MAY DAY: 'Fired' install pics
As the final show in 'WHEEL', the year-long series I've been curating with the studios community at Spike, this one holds a special place in my heart <3
"For millennia, fire has been used as a tool of protection, with the first records of Beltane in 10th century Gaelic Irish literature telling of Druids ritualistically leading cattle between bonfires to protect herds from disease. With its early tradition of apotropaic magic used as a tool in the seasonal movement of animals, Beltane is a festival of the workers; protecting the hard work of food production that kept communities alive, and signalling the first glimpses of harvest on the horizon.
This earthy, anarchic festival has survived for thousands of years, its protective rituals adapting to the evolving needs of the people. In 2024 the Arts Council of Northern Ireland found that, when compared to the national average, artists earn 40% less, feel 28% less life-satisfaction, experience 75% higher levels of stress, and feel that their work is 16.1% less worthwhile than those in other industries. With low income, poor job quality, low social protection and expectations of overwork without remuneration found to be common in the working lives of artists and arts workers by EENCA, almost 80% of arts and culture workers reported reaching crisis point due to burn-out in 2025.
Responding to the rising pressure faced by arts workers while looking to the protective magic practiced for millenia in May, 'Fired' brings together work exploring burn-out and working conditions in the arts today. Thinking about the creation of ceramics and stoneware as a commonly-practiced fire ritual, the exhibition looks for the traces of labour left in artworks, creating an air pocket within which to consider how, in the current sector, we can better protect ourselves and each other."
Artists:
@eleanor_duffin@marymaidaflower@_rodneyharris@clovisvosser@philroot@hollyw.richards@lindaze
Fabrication:
@_counterwork
Install:
@clenaghanfergal
Love and support:
@saphia.a.venner@oliviaflojones@spikeisland
Image 3: Photography by Lisa Whiting
Image 4: Photography by Linda Zagidulina
May Day: 'Fired' opens this evening, 6–9pm, before continuing all weekend as part of Spike Island Open Studios 🤝
Responding to the rising pressure faced by arts workers while looking to the protective magic practiced for millenia in May, ‘Fired’ brings together work exploring burn out and working conditions in the arts today.
Thinking about the creation of ceramics and stoneware as a commonly-practiced fire ritual, the exhibition looks for the traces of labour left in artworks, creating an air pocket within which to consider how, in the current sector, we can better protect ourselves and each other.
Featuring work by Eleanor Duffin, Mary Flower, Rod Harris, Phil Root, Lewis Prosser, Holly Williams-Richards and Linda Zagidulina
Free and open to all alongside an incredible building-wide programme put together by wonderful @saphia.a.venner
Feature image: Lyde Green Pottery, photography by Troy Baird
SAMHAIN: Let Slip Your Hags private view pics 🌫️
Friday 7 November 2025
Incorporating the folklore of the hagstone as a magical tool for seeing the unseen (the naturally-occurring hole acting as a window into the otherworld), this exhibition explored bodies in shifting states.
Several of the pieces shown are borrowed from artists’ performance practices; taken out of context, they were placed in an edge-state between activation and dormancy. How do we find artists in these works without them there? And, as arts and culture funding cuts see non-commercial mediums such as performance hit hardest, will these works eventually perform a hauntological function?
Thank you to Louise Bradley, Buoys Buoys Buoys, Eleanor Duffin, Mary Hurrell, Natasha MacVoy, and Kamina Walton for showing their works, and to Benni Hartley, Fergal Clenaghan, and Jackson Bateman for technical support.
This exhibition was curated by Ruby Taylor in The Corridor at Spike Island. It is the second in a series featuring work from Spike Island’s ecosystem of artists within the framework of Wheel of the Year.
📸 Photography by Lulu Freeman
SAMHAIN: Let Slip Your Hags exhibition guide
Featuring the work of loves @sarahsson_ and @msglumcakes
Writing and design by yours truly
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SAMHAIN: Let Slip Your Hags was the second exhibition in a series exploring the lunar festivals of the Wheel of the Year, within the context of Spike Island’s ecosystem of artists.
Curated by me, featuring the work of Louise Bradley, @eleanor_duffin@maryhurrell@buoys_buoys_buoys@natashamacvoy and @kaminawalton@spikeislandstudios
HALLOWEEN HIGHLIGHT: ‘Samhain: Let Slip Your Hags’ 🌫️
This Halloween, we’re highlighting the next exhibition in The Corridor, an internal exhibition space where members of our studio community can show work and test new projects.
