Laura Aldridge

OPENARIES III: Ever open openings/Ever more open openings/The expanded vessel
Woodlands Community Gardens
19/04/2014

OPENARIES III: Ever open openings/Ever more open openings/The expanded vessel
Woodlands Community Gardens
19/04/2014

Commissioned by Glasgow International, Anna Mayer and I developed Openaries, a series of public events that unfolded across Glasgow between April 4–21, 2014. At the heart of the project was our shared fascination with analogue firing techniques, which led us to design and build a portable ceramics kiln from two welded oil barrels. This double barrel double downdraft kiln became both tool and artwork — a dreamy, twin-like vessel that reflected our own collaboration.

Over the course of three themed firings, the kiln was activated through contributions from local artists and practitioners, each event gathering a temporary community around fire, clay, and ritual. These moments balanced the ceremonial with the everyday, creating spaces where the festival public could encounter and participate in a wider cross-section of the city’s creative and social life.

The three large-scale sculptures produced through these firings were later exhibited at Trongate 103, Glasgow, standing as material traces of these collective acts of making, gathering, and exchange.