Hannah Walters - Wakelin 2026

Could you describe the works acquired through the Wakelin Award for the Glyn Vivian's Permanent Collection?

So there's two sets of work really.

There's the three newer pieces and then a piece of older work.

So the three newer pieces are made from solid porcelain and a tin glaze on top to have that really bright white glaze effect.

They're part of a collection called Sunken Thoughts and they were based on the connection between man-made traditional objects and organic growth and in particular i was looking at shipwrecks and coral and the how things you know how man-made objects when left the detritus can sort of be reclaimed and i was looking in particular there was a little object up in glasgow that was a a little dish or a little jug that had been found from a shipwreck.

And it was just this really, this sort of image of a little object that's so clear and traditional to us.

It's very recognisable to us.

And, you know, it was blue and white pottery, but faded.

And it had been all grown over with coral and broken and twisted, and it felt like it had become this new thing.

So that was the inspiration behind that newer collection.

And they were all based on different... ceramic objects that have been found across South Wales where I took the shapes and then I was experimenting with different kinds of seaweed sprigging and more organic forms to go over the top of them.

And then the older piece is, it was actually made just after I'd left my MA and it was really part of that collection of work where I was really, I was thinking about the value of objects.

So I'm really interested in objects as social status symbols and comparing you know traditional objects with contemporary pop imagery so it's covered in you know stars and hearts it's got little care bear cast porcelain pieces like throw away plastic toys mixed in with more victorian style baroque sprigging and i find the interest for me there came from my background working in my family's antique centre.

So I had this background of, you know, I would be behind the desk watching objects sell and there'd be this real wave of trends of people being really particularly interested.

I remember in particular in 2015, like the cabbage plate became really popular and people never bought them before.

And then suddenly we sold out of them and it suddenly became valuable.

So I was really interested in the idea of what is valuable, what isn't, what gives something value and how we value items.

And that really tied in with things like Delftware and the tulip trade.

And I tried to have as well a lot of humour in this work.

So I love the play of different materials and so the older work is a mix of crank clay and porcelain.

So crank clay is very crude, it's a lower value material and porcelain has this really rich romantic history and it's also very desirable, it's got this beauty to it and I found it really fun to bind them and play with them.

They don't sit comfortably, they've got different shrinkage rates so they twist and crack and pull away from each other and that was part of the imagery I was playing with.

So there's different themes.

Both have that sort of organic, maximalistic, overgrown feel to it.

But they had slightly different beginnings in how they were inspired.