS (2019). Kay’s works tour to Sadlers Wells, Birmingham REP, Norwich Theatre Royal, Salisbury Playhouse, Edinburgh Festival Theatre and regularly tours Europe and the USA.
Rosie Kay’s Fantasia, a pure-dance work about beauty was included in The Guardian’s ‘Top 10 Dance of 2019’. MK ULTRA was created in 2017 a work about conspiracy theory and pop made with BBC film-maker Adam Curtis. Other works include Motel (2016), a collaboration with visual artists Huntley Muir, Sluts of Possession (2013) created with rare archive material from the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, There is Hope (2012) exploring religion, Double Points: K (2008) a collaboration with Emio Greco| PC and Asylum (2005) based on research with asylum seekers. Kay choreographed the live Commonwealth Games Handover Ceremony (2018), watched by over 1 billion people worldwide and has worked in film as the choreographer to Sunshine on Leith (2013).
Kay was the first choreographer appointed Leverhulme Artist in Residence at the School of Anthropology, University of Oxford (2013). Awards for her work include Best Independent Company (2015) and nominated for Best Choreography for 5 Soldiers (2015), National Dance Awards and nominated for Best Independent Company 2012 and 2017, a Royal Society for Public Health Award for support to military communities, and the Bonnie Bird New Choreography Award.
In December 2021, Kay resigned from the company she founded, Rosie Kay Dance Company, citing constructive dismissal and discrimination. Kay was then was interviewed by Janice Turner in The Times and publishing an account of her story un Unherd.