Eva Masterman is a socially engaged artist working with clay. What does that mean? Well, I asked her when she presented her work on the Sunderland ‘Creative Lives’ programme. In some ways it is obvious – one of the reasons she loves clay is because it is so inclusive. As she says, anyone has the capacity to make meaningful work in clay, no matter their ethnic or socio-economic background, level of ability or disability. So maybe its not surprising that so much of her work has her reaching out to communities and collectives to get involved.
Yet her own work is not exactly accessible, in the sense that it isn’t immediately obvious what it offers to an audience. Take the example of ‘Used’ (see image above). This is an installation that recreates the objects in a large scale ceramics studio – but is it art? That is a question taken up by Eva herself who writes:
“I feel my practice lies between the two worlds of art and applied art, constantly struggling with the question of what is “art,” “artful,” “craft” or simply “waste.” My work has become deeply invested in the idea of process; capturing the periphery elements, the happy accident, the marks, that are often discarded on the journey to the finished object. I endeavour to create a collective visual language that investigates the encounter between process, maker and viewer.”
Anyone who works with clay will fully understand the ‘happy accident’. A perfectly formed bowl that collapses on the wheel, but somehow creates a unique, albeit useless, form. A glaze that doesn’t work as planned, but nonetheless carries some new fascination. But these elements aren’t immediately obvious in Eva’s work.
That said, perhaps anyone would be fascinated by the ways in which she’s tried to reproduce – as ceramic objects – some of her grandmothers possessions. Most notably a leather chair, the authentic visual form betraying the hard and unyielding ceramic composition. I think this is an incredible feat – making an armchair out of clay can’t be easy! I just wished she’d had time to go through the process of making something so challenging, but she doesn’t live far away (she’s now undertaking a PhD in Newcastle), so hopefully I will have a chance to ask her.
If you’re interested, you can find out more about Eva’s work (and the work of her collective) here.