Join artist Aisling Ward for a hands-on workshop connecting clay, memory and resistance as part of her upcoming Ode to the Midlands commission, Trisantona.

Trisantona follows the River Trent, the great trespasser, the wanderer, through the deep geological, industrial and radical political histories of Stoke-on-Trent. At the heart of the research is the Etruria Marl: a 310-million-year-old red earth, dug from the ground beneath this city for centuries, and fired into the iron-hard Staffordshire Blue engineering bricks that still line the canals today.

In this workshop, we will work directly with raw, unfired Etruria Marl clay, the same material that has been shaped by hands in this landscape for generations. Using letter-stamps, pressing and carving techniques, participants will engrave their own scores into bricks: instructions for the hands or the voice, marking words, textures, memories, and the lines of a river as she might run if left to wander.

We’ll also spend time listening: to field recordings gathered along the canal network, to archival fragments from the region, and to each other. Each person will be invited to speak aloud what they have marked, and these voices will be recorded for the film. A chance to share space, make something, and build a sense of place together.

The objects created will remain unfired. Afterwards, Aisling will return them to the river to slowly dissolve, returning the raw clay to the water and silt of the landscape. Before they dissolve, each object will be 3D scanned. Those digital forms will live permanently inside the final moving-image work, shared in February/March 2027.

About Aisling Ward

Aisling is an artist and curator from Ilkeston, Derbyshire. Their practice explores industrial heritage, landscape and collective memory through film, sound and performance. Drawing on often overlooked histories of labour and land, their work connects local places and the people rooted in them to broader questions of power, resistance, and ecology.

Instagram: @aislingrward
Website: www.aislingward.com

About Ode to the Midlands

Ode to the Midlands (OttM) brings together six organisations across the East and West Midlands to support six mid-career artists from Global Majority, Disabled, Deaf and/or Neurodivergent backgrounds. These artists will create ambitious new digital artworks exploring the cultural, historic, and geographical identities of the Midlands. Commissions will be developed and delivered May 2026 – March 2027.

OttM responds to long-standing underinvestment in the Midlands’ visual arts ecology by strengthening regional connectivity, creative opportunity, and public engagement through inclusive digital practice.

The programme is led collaboratively by CVAN EM and CVAN WM, hosted respectively by New Art Exchange in Nottingham and DASH in the West Midlands.

OttM has funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

Access

• The BCB Studio has flat access via lift (115 cm x 93 cm, max load 400kg) 
• Accessible toilets are available
• Service dogs welcome
• Portable Loop available

Please contact info@britishceramicsbiennial.com if there is anything we can do to support your participation in this event.