Add another €100.00 of Miranda's Merch to qualify for free Ireland & UK delivery!
CROCKERY MOUNTAIN
‘Crockery Mountain’ is a community mosaic made of plates, cups, bowls, saucers and teapots! It is installed on a wall in Dungarvan, County Waterford, Ireland. This is an environmental artwork featuring thousands of surplus, sentimental and damaged pieces of crockery that that were donated by members of the public.
Who made ‘Crockery Mountain’? It was made by a team of 150 volunteers from the local community. Participants were trained by environmental artist Sean Corcoran at The Art Hand studio through a series of Mosaic Masterclasses. Rapid set external tile adhesive was used to stick all the donated crockery to the 244 special frost-proof backing boards. These were produced on the table in our custom built but compact mosaic room.
TV: Nationwide on RTE TV followed the project from the studio all the way to the unveiling and can we watched HERE.
RADIO: Mooney Goes Wild on RTE Radio 1 came to visit Crockery Mountain and a podcast of the episode is available HERE.
Below is a slideshow of the Mosaic Masterclass in progress at The Art Hand…
How big is it? This massive crockery mosaic measure 12.14 metres wide by 4.2 metres high (40 foot by 14 foot). Almost 10,000 individual pieces of crockery are embedded in this artwork including fragments as small as a marble all the way up to large platter plates. All these materials were donated to the project.
Where does the name ‘Crockery Mountain’ come from? Back in the 1970’s governments across Europe faced issues dealing with excess supplies of items like butter, milk, wine and beef. Phrases like ‘butter mountains’ described this supply surplus. Similarly today in a consumerist society we see huge excesses in people’s homes. As part of our research for ‘Crockery Mountain’ we discovered that many families have enough crockery for a small restaurant! Our cupboards are over-flowing! Not just with the everyday crockery that we use for our food and drinks but with novelty mugs, decorative plates, pre-loved treasures from our childhood, chipped cups, unwanted teapots and Granny’s old tea set!
Why mosaic? Why community? Mosaic is one of the most inclusive and rewarding artforms. It’s a very simple process suitable for all ages and ability levels. When a group of people come together to create an artwork like this it instills a sense of ownership across the community. This is environmental art. It is meant to trigger conversations. It is meant to make us question things. Like…why do we have so much stuff? Will the next generation want the items we now treasure? What can we do with damaged crockery? Conversations lead to behavior change. There are many environmental campaigns that focus on things like fast fashion and single use plastics but there hasn’t been any that look at crockery.
Why crockery? Every plate has a story to tell! Where is our crockery made? Where did you get it? What is it’s life span? How do you recycle it? Do you have a favourite mug? Do you hoard crockery? Are you sentimental about any of your crockery? We researched all these questions as part of the project. The social history of the items, the nostalgia, consumerism, design, fashion, trends, aesthetics and life cycle. We believe that there needs to be more focus on the environmental impacts of over consumption and crockery needs to be part of this debate.
How was it installed? After 7 months in the workshop it took 11 long days to complete the installation of ‘Crockery Mountain’. Sean, James and Laura were joined by a team of trained volunteers to attach the 244 separate panels to the wall. A ‘Mobile Elevated Working Platform’ (MEWP) was used for the higher areas. Below is a 90 seconds timelapse of the 11 day install!
How was the overall layout decided? There are 7 layers; A, B, C, D, E, F and G. With ‘A’ being the bottom layer and ‘G’ being the top layer. We like to think of them as layers of geology that are compressed over millions of years or in a more modern context they remind us of a cross section of a human landfill site or maybe a midden where the domestic waste of our ancestors has been exposed by coastal erosion.
The overall rectangular shape mimics the cinema screen that is on the other side of the same wall! We could hear the screams of a Jurassic Park movie that was playing during the install, we think there is a certain poignancy to that! So there isn’t an overall pattern or image as such but each panel is positioned carefully to be in harmony with the surrounding panels.
Using the Grid Layout…To help with positioning the panels correctly each of the 244 panels have a reference letter (that shows which layer it is in) and a reference number (that shows it’s position from left to right). A1, A2, A3 and so on all the way up to G37 in the top right. Above is the Grid Layout we created in advance of the installation that identifies the references for each panel. F25 was the last panel to be made. It doesn’t appear in this Grid as it hadn’t been made at that stage!
Below is a photo of the first panel to be made and it also ended up being the first to be installed. It has a reference number of A1 (which means it is on the bottom row on the far left). Perhaps over time these grid references will be used to locate favourite panels. For example if you are looking for Emer Enrights memorial it is D14. Santa is B18 and the Pope is E12.
About us…The Art Hand is based in Bunmahon at the heart of the Copper Coast in Waterford. Sean and his wife Miranda have a small gallery and run group workshops from their premises. We have facilitated dozens of large community mosaics around the country and even as far as Texas! These are creative and fun projects that bring communities together to discuss environmental issues while creating a lasting public artwork. View our Mosaic page to see examples of other collaborative projects HERE.
Visit The Art Hand…We are a 30 minute drive from the ‘Crockery Mountain’ artwork in Dungarvan. If you’d like to visit the home of ‘Crockery Mountain’ our Eircode is X42 PY92. Here is a Google Maps Pin of our location; https://maps.app.goo.gl/dU8nj5sjZWYzfr7i7 Please Whattsapp 087 8393332 in advance if you’d like a tour of our facility. Our current projects and workshops appear on The Art Hand Facebook page HERE.
