#30 Georgie Manly, CATS TAILS and more...

2 - 21 March

Georgie Manly was born in Norwich, 1984. She recently finished a degree in Fine Art at the Norwich School of Art and Design. She lives and works in Norwich.

Upon entering the gallery the viewer is confronted by eight large, multi-plateaud constructions assembled from reclaimed wood. Displayed upon each of these are many assortments of clay sculptures and hand made glazed pots, bowls and platters. most are highly decorative whilst others are more subdued. Some contain such natural fillings as rocks and moss, whilst others hold more edible treats such as raisins, tic-tacs, bananas, wotsits, lettuce leaves and cooked bantom chicken eggs.

A discussion between Jonny Winter and Georgie Manly in the last week of February 2007.

Jonny Winter: I guess we should start this with the most obvious of possible questions; how did you end up in a world of clay?

Georgie Manly: I often think conceptually as an artist and clay allows me to make something visual as a result of my thoughts, where as before I found it hard to express my thoughts and ideas through a visual material. There are lots of different aspects of clay I like.

JW: directly linking your brain to physical matter, like a three dimensional drawing perhaps, although more versatile. I get the feeling you dislike limits yet clay has quite a few, do you think you react against this craft history in your work?

GM: I suppose I am but perhaps not against the history of clay as a craft but more on how it is viewed and presented as art. Although the domestic and often naff, un-glamorous way pottery is seen appeals to me as it makes me feel like there is room for me to be really daring and as outrageous as I like.

JW: As outrageous as finger foods. The way you’ve presented your work seems just as important as the work itself. The gallery looks as though its been colonised by colonies of colonies, foodstuffs living in pottery inhabiting makeshift wooden precipices like warped china hutches. The audience will share an understanding of how pots are traditionally displayed, so do you see the food aspect as a tool to deviate from the linear display options available for your sculptures? Or is there more that the nibbles aim to do.

GM: I like playing around with how the work is presented, and as most traditional pottery is a vessel of some sort, made to hold something within it, I thought that it could add to an interesting display. Some of the pieces are made for specific foods, like the wotsit holders, so in some pieces the food is valued equally to the ceramic object. I think cuisine is another subject I am dealing with and it’s a subject I believe is not explored enough in our everyday living, especially in adult life. There is such snobbery in food and I hope that by presenting food in a more surreal or futuristic way, with the aid of my work, it will refresh ones view of what it is.

JW: Sounds like you’re quite the creative missionary. Pass the cockles.