2022

In the August of 2022 I spent some time in residency at Oficinas do Convento in the town of Montemor-o-Novo just West of Evora. Access to their ceramic studio allowed the project Tile Recorder to realise the production of a larger quantity of ceramic tiles than if I were to produce the tiles in London. I felt it were important to use Portuguese clay when producing something so significant in Portuguese culture. The clay that was used was from a town called Vendas Novas and is processed into a useable clay at the ceramic centre.

Traditional Portuguese azulejo tiles are often used as an architectural feature that resists environmental elements, these being mainly related to weather events. They too are used as a means of depicting past events, mythical or biblical.

I see these tiles as a device to depict the current environmental conditions and contaminant circulations that exist in the region of Alentejo. The traditional azulejos with the geometric patterns inspired by the Moors are replicable at scale, multiple tiles form together to assemble an overall decoration. With the tiles that have been produced for this project the same goes. This time however, the overall image of the tiles is a representation or depiction of the environmental condition of Alentejo, where each tile can materially portray a site in the region.

Ceramic Worktable, Montemor-o-Novo
Digital Image
2022


Ceramic Worktable, Montemor-o-Novo
Digital Image
2022