The Mater Podcast

This week on The Mater Podcast, Evie Hatch, studio and materials specialist and host of Jackson's Pigment Stories, is joined by artist Ginny Elston to discuss The Personalities of Pigments. Ginny, winner of the Student Award in Jackson’s Art Prize 2023, shares her insights on her collaboration with Unison Colour to curate a series of soft pastels (pictured here). Evie and Ginny also dive into pigments, paint, and their own understandings of colour.Ginny Elston (Instagram) WebsiteEvie Hatch (Instagram)Jacksons Art (Instagram)Jacksons Art blogJacksons Art Supplies online shopJacksons Art PrizeGinny's Versatility Soft Pastel Set for UnisonGinny teaches private classes in Edinburgh, held at Scot-Art, (@thescotart) on London Road. It's a local hub for artists in the city with community spaces, studios and galleries.Ginny’s interview with JacksonsLinks mentioned throughout the conversationAmy Sillman, On ColourRebecca Fortnum, On Not Knowing: How Artists ThinkThe Mater Podcast episode on the colour blueKatharina Grosse - colour liberated from the confines of support. Instagram | WebsiteGinny’s recommendations for Art Schoolsthe New York Studio School (@ny_studioschool)Leith School of Art (@leithschoolofart)There are some great artists teaching at Black Pond Studio (@blackpondstudio)Ginny also teaches private classes in Edinburgh, held at Scot-Art, (@thescotart) on London Road. It's a local hub for artists in the city with community spaces, studios and galleries.Reach out - Mater________ on InstagramWebsite - mater.digitalEmail - [email protected]

A conversation between artist Claye Bowler and art historian Andrew Cummings about the exhibition Dig Me A Grave, burials, connection to the land , latex, soil, death & more.LinksDig Me A Grave dates & venues:Steam Works Gallery, WIP Studios, Wandsworth, Londonhttps://www.wipspace.co.uk/dig-me-a-grave21.03.25 - 11.05.25PV 20.03.25Auction House, Redruth, Cornwall21.06.25 - 19.07.25PV 20.06.25Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield04.10.25 - 02.11.25A sculpture from this body of work was also part of a group exhibitionWinter Sculpture Park 202501.03.25 - 12.04.25Claye’s exhibition Top (2022) is being shown again at Queer Britain 10/09/2025 - 23/11/2025Compilation of protests and actions against the Supreme Court: https://whatthetrans.com/compilation-of-protests-against-the-supreme-court/Fundraising towards five transfem causes in the UK https://www.fiveforfive.co.uk/Claye on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/clayebowler/?hl=enClaye’s website: https://www.clayebowler.com/?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAafm3sQ4CBOg5SYofyAmlntP0rmy1-pJZufTxZbWUseEfV5LruEAwpCwAY3MVw_aem__qa4reKB4fVG85oxlrdUjwAndrew: https://researchers.arts.ac.uk/2344-andrew-cummings  https://courtauld.ac.uk/research/research-resources/publications/immeditations-postgraduate-journal/immediations-online/immediations-no-18-2021/the-promise-of-parasites/ Fire Choir https://thenestcollective.co.uk/projects/fire-choirThe False Bride, Folk Song that Claye mentions with ‘I’ll lie in my grave until I get over you’About the Museum Registrar Traineeship: https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/fine-art/news/article/2675/museum-registrar-traineeship-opportunity-in-leeds-from-september-2024#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThe%20traineeship%20sees%20the%20successful,collections%20work%20amongst%20other%20students. Brandon Labelle: https://brandonlabelle.net/Gluck: https://www.npg.org.uk/schools-hub/gluck-by-gluckLiving Well Dying Well - Andrew’s End-of-Life Doula foundation training - https://lwdwtraining.uk/ Grief Tending in Community https://grieftending.org/ Francis Weller, The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief, North Atlantic Books, 2015 Camille Barton, Tending Grief: Embodied Rituals for Holding our Sorrow, North Atlantic Books, 2024Top, at Henry Moore Institute https://henry-moore.org/whats-on/claye-bowler-top/

Hello! This is Maddie Rose Hills, host of The Mater Podcast. This week's episode is a little different, and a lot shorter! I have just got back from a week-long Research Residency at West Dean School of Arts, Craft, Design and Conservation. What is a research residency? Well it can really be anything - but for me it meant wandering around the school, meeting people from lots of different departments, and talking with them about what attracted them to the craft and materials that they were studying or teaching. I wrote a diary while down there and have put together a selection of the thoughts here. This text can be read on the Mater website: https://mater.digital/stories/a-research-residency-at-west-dean/Or listened to here on the podcast platformI will also share more images on the Mater Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mater________/?hl=enFind out more about West Dean: https://www.westdean.ac.uk/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/westdeancollege/?hl=enWest Dean Fine Art on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/westdeanfineart/?hl=enMore about West Dean: 'Our schools of arts, design and conservation offer a uniquely broad range of world-leading courses. At the heart of all we do, is our belief that 'making' makes our lives better. We celebrate the intrinsic value of work that has been hand-made by artists and artisans, and challenge the assumption that mass-produced must be the only way because, across the world, the maker movement is growing.'

