REVIEW Feb 2025 ‘Lawson Oyekan’ at Blackwell – The Art & Crafts house

Kirsty Jukes

Art historian and writer Kirsty Jukes reviews Lawson Oyekan’s first major solo exhibition in two decades at Blackwell – The Art & Crafts house in Bowness-on-Windermere. A celebrated sculptor, Oyekan’s work delves into the depths of human experience, exploring life's fragility and resilience. Large, thin-walled vessels strike a powerful contrast—appearing both robust and delicate in the exhibition space. This significant solo show brings together works from across the artist’s career and provides an intimate insight into his practice through a newly commissioned film by the critically acclaimed French photographer and director, Xavier Lambours. Exhibition is free with house admission until 16 March 2025.

One of the first thoughts that struck me upon visiting Lawson Oyekan’s solo exhibition at Blackwell is how expertly his work matches its surroundings. It is as if his sculptures are part of the Lakeland Arts collection of Arts & Crafts Movement pieces despite the difference in time period between the two. The beautiful, decorative interior of the house is filled with warm, woody tones offset by rich blues seen on tiles, wallpaper and furniture. Oyekan’s sculptures are made up of chalky and rusty clays interspersed with flashes of mineral blue kyanite which, alongside glimpses of the shimmering lake through leaded windows, mirror the interior design palette. Appearing as totemic artifacts bent by wind and earth’s plastic motion, each stands stoically across multiple spaces inside.

Feeling part of a contemporary story whilst retaining a connection to ancient ideas, this sense of place and belonging feeds through the entire artistic process during which the artist draws on his time living and travelling in different places. According to Lakeland Arts Curator Naomi Gariff, three of Oyekan’s sculptures “have been at Blackwell since the house opened to the public in 2001, so his work has been deeply intertwined with Blackwell’s story since the beginning.” The elevation of craft to the highest status can be felt in the reverence given to both the venue as a contemplative space and to the artist as a master of his medium. Oyekan’s first solo exhibition at a public institution in the UK for twenty years is a well overdue opportunity for ceramic and sculpture enthusiasts to experience a wide selection of his work.

Oyekan was born in Lambeth, London and grew up in Ibadan, Nigeria where he studied applied chemistry at Ibadan Polytechnic. This initial aptitude for sciences is not an unusual trait for artists, applying to many names such as Dr Ayako Tani, Alfred L. Copley, Anna Atkins, Klari Reis, Nina Sellars and Leonardo da Vinci amongst others. The body is a key reference point for his forms which Oyekan describes as ‘diaphragms’, a term which evokes the living, breathing natures of his anthropomorphic vessels and clearly links his early scientific study to his later creative output. These chambers resemble internal bodily structures and cell walls. In 1983 he returned to England to study at Central St Martin’s and The Royal College of Art, setting up his first ceramics studio in King’s Cross. His career is now in its fourth decade and consists of national and international exhibitions and residencies including the accolade of winning the grand prize at the First World Ceramic Biennale in South Korea in 2003. Following an extended period of ill health, he moved to Vosges, France where he continues to create work at his studio in a former military warehouse. Oyekan trained in porcelain wheel throwing and developed his own techniques through pinch building clay patties into larger, monolithic forms. His work resists any literal meaning through its abstract nature and non-descriptive titling, making each piece mysterious and poetic with a myriad of readings possible. His influences range from modernist sculpture, Nigerian traditional crafting techniques, the power of nature, human experience, poetry, calligraphy and ecological destruction. He is an intuitive sculptor whose ambitious and contemplative works pose questions about the physical drama of nature and its destruction at human hands.

Self-described as a ‘positive exile’, travel inspires Oyekan most prominently. Much like fellow ceramic artist Halima Cassell, who has had two solo exhibitions at Blackwell, one of which, ‘Reflections’, I wrote about last year (1), Oyekan works in clays that are local to regions he either visits or in which he lives. He is profoundly inspired by nature, most specifically the ebb and flow of natural rhythms -

“Like most inquisitive children drawn to the dynamic nature of water, I was fascinated with the physicality of the flowing river and its clay in my environment: the Ogbere River courses of Ibadan. During art school, I was allowed to place clay as my favorite medium.” (2)

