With Artist-in-Residence Shaya Ishaq and Research Residents Daysha Loppie, Nala Haileselassie, and Carianne Shakes.

Exhibition: Sept 6 - Oct 15, 2022

This exhibition was produced over the course of the year-long Black Creative Research Residency, which was led by artist Shaya Ishaq, who engaged 3 TMU students in research and creation around a shared theme.

“Our residency begins by looking at two important figures from the history of ceramics. David Drake who was an enslaved potter who engraved his name and poetry on his pottery during a time when his literacy was illegal. Josiah Wedgwood was a British potter & industrialist who mass produced pendants for The Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade.

The work of David Drake and Josiah Wedgwood have been archived for very different yet intersecting reasons. Both had a deep connection to clay in their lifetime yet their material output and the context in which they created was worlds apart from one another.

We have been thinking through the material objects both left behind, the potency of them then and now and what they can teach us about our contemporary moment.”

Shaya Ishaq