Welcome back!! Today I'm speaking with Tessa Silva about MILK. Tessa is a British-Brazilian artist whose work considers our collective use of materials from ancient history to the present day. Using craft as a tool to investigate the relationship between culture and nature, Tessa unravels the storied histories of the materials she works with in the knowledge that every material has its own biography. Using milk as her primary medium, Tessa has spent the last six years working with surplus milk proteins as a material to produce bespoke, handcrafted sculptural objects. Titled Feminised Protein, a term first coined by American writer, feminist, and animal rights advocate Carol J Adams to address the exploitation of non-human reproductive cycles to produce food on a mass scale, Tessa’s project exists in dialogue with themes of sustainability, history, nature and motherhood.

The Feminised Protein project has been exhibited at institutions such as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna, and at the 10th edition of Future Heritage, curated by Corinne Julius. Tessa has delivered lectures on her practice at the V&A, Henry Moore Studios, and for the British Council’s Circular Cultures programme.

Tessa Silva

Tessa on Instagram

Tessa's Mater text

Esther Leslie's Mater text

Ma-tter Seetal Solanki

Alfriston Clergy

Weald and Downland museum

Hook and Son Farm - raw organic dairy farm

Arts Council England, Developing Your Creative Practice grant

Tessa referenced two other episodes of The Mater Podcast: 'Emma Witter & Krista Mileva Frank' and 'Andrew Cummings & Claye Bowler'

Mater on Instagram

The Mater website

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This week on The Mater Podcast, Evie Hatch, studio and materials specialist and host of Jackson's Pigment Stories, is joined by artist Ginny Elston to discuss The Personalities of Pigments. 

Ginny, winner of the Student Award in Jackson’s Art Prize 2023, shares her insights on her collaboration with Unison Colour to curate a series of soft pastels (pictured here). Evie and Ginny also dive into pigments, paint, and their own understandings of colour.

Ginny Elston (Instagram)

Website

Evie Hatch (Instagram)

Jacksons Art (Instagram)

Jacksons Art blog

Jacksons Art Supplies online shop

Jacksons Art Prize

Ginny's Versatility Soft Pastel Set for Unison

Ginny teaches private classes in Edinburgh, held at Scot-Art, (@thescotart) on London Road. It's a local hub for artists in the city with community spaces, studios and galleries.

Ginny’s interview with Jacksons

Links mentioned throughout the conversation

Amy Sillman, On Colour

Rebecca Fortnum, On Not Knowing: How Artists Think

The Mater Podcast episode on the colour blue

Katharina Grosse - colour liberated from the confines of support. Instagram | Website

Ginny’s recommendations for Art Schools

the New York Studio School (@ny_studioschool)

Leith School of Art (@leithschoolofart)

There are some great artists teaching at Black Pond Studio (@blackpondstudio)

Ginny also teaches private classes in Edinburgh, held at Scot-Art, (@thescotart) on London Road. It's a local hub for artists in the city with community spaces, studios and galleries.

Reach out - Mater________ on Instagram

Website - mater.digital

Email - [email protected]

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A conversation between artist Claye Bowler and art historian Andrew Cummings about the exhibition Dig Me A Grave, burials, connection to the land , latex, soil, death & more.

Links

Dig Me A Grave dates & venues:

Steam Works Gallery, WIP Studios, Wandsworth, London

https://www.wipspace.co.uk/dig-me-a-grave

21.03.25 - 11.05.25

PV 20.03.25

Auction House, Redruth, Cornwall

21.06.25 - 19.07.25

PV 20.06.25

Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield

04.10.25 - 02.11.25

A sculpture from this body of work was also part of a group exhibition

Winter Sculpture Park 2025

01.03.25 - 12.04.25

Claye’s exhibition Top (2022) is being shown again at Queer Britain 10/09/2025 - 23/11/2025

Compilation of protests and actions against the Supreme Court: https://whatthetrans.com/compilation-of-protests-against-the-supreme-court/

Fundraising towards five transfem causes in the UK https://www.fiveforfive.co.uk/

Claye on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/clayebowler/?hl=en

Claye’s website: https://www.clayebowler.com/?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAafm3sQ4CBOg5SYofyAmlntP0rmy1-pJZufTxZbWUseEfV5LruEAwpCwAY3MVw_aem__qa4reKB4fVG85oxlrdUjw

Andrew: https://researchers.arts.ac.uk/2344-andrew-cummings  

