Stoke-on-Trent

It was just after the first strict lockdown rules lifted in 2020 that we were able to get into the hotel to install some ceramics within the foyer of Hilton Garden Inn. The hotel is situated in Hanley, right by the Potteries Museum and it is within the commercial centre for City of Stoke-on-Trent. The initial idea was to bring in plaster moulds and tools of the Pottery trade on display but it’s been evolving and work continues.

The most recent update this Autumn include poetry by John Lancaster, winner of the 2017 Arnold Bennett Book Prize. The poems spoke of characters so often recounted by those who still work in it. As a young man, Lancaster worked as a mould runner for Alfred Meakins Pottery in Tunstall in 1964, and these poems are published as part of a collection in ‘Where The Trent Rises’ Clayhanger Press Part III Potters: A Division of Labour

The poems talk of individuals but to me they evoke the character of whole towns and City of Stoke-on-Trent. The push and pull of camaraderie and rowdy teasing, scepticism towards power and managers but above all, the humour and community. It’s a reminder to me that in my work too, the truth lies in the details.

Below are some images of the display, and please know that these are still work in progress.

https://www.hilton.com/en/hotels/manstgi-hilton-garden-inn-stoke-on-trent/