Human Conditions of Clay explores how humanity is expressed through the material use of clay artworks that carry a human trace and presence. The artists in the show demonstrate the dynamic use of clay through the manipulation of material and presentation – from installation, animation and works on paper to sculpture, photography and video performance – in conveying their lines of enquiry and interests in history, current affairs, human behaviour, folklore and tradition.
Antony Gormley’s practice explores the nature of the space a human-being inhabits. In Blanket Drawing I (1983) the place in which a body has occupied is defined in china clay slip, removing the physicality of the body itself.