Bow Arts talks to artist educator and mixed media artist Victoria Burgher about her practice, influences and being a professional artist working with students and schools.

As part of our Lewisham schools consortium, Victoria worked with over 200 students at St William of York Primary School from Reception to Year 6 to create a large-scale ceramic tile installation that’s displayed outside the main school entrance.

The project explored ideas of creation and environmental responsibility, incorporating neutral colours that represent the earth, sea and sky. Through rolling, imprinting and glazing processes, each student helped to create an individual textured clay tile which contributed to the final collaborative outdoor artwork. 

With the support of Lewisham Adult Learning Centre, who kindly allowed us to borrow their pottery studio kiln, students had the opportunity to learn how the tiles were fired.

Hello Victoria, tell us about yourself

I’m a mixed-media artist, educator and researcher living in east London. I am interested in art’s ability to bring people together across difference.

How would you describe your art practice?

My art practice is rooted in research and process to explore themes of empire, colonialism and neo-imperial exploitation. I focus on a conceptual use of colonial commodities such as sugar, indigo and cotton as a way of visually re-examining whitewashed areas of history.

Who are your artistic influences and inspirations?

My earliest influence was the sculptor Auguste Rodin; his figurative sculptures evoked such raw emotion and his work definitely sparked my interest in three-dimensional art.

Contemporary artists I always go back to are Mona Hatoum and Doris Salcedo – I find their politically resonant use of materials very inspiring.

What do you want people to take away from your artworks?

Thoughts and questions.

How does your experience and process of making in your personal practice transmit to your work in the classroom?

I hope I take my belief that we can all be artists into the classroom and that making and creativity manifests in many ways.

I am very interested in process and materials so the learning that arises from the mess of making is just as important as a recognisable outcome.

In this project, how did you address the environmental theme with the students?

We approached the environmental theme holistically and in relation to the school’s Christian ethos, recognising our shared responsibility to care for the planet.

The collaborative nature of the making – the children worked together rather than making their own individual tile – reflected this attitude of collective care. We created texture on the tiles using found materials such as leaves, flowers, fruit, shells and driftwood as a way of centring the natural world.

How important do you think it is that the students were involved in all aspects of the creative process – from research, preparing the clay and creating textures to applying glazes and understanding the firing process?

This aspect of the project was crucial to the children understanding the many elements of creating ceramics and how clay transforms throughout the process – from a lump of cold, damp, raw clay to hard, shiny, colourful, textured tile. There is a real sense of magic in that transformation, and I hope it inspired curiosity and excitement in the children.

How did the collaboration with the Lewisham Learning Centre benefit the project?

From a practical aspect, due to the scale of this project, it was really helpful to be able to carry out some of the work in a ceramics studio and I had some expert technical support from the staff there. The children were able to see the big kilns and to learn about the firing process.

It also introduced them to an excellent local resource that is available to them and their families beyond the project itself.

How important do you think it is for young students to work with an artist – what are the benefits of collaborating with a Bow Arts project?

This is vital because it helps them to realise that they too can be artists and that there are many different ways of making art.

Working with a Bow Arts project makes art more accessible to children and introduces them to new methods and materials that may inspire more confidence in their creative skills and futures.

Can you share a favourite moment working on this project?

Seeing how excited the children were to work in a professional ceramics studio was a particular highlight.

Over the course of the project, you worked with over 200 primary-aged students, how do you think they felt about working collaboratively and contributing towards a final artwork together to be displayed in their school?

Children are often encouraged to focus on individual achievement, so it took time for them to embrace the collaborative nature of the project. Although it was difficult for some to imagine the final outcome, I hope they feel proud of the collective artwork they created together.

Do you have any tips for educators reading this?

Obviously it is important to meet the brief of the school, but I have found that focusing on what inspires you – in my case process and materials – makes the project inspirational and exciting for the children.

Lastly, what are you working on at the moment?

I am working on a site-specific sculpture made from chalk.

About Victoria Burgher
Mixed media artist/ artist educator

Victoria uses culturally resonant materials to explore themes of empire, colonialism and neo-imperial exploitation. Her art practice is rooted in research and process and focuses on a conceptual use of colonial commodities as a way of visually re-examining whitewashed areas of history.

Interested in art’s ability to challenge entrenched narratives, through her work she aims to encourage discussion and engage with the past in order to better understand and negotiate the present. A sense of place and personal identity as an artist from a colonising country are engrained in her approach to making.

Victoria’s doctoral thesis, Crafting counter-hegemony: using porcelain to interrogate ideological whiteness as anti-racist praxis, centred communion and futurity – craft and clay in pursuit of social justice and the collective imagining of a world beyond white supremacy.

We are delighted that Victoria’s work is included in the current Bow Open Exhibition at the Nunnery Gallery, this year selected by young curators with the Mile End Community Project – click here to find out more.

See more of Victoria’s work on her website