National Sculpture Factory Cork Factory Fragments

 

Factory Fragments by Simon Kidd A new NSF commission Available now through our online shop Simon Kidd, Cog II, 2024, stoneware, local stone & factory brick inclusions, hybrid gas & wood fired, matt glaze Factory Fragments is a limited series of ceramics by artist Simon Kidd, created using casts taken from features and structures in the NSF workshop, and fired using a range of natural materials and stone gathered from Oileán Chléire and the Factory itself. Last year we had the pleasure of working with Simon as part of our CLAY: holding/transforming/performing festival, during which he demonstrated his casting process. Over the course of the weekend, Simon engaged in a collaboration with the Factory building itself, collecting red brick fragments to incorporate into clay, taking casts of various features in the workshop, and using those casts to produce this small collection of artworks.  Factory Fragments was commissioned to play between the gap of the physical and digital exhibitions. The collection will be showcased in an online exhibition, accessible through a newly developed online portal - the NSF shop. This innovative approach allows the NSF to showcase the extraordinary site-located work created by Simon Kidd but also allows the Factory Fragments collection to be purchased online, offering a unique opportunity to acquire a piece of work that inculcates the constant creative history of the Factory floor. This collection is a series of fifteen ceramics; five forms taken from features on the Factory floor, and three different styles of glazing. Each piece is unique and available to buy for a limited time only. View the full collection in our online shop Simon Kidd, Duct III, 2024, stoneware, local stone & factory brick inclusions, gas fired, shino glaze Belfast born Simon Kidd graduated with a degree in Ceramic Design from Central Saint Martins in London, and currently lives and works on Oileán Chléire off West Cork. Simon uses a variety of processes – including throwing, slip casting, press moulding, and hand-building – as well as wood, gas, and electric-fired kilns to create sculptural ceramic forms that are meditations on place. He often incorporates site-specific materials – such as granite, basalt, limestone, wood ashes, and turf ash – gathered from around the island of Ireland and used as inclusions in the clay body and in glazes. He is currently creating a body of work while on residency on Oileán Chléire, an offshore island Gaeltacht, where he is making through live land casting and firing pieces in a custom-built hybrid kiln while incorporating the use of materials collected from the island.

Simon Kidd, Brick III, 2024, stoneware, local stone & factory brick inclusions, hybrid gas & wood fired, matt glaze "Objects, sculptures, vessels, artefacts. They always begin with a place, with its stories and feelings it evokes. My pieces respond directly to a place, they are embedded and coated with materials gathered from there. The forms informed by what is found there, or what once was there. I want these pieces to become artefacts of their place – to be physical connections to the land they’re born out of. Working with ceramics, I utilise different processes: throwing, slip casting, press moulding, hand-building. I allow the project I work on to inform the processes used. The constant thread throughout my work is the use of local materials, which are used as inclusions in the clay body or else as glazes – granite, basalt, limestone, wood and plant ashes. Endless possibilities for what can be used as well as how. This constant experimentation and learning it creates is an important part of my practice." You can read more about the Factory Fragments commission on our website          The National Sculpture Factory is funded by the Arts Council and Cork City Council.