Clay Stories is a staff-student research collaboration between Anushka Athique, Imogen Dunn, Rhiannon Marshall, Hugo Hodgson and Khaled Mohamed. In early June 2024, the group travelled to a disused quarry in Cornwall to explore the materiality of China Clay from in the ground to processed material. To do this, they documented how clay weaves through human and other-than-human relations, constantly moving between waste and material. The fieldwork and exhibition revolve around techniques such as drawing, sleeping, eating, conversation, walking to explore the entanglement between practice, tools and bodies.

Clay Stories brings together these explorations with materials made and collected during the 3 days of fieldwork, alongside a documentation of the practices, tools and bodies involved. By working across subject areas, methodologies, and species to survey the relations between human and clay ecologies, this exhibition takes a decolonial approach to research to document human practices and material processes as acts of terraforming. Clay Stories was supported by the UGR hub.  

A private viewing will be held the evening of 5th March 2026

Clay Stories (Fig 3)
Co-produced by Anushka Athique, Rhianon Marshall, Hugo Hodgson, Khaled Mohamed, Imogen Dunn.
Hosted by Rosanna Martin, Brickfield
Funded by UGR Hub Staff-Student collaborations