Today I am chatting with Lucila Kenny and Barbara Collé about COLOURLucila Kenny is an Argentinean textile designer as well as a researcher focused on Natural Dyeing and the colourants produced by a range of plant species. As a natural dyer and educator she has worked with universities, art academies, fashion designers, biologists and artists exploring, preparing and producing plant colorants for dyeing, inks and paints.Barbara Colle is a Dutch visual artist and philosopher, investigating our experience of colour. She publishes her findings through essays, artist books and visual essays. On the subject of colour she guest lectures at universities, contributes to publications and curates. The two have bonded over colour and perception through many conversations and collaborations, so it was very moving to be able to be a fly on the wall for one of their chats. We discuss how colour is changing all the time, and letting go of a desire to control colour when natural dying and while growing pigments. Lucila describes is as seeing that the plants are 'gifting' us, instead of what we want to take. They discuss the language we use to describe colour, and how it says so much about our relationship with it. LinksLucilla's website: https://www.lucilakenny.com/ | On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lucila.kenny/?hl=en-gbBarbara's website: https://www.barbaracolle.nl/ | On Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/barbara___colle_/Indigo website: www.growingblue.infoflower, fruit, leaf, husk and root (book): https://www.lucilakenny.com/shop/bookBraiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall KimmererElmer, by David Mckee (the children's book about colourful elephants)The Color Kittens, Margaret Wise Brown (Barbara's children's book)Eleanor Irwin, Colour Terms In Greek Poetry (1974)

This week I’m joined by Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin of Formafantasma. Formafantasma are a design studio who investigate the ecological, historical, political and social forces shaping the discipline of design today. Their extensive client list includes Prada, Hermes, Vitra Design Museum, Fendi, The Venice Bienale, Rijksmuseum, and the National Museum of Norway.This conversation was recorded at The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, in the middle of feb 2025 just before the opening of Studio Formafantasma’s exhibition Oltre Terra. Oltre Terra is is an ongoing investigation of the history, ecology, and global dynamics of the extraction and production of wool. The show will run until July 13th so make sure to check it out..Oltre Terra at Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam - https://www.stedelijk.nl/nl/tentoonstellingen/formafantasmaFormafantasma website - https://formafantasma.com/studioFormafantasma on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/formafantasma/Cambio - https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/whats-on/formafantasma-cambio/Geo-Design at Design Academy Eindhoven: https://www.designacademy.nl/page/5809/geo%E2%80%94designInterview with Tim White - Exlana sheep breeder https://vimeo.com/780306084Artek x Formafantasma collaboration: https://www.artek.fi/en/company/designers/formafantasma

A conversation about Plastic with designer Shahar Livne and environmental humanities scholar Heather Davis.Shahar Livne is an award winning conceptual material designer. Livne's lifelong fascinations in nature, biology, science, and philosophy developed into an intuitive material experimentation way of work during her degree studies at the Design Academy Eindhoven. Shahar brings life to unique stories through objects and installations centered around materials as carriers of narratives. Some of Livne's projects deal with obscure materials such as blood, man-made fossils, crystallization and more, today we are going to be focussing on plastic, and Shahar has put me in touch with Heather Davis who I am thrilled to have here as our second guest todayHeather Davis is Assistant Professor and Director of Culture and Media at The New School in New York City. As an interdisciplinary scholar working in environmental humanities, media studies, and visual culture, she is interested in how the saturation of fossil fuels has shaped contemporary culture. Davis is the author of over 80 articles, book chapters, reviews, and catalogue essays. Her most recent book, Plastic Matter (Duke University Press, 2022) traces plastic’s relations to geology, media, biology, and race to show how matter itself has come to be understood as pliable, disposable, and consumable.LINKSShahar Livne: https://www.instagram.com/_shaharlivnedesignstudio_/https://www.shaharlivnedesign.com/Shahar Livne, Metamorphism: https://www.shaharlivnedesign.com/metamorphismHeather Davis: https://heathermdavis.com/Heather Davis, Plastic Matter: https://www.dukeupress.edu/plastic-matterBernadette Bensaude-Vincent, French philosopher and historian - Heather spoke about her writing on the endless possibilities of matter and material. Plastic as a material is deeply connected to wanting to manipulate matter at the most fundamental levelsZakiyyah Iman Jackson:  https://scholars.duke.edu/person/zakiyyah.jackson#:~:text=Her%20research%20investigates%20the%20fundamental,and%20rhetoric%20of%20Western%20science Thinking about the emergence of the category of the human, and the way it emerges through the hierarchy of humanity. The forced plasticity of the human body in various forms of black suppression. Various humans as abject other that carries the weight of plasticity.Pollution Is Colonialism - book by Max LiboironHeterotopia: https://foucault.info/documents/heterotopia/foucault.heteroTopia.en/Geo Design, https://www.designacademy.nl/page/5809/geo%E2%80%94designPinar Yoldas, Ecosystem of Excess.Crimes of the FutureThe podcast Heather referenced at the end about adaptive capabilities: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/garbage-patch-kids/id1554578197?i=1000641946004Follow us: https://www.instagram.com/mater________/?hl=enGet in touch: [email protected] Mater website: https://mater.digital/