’Samhain: Let Slip Your Hags’ is the second exhibition in a series by curator and staff member Ruby Taylor exploring the ever-turning Wheel of the Year in the context of Spike Island’s ecosystem of artists.
An ancient Celtic festival welcoming the dark half of the year, Samhain marks the night when the veil between worlds is at its thinnest, allowing ways of being to slip at the edges of this world and the next.
Featuring the work of Louise Bradley, Eleanor Duffin, Mary Hurrell, Johnny Jones, Natasha MacVoy, and Kamina Walton, this exhibition brings together works borne of performance and explorations of the body, looking for the traces of process left in artists’ shape-shifting works.
Please note that this exhibition is open to Spike Island studio holders, Spike Island Associates, UWE Fine Art students, commercial office users, and users of Spike Island Workspace. This exhibition is not open to the public.
📸 Image credits:
1. Mary Hurrell, ‘mappings 1(PITCH)’ (2018). Photograph by Belén de Benito
2. Kamina Walton, ‘Body In Landscape’. Image courtesy the artist
3. Mary Hurrell, Ceramic Footwear (Pink) R (2024). Image courtesy the artist
4. Print by Eleanor Duffin. Image courtesy the artist
5. Natasha MacVoy, ‘U & I’ detail (2023). Photograph by Stuart Whipps, image courtesy the artist
6. Mary Hurrell, Ceramic Footwear (Pink) L (2024). Image courtesy the artist
7. Kamina Walton, ‘In My Skin’. Image courtesy the artist
1. The Cailleach and Nan, Isle of Gigha
2. Felix and Johnny, Winsford Common
3. Tom and a dram, Campbeltown
4. Felix and gorse
5. Benni, Charlie, Ferg
6. Harry, Cheyenne, Lulu, Es
7. Tom, Zoë, Es at Machrihanish
8. Zoë and Beau
9. Spike Island honeys
1. After a swim in the North Sea that reminded me I have become soft from living in the south
2. After a relaxing swim in Dorset
3. Me and Zoë on FaceTime with Rosie
4. Gorgeous little building
5. Gorgeous little dinner
6. Gorgeous little swallows
Some final detail shots of Lammas: Our Inheritance is Corn 🛠️🌾🧺🪜
The corn dollies in this show are from a collection made by Kathleen Newman of Gurney Slade—a village between Midsomer Norton and Shepton Mallet—who passed away in 2024 aged 99.
From what I can figure out, most of the dollies were made between the 1960s and 1990s. They came to me as a gift bought at auction, in battered cardboard boxes and wrapped in newspaper.
This exhibition is the first in a series exploring the non-equinox celebrations of the Wheel of the Year. The next exhibition takes place at Samhain - more information to come 🪨🧹
Lammas: Our Inheritance is Corn is open in The Corridor at Spike Island until 17 August.
If you’re not a Spike building user and would like to come and see it, message me/ email [email protected] to book an appointment
Lammas: Our Inheritance is Corn exhibition handout 🌾
Designed with Exmoor’s inter-village newsletters in mind
Grab a free copy from the exhibition, open until 14 August in the Corridor at Spike Island
writing and design by me
Lammas: Our Inheritance is Corn is open in the Corridor at Spike Island until 14 August 🌾
Featuring the work of Harriet Bowman, Rod Harris, Ben Hartley, Johnny Jones and Jo Lathwood, I had corn dollies, borderlines, land spirits and harvest in mind when working on this show.
Lammas marks the first day of harvest, the baking of the first loaf, the reaping of the fields and the hiding spirit of the corn.
Borne of the fields, Lammas honours spirits older than the walls and hedgerows which segment agricultural land. In witchcraft traditions the hedge, the wall, the fence, the borderline become ‘thin’ places; liminal and otherworldly, even harder to contain than that which went before.
Lammas marked the start of intense labour, communities working to gain back a sense of food safety as the pervious harvest’s supplies dwindled.
I’ll be taking food left on the altar to East Bristol Food Bank in Easton once the show closes. I also encourage everybody who visits to donate to Medical Aid for Palestinians.
For non-Spike building users, the exhibition is by appointment only - email [email protected] if you’d like to come along
More pics to come 🛠️
Massive thanks to gorgeous Johnny, Benni and Fergal for helping me to install this show ❤️
