Stunning exhibition of ceramics by acclaimed artist Emilie Taylor to open at National Civil War Centre, Newark, for International Women’s Day, funded by Arts Council England

A stunning new ceramics exhibit by acclaimed artist Emilie Taylor opens at the National Civil War Center this March.

The remarkable exhibition, titled Tubthumping, which opens on Thursday 9 March, the day after International Women’s Day, connects the 16th to 18th centuries with the present, showing how women’s roles have been influenced and the challenges they face they still face each other.

Funded by Arts Council England, the exhibition is the result of a year-long collaboration between the Centre’s Exhibitions and Collections Manager, Glyn Hughes, and Sheffield-based ceramist Taylor.

Drawing on the museum’s collections, her works will be on display alongside objects Emilie selected from them, including birthing stools, as well as a bridle (a form of public punishment for ‘ill-behaved’ women in the 16th and 17th centuries) and a Tract a woman’s account of wearing it.

Emilie’s beautiful and eye-opening pieces blend the traditional with the contemporary, using the traditional handcrafting process of decorative slipware to tell updated stories of women in realistic modern settings, including council housing backdrops.

This approach has been lauded by critics, with Lesley Jackson writing in Crafts magazine that “While Taylor draws on the native 17th-century slipware traditions of Thomas Toft, her approach is unmistakably 21st-century,” while Sara Roberts of Ceramic Review said, “Emilie makes pots that draw our attention to politics in everyday life.”

The stories they tell on their ornate pots range from modern female morris dance group Boss Morris and their movement to reconnect with the country, to public protests and young mothers coping with the rising cost of living .

Rhona Holloway, Economic Development Portfolio Owner and Visitor to the Newark and Sherwood Borough Council, said: “Emilie’s work is both fascinating and visually arresting, shedding light on the important stories and struggles of women today while presenting a careful and beautiful traditional use platform. I very much look forward to seeing them here in Newark amongst the fantastic collections at the National Civil War Centre.”

Learn more at www.nationalcivilwarcentre.com or by following the National Civil War Center on Facebook.

The exhibition with a text by Dr. Sara Read from Loughborough University is open from Thursday 9th March to Saturday 3rd June.