A place with a six-town sense of itself..

Reiko has created a new collection of work for the inaugural Harewood Biennial, Useful/Beautiful: Why Craft Matters at Harewood House near Leeds. As one of twenty-six makers, the exhibition highlights the breadth and diversity of craft across contemporary culture.

Her response to the question why craft matters, is deeply rooted in her time in Stoke-on-Trent. It’s a story of communities and industry, of process, making and of imperfections that reflect something natural and true.

Last year, playwright Chris Thorpe came to Stoke and crafted a story about the everyday. He came without judgement to see the place and tell its story. The words from his play that struck Reiko have been inscribed into black fine bone china plates, made in her Studio in Stoke-on-Trent. They suggest a version of Stoke’s story, its past and future, albeit through the eyes of two outsiders. So while the objects are a synthesis of experience and technique, the words on them represent the same thing, from a different angle, in a different form.