Bulk Buy

Presented by Testing Grounds & Alternative Ceramics Supply

Bulk Buy; part exhibition, part interactive retail experience for ceramicists (and other makers and members of the public). The exhibition will feature alternative materials for use in ceramics, all reclaimed from industry byproduct and waste streams. Each material is sourced locally, processed on a small scale, and available for purchase.

The exhibition will offer a disruption to the standard model of the take-make-waste economy. Ceramicists will be prompted to question their usual methods of sourcing raw ingredients and their position in the supply chain. Visitors will be invited to wonder what the pottery supplies shops of the future may look like.

The exhibition questions: How is naturally occurring material (rock/mineral) mined and processed into a consistent, nondescript white powder that potters make a glaze from? What materials qualify as “waste”? Is it possible to use alternative materials that have more character for making our pots rather than using commercially extracted and finite resources?

Alternative Ceramics Supply is an artist collective with Claire Ellis, Sarah Muir-Smith, Georgia Stevenson and Amelia Black.

Photography by Michael Pham