Gwen Heeney (1952, UK) is based in Welshpool, Wales. She gained a BA in Ceramics from the University of the West of England in 1974 and an MA in Ceramics from the Royal College of Art, London in 1989. She was Research Fellow in Architectural Ceramics at the Centre for Ceramic Research, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Wales (1989-91). She is a senior lecturer at the University of Wolverhampton and currently researching for a PhD in the Fine Art Department of Newcastle University.
In the store the moulds manifested themselves as objects with a great tension stored as though still precious; they presented a record to a past 'site' of invention, a record of creativity. Like the shell of the empty building each mould represented a shell of a productive past. Light reveals shadows; the shadows reveal the anthropology of the forms within...
I started to make sense of the moulds in a very formal way, spending a great deal of time selecting each one and placing them carefully in grids in the China Hall where the light illuminated the interior spaces. Using different configurations I started to formally articulate a visual language which addressed issues of collective memory, history of 'place', mapping of creative pasts, but also made connections with current information technology i.e. 'Quick Response Codes'. They became a means of communicating the past and possible declaring/ predicting the future. A key to the skills left behind. They provoked descriptions such as profiles, building blocks (DNA) of the companies creative past; an industrial excavation/study.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |