Louise Frances Smith is making Margate central to her new work

Paul Bailey got on a Hi gh Speed Train and went to see

The world of ceramics has managed to survive the pandemic it would seem, but there has been a fundamental change. The big London shows are almost as before, except for the cancelation of some shows. What does seem to be stronger are the regional organisations and the commercial shows who have expanded their national coverage. Where does this leave many towns throughout the country who are fighting to be relevant to their community and survive with their integrity in what they are trying to achieve in their work?

Situated in the centre of the old part of Margate in Kent and just down the road from the Turner Contemporary you will find The Margate School. It is situated in an old Woolworths shop, and still bears the name. This is where Louise had her show https://www.instagram.com

‘Sargassum Tide’. The School is now an independent art school opened in 2019 and has studio spaces for hire and a range of arts events. Funding is partly through the Arts Council UK.

Originally she came from the Kent Medway town of Gillingham and then moved to Lower Halstow just outside Sittingbourne. After school she did a fine arts degree at Kingston University, and it was here that she was inspired by a visiting lecturer who had recently completed a ceramics residency in Denmark.

Then a move to London and a three-year studio membership period at the ‘Kiln Rooms’ studios in Peckham, with the influential maker and studio owner Stuart Carey.

Next on this long journey of finding her role in ceramics was a two year diploma course at Citylit studying ceramics. Then it was the move to Margate and renting a studio space in 2018. Later, in 2021 this led to an Arts Council grant to ‘Develop Creative Practice’ projects. Also during this period she was recommended to Kate Malone who had just moved to a new studio in Kent by non other than Stuart Carey. There she worked on an archive project for Kate Malone. The successful relationship has continued to this day.

Her show Sargassum Tide features work made using wireweed seaweed and Pacific oysters two non-native species but currently to be found in numbers on the coastline due to climate change. She collected these materials from the Thanet coastline to create her experimental work that shows the repercussions of human intervention on our fragile coastal ecosystems.

In 2021 she received an Arts Council England 'Developing Your Creative Practice' grant which was looking at making her practice more sustainable by using local materials such as seaweed and chalk, she also learnt how to dig and process local clay (learning from an online workshop by Studio Alluvium and mentorship sessions with Nina Salsotto Cassina / Unurgent Argilla, and Rosanna Martin).

There isn't much clay in Thanet so she continued to experiment with seaweed which led to making biomaterials. There is a lot of clay in other areas of Kent so she will be continuing again researching clay again later this year.

At the end of 2022 an Arts Council England National Lottery Project Grant allowed her to exhibit this work at Collect Open the flagship show for the Crafts Council, and then show this new body of work at The Margate School including running a series of workshops .

Since the 2020 lockdowns she has been using local materials in the work to deepen the connection between it and the landscape where she takes inspiration from. This has led to working with waste materials and creating biomaterials. Sargassum Tide includes a hanging installation made of individual moulded pieces of wireweed seaweed bioplastic that she has sewn together to create one piece. The form is inspired by bryozoa which are tiny colony creatures that live on seaweed or rocks and create intricate patterns as the colony grows. She would like the work to inspire others to look closely at nature and the surroundings and question the materials we use.

Sargassum Tide also features a display cabinet of objects she has made from crushed Pacific oyster shells and clay works that have been glazed with seaweed ash and oyster shells. The forms of the pieces in the cabinet are inspired by natural and manmade objects she found on walks along the Thanet coastline.

She describes her own work as – ‘bioplastic which is a type of material which is bio-degradable and how to use seaweed creatively’.

Earlier this year she was chosen to bring her project to the international arts exhibition in London called ‘Collect’ which was held at Somerset House on the Strand, London. Maybe a case of local projects with local people having a voice in an international setting.

@lou_frances