Our image bank for the White Bluff Project is loaded with pictures of Phil Greed, kneeling in the sand at White Bluff, clay pressed to the rough rocks of the littoral, waves lapping his bare feet, soaking his rolled up trousers. Imprinting the folds, creases, raised lines, cracks and fissures of the shoreline into the clay.
The challenge then, is removing the slab while retaining its new form and imprints. The process leaves a blush of white clay on the original rocks, as if the conversation is two-way, both surfaces imprinting each other.
In describing his White Bluff Project pieces Phil says: “My response to the project has become direct. Literally taking clay on site and pressing it into surfaces. I use these slabs to create forms that are also informed by White Bluff – a tactile, raw response. Responding to the site has taken my work to new places.”
As an artist, clay has always been Phil’s favourite medium - “clay just does it for me” he says: “form and surface.” As a ceramic artist and teacher, he has long been making objects rich with associations of time and place, memories, and emotions. For The White Bluff Project Phil’s work has explored the rocky surfaces of the bluff in one of the most tactile and hands on approaches to the site of all participants.
Phil has also been heavily involved in collaboration, working with a slew of other participants from a range of disciplines. As part of the project, he also led a group experience, giving clay slabs to all participants, and allowing group members an hour to work on site shaping that clay, impressing it with the site and creating. The pieces were then taken back to his workshop and fired.
Phil’s final, more technical pieces for the Project were an extension of this early, initial collaborative workshop.
“I like the to-ing and fro-ing of working on an object, handing it on to someone else to work on and then receiving it back. The process was great. I was pretty pumped with adrenaline in my studio. Collaborating with the team has been fun and interesting. It has definitely taken my work somewhere new.”
Visits to the White Bluff site, particularly the group workshops Phil describes as informative and enjoyable - lots to think about and absorb.
“This is a bigger project than I’ve experienced before. More people, so it adds a whole other layer to the process. The dynamic of working with other people opens up ideas and doorways. For me there have been no lightbulb moments. The work just evolved through trusting the process.”
The final body of work that Phil has produced is visually stunning, varied and expressive and will no doubt be a highlight and feature of the Project’s final exhibition. The images on this page give just a sample of what will be on show and stay tuned to our social media feeds for video footage and more images of Phil’s processes.