Clay, as a pliable and versatile conduit for his ideas, then also leaves space for him to suffuse his chosen forms with a sense of place and memory taken from his childhood environment in Ibadan and the traditions of his native Yoruba culture. There is joy here in re-encountering that which has stuck with him through time, evident in the way he conjures up his memories in physical form. The passage of knowledge from one generation to another is moulded into the very fabric of each vessel. Poet, researcher and Professor John Pepper Clark-Bekederemo evokes a mental image of Oyekan’s childhood town in his 1965 poem Ibadan -

Ibadan,

running splash of rust

and gold-flung and scattered

among seven hills like broken

china in the sun. (3)

Rusty red clay running throughout this collection of work recalls Clark-Bekederemo’s words, their porous surfaces of interconnected, hand-built slabs like the rooftops of a close-quartered community. I wonder if Oyekan recalled this view of his home with him whilst working?

There are also echoes of natural forms here such as giant termite mounds and anthill colonies in the African savannah. This adds a new dimension allowing the viewer to imagine each individual clay tower as a living, breathing colony of insects, transporting the viewer out of the man-made structure of Blackwell and in direct communion with nature. Between six and eight feet tall at the largest, they are at once imposing but ultimately delicate, scarred with marks that allow air and light to flow through. This is also reminiscent of ancient spiritual artifacts of the Benue Valley in Central Nigeria which often have chiseled indents that form repeating patterns. Their colouring recalls the arid deserts of Africa and Central Australia, both of which share red tones in their earth. Other natural elements that could be of influence here are the rotund, interwoven aspects of chalk white hornet and deep brown bird nests seen in his smaller works. It would be an easy observation for Western eyes especially to assume that Oyekan's rhythmic treatment of forms is directly related to African ceramics. The artist is specific in saying that this is not the case in his interview with Pamela Johnson for Crafts magazine in 1994. He instead points to modernist and Cubist forms as his major influence (4). In a later interview he also he says -

“I want to bring the viewer safely out of their cocoon of culture into a realm of widened perceptiveness.” (5)

Additionally, the rough surfaces present in many pieces on show at this exhibition can be attributed to both his energetic hand and the secondary and tertiary materials added into the mix. These are further enhanced by illegible text scratched into the surfaces that references Yoruba and English poetry and philosophy. Oyekan pierces and carves lines and holes into the surface using slashing strokes. His technique does not pay mind to uniformity or perfection but rather the organic way in which his hand interacts with the leather dry surface. Hand formed slabs are made individually first, later squeezed together at the seams and then painted with slip. Aside from clay and porcelain, Oyekan uses iron, the aluminium silicate mineral kyanite, cotton and occasionally lets the detritus of his studio find its way into his work, fossilised into place by the firing.

A temperamental material to use in ceramics, iron has a tendency to oxidise heavily even at lower temperatures. The result is a mottled surface which can look burned and most definitely rusted. When combined with certain glazes, it can also provide a burnished crystalline effect. Red iron oxide is a good way of achieving a rustic durability to the form although the experimental nature of the material means that the results after firing can vary greatly. The science of how all the materials Oyekan chooses for his work behave both separately and together will be of experimental interest to the artist and is surely one reason he chooses to combine them.

Kyanite can strengthen thermal resistance in ceramics which allows for a higher firing temperature and additionally makes it a valuable ingredient in porcelain. It also has a place in folkloric traditions believed to promote feelings of peace and harmony by reducing stress, anxiety and negative emotions. It is also thought to have healing benefits for the throat, muscles and nervous system. Visually, its stunning blue hue occurs in crystal shards that most often reflects the colour of the sky or of water. It exhibits a durability that makes it suitable for industrial use but can also be brittle. In his sculptures Oyekan subtly incorporates this mineral perhaps as a reference to the mountainous landscape in which he now lives which is similar to the areas where kyanite can be found.

