Sam Bakewell wins British Ceramics Biennial AWARD with "pseudo shaman's hut" full of mysterious objects

This article originally appeared on Culture24.

Sam Bakewell wins the British Ceramics Biennial AWARD for a clay grotto filled with mysterious ceramic objects in cages

a photo of a small ceramic of a pink dress behind a wire cage in a wall

Sam Bakewell has won the British Ceramics Biennial AWARD, £5,000 and a commission for the 2017 Biennial with a rough-hewn clay grotto filled with mysterious and delicate artworks imprisoned in wire cells.

Imagination Dead Imagine sits in the middle of the China Hall of the Spode Factory in Stoke-on-Trent, housing 12 years of occasional object making, ranging from spontaneous tests to a small hand carved piece that took Bakewell seven years to complete.

The work invites Biennial visitors to enter through a small doorway to view the strange objects within; once inside, the experience is claustrophobic yet beguiling.

It beat off competition from 11 other artists whose artworks range from the monumental to the conceptual at the impressive Spode Factory site.

a photo of a small plaster building with no roof and one entrance way

Chair of the selection panel and Senior Curator of Ceramics and Glass at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Alun Graves, admitted the selection of a winner was "no easy matter”. But he said a “huge enthusiasm” for Bakewell’s presentation was shared by all members of the panel.

“We felt that Sam delivered on every front, exhibiting work that is exceptional and engaging, and underpinned by a rich vein of conceptual thought,” he added.

Bakewell is a Royal College of Art MA graduate who has spent some time in the studio of Edmund De Waal and, like his former mentor, he has a poetic air about him.

His RCA webpage talks of clay as “a conduit between the physical truth of earth matter and bodily experience” and a substance that connects “the chthonic portion of the mind”. His Biennial installation certainly conveys some of these notions.

a photo of a small ceramic object on a plinth in a hole in a wall behind a wire grill

Describing Bakewell’s piece as a “pseudo-shaman’s hut” Graves said it was “an ambitious and impressive structure...that creates an extraordinary and other-worldly space in which to encounter the highly detailed objects it contains”.

“Overall, it is a truly remarkable and memorable installation, and an eloquent act of self-curation.”

In response to winning AWARD 2015, Bakewell admitted to being “really shocked and happy” to have won.

“The project was a personal one, so means a lot that it seems to have translated to others as well,” he said. “I've loved showing alongside good friends in the one off context of Spode, and am very humbled by all the help and kind words I've received."

a photo of a girl standing inside a cell

The AWARD exhibition is the festival centrepiece, showing in the China Hall on the original Spode factory site and runs until November 8 2015.

Previous AWARD winners include: Andrew Burton, Gwen Heeney and Vicky Shaw, Robert Dawson, Neil Brownsword, Louisa Taylor, Phoebe Cummings and Nao Matsunaga.

For more information on BCB 2015 and AWARD visit britishceramicsbiennial.com.