The installation Untitled – Suspended, 380 x 90 x 30cm was made specifically for the exhibition ‘Clay in Vivo’ at APT Gallery, London, October 2026

Untitled – Suspended presents a moment in the making of a structure that promises coherence by way of the visual and structural similarity of its elements. At the same time, it remains uncertain what the nature of that coherence is and what purpose it might serve. The clay lattice suggests permeability and a level of transparency without the solidity of architectural lattice brickwork. Here, the unfired elements are fragile and tentatively knotted together, precariously dangling from ropes - earth displaced from the ground into the air. Bits are broken off; it is not clear beforehand what the piece will look like when it is installed in the gallery. As so often in life so here in art, the outcome cannot really be calculated, and the result can only be partially anticipated. Each part is mobile and without foundation and its arrangement is arbitrary to the extent that the positions of the elements are interchangeable and only limited by external constrains.

The reef knots and rope texture on the clay panels may be read as referencing the location of the exhibition in what was formally Harold Wharf, one of many wharfs along the creek. What the significance of this gesture towards site specificity is, however, remains open. Cord marked pottery is almost as old as pottery itself, from Japan to North America to Europe, so these marks are slippery signifiers on any spatial-temporal axis.

Yet in this unmooring from specific narratives and preconceptions also lies the possibility for improvisation, and for materials to be used and perceived in new ways. Being so clearly temporary and transitional, the work suggests a dynamic space with a high degree of adaptability, not so much out of necessity as out of a desire to explore and play.