Finally, cotton is one of the more unusual and culturally relevant materials used here. Adding a fibrous texture to the cast-like, filamentous surfaces achieves a harsh, raw feel in his work. I find cotton an interesting choice for sculpture, not least because of its reputation as being soft and porous but also due to the complex history of the material and its relation to Oyekan’s heritage and Blackwell Arts and Crafts house. When cotton was first introduced into this country, it was assumed it must come from some sort of sheep, and when told it came from a plant, people decided that it must therefore come from a sheep plant (6). This, as we later found out, could not be further from the truth. Cottons were first imported to Britain in the sixteenth century from India, harvested by the labour of enslaved people and contributing to the growing wealth of the East India company and related colonial British enterprises. According to one historian referring to the machinations of the notorious Middle Passage, “African manpower was extracted and exported in exchange mainly for Indian textiles” (7). The brutal history of cotton is intertwined with that of the African diaspora who live with the lasting intergenerational trauma of slavery. An area known as the Slave Coast in today’s Niger Delta was a key transactional port in the Triangular Trade between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries which saw a major increase in the growth and import of cotton from the Americas fueling spinning and milling industries in pre- and post-Industrial Revolution Britain.

This relates directly to the history of Blackwell as it was built as a rural holiday retreat in Bowness-on-Windermere for Manchester brewery owner Sir Edward Holt and his family. He was the son of the brewery’s founder and namesake Joseph Holt and grandson of James Holt, a handloom weaver in the textile village of Unsworth, Greater Manchester. He bought yarn from local spinners to weave into cloth linking the family to the wider cotton industry of the 1800s and its clear connections to the slave trade. Although they lacked the status of their 18th century counterparts, it was still possible for handloom weavers to earn good wages in the early 19th century (8), wages which may have financed the brewery business of his son in later years. This gives all the more resonance to the placement of Oyekan’s work at Blackwell in that it draws attention to the differing legacies related to the commodification of cotton.

Critically acclaimed French photographer and director, Xavier Lambours has created a short film about Oyekan and his work which can be viewed alongside the exhibition. This beautiful insight into his current life and the legacy of his practice is a welcome window on his world. Moving images are interspersed with still shots of the artist that act as snapshots of his practice, his idyllic existence in the mountainous Vosges region of France and his 63-year-old form. It is sympathetically rendered and brings the scars from surgery on the artist's body in direct dialogue with the scarred surfaces of his sculptures, both symbols of strength, healing and renewal. All things considered; this exhibition is a timely tribute to the quiet dedication of Oyekan to his work. His vessels stand watching whilst also being watched, seeming to almost stop time in and around Blackwell in a reciprocal salutation between humanity and nature. Rebecca Scott, Co-Founder of Cross Lane Projects (co-producers of the exhibition alongside Maison Gallery 19 Paul Fort, Paris) states that “Lawson's works on display mirror the journey he has been on personally and as an artist. His figures show individuality, endurance and vitality as well as delicacy and vulnerability.” It was a poignant experience spending time in this exhibition, one that is summed up perfectly by Oyekan’s own words which I will end with -

“My intent is to express human endurance and deliver a message of reassurance: that human suffering can be healed.” (9)

Lawson Oyekan runs until Sunday 16 March 2025 at Blackwell – The Art & Crafts house.

Produced with Cross Lane Projects in Kendal and Maison Gallery 19 Paul Fort, Paris. All images courtesy of Lakeland Arts. Preview images taken by Caroline Robinson.

Entry included with house admission. Pre book tickets online at blackwell.org.uk.

 Footnotes

(1)     Kirsty Jukes - https://corridor8.co.uk/article/halima-cassell-virtues-of-unity/

(2)     Rebecca Scott, Cross Lane Projects -  INTERVIEW - In Conversation with Nicola Tassie, William Plumptre & Lawson Oyekan - Cross Lane Projects

(3)     ‘Ibadan’, a poem by John Pepper Clark-Bekederemo, ‘A Reed in the Tide’ (Longmans, 1965)

(4)     Pamela Johnson, ‘Dimensions of Light’, Crafts, January/February 1994, p. 31

(5)     Rebecca Scott, Cross Lane Projects - INTERVIEW - In Conversation with Nicola Tassie, William Plumptre & Lawson Oyekan - Cross Lane Projects

(6)     Richard M. Eaton, A Social History of the Deccan, 1300–1761: Eight Indian Lives (Cambridge, 2005)

(7)     Hebden Bridge Alternative Technology Centre - Power in the Landscape - Handloom Weavers

(8)     Hebden Bridge Alternative Technology Centre - Power in the Landscape - Handloom Weavers

(9)     Robin Englebright - Lawson Oyekan Ceramic Artist 8th May 2pm Sallis Benney 2019 | Crossing Cultures

This review is supported by Lakeland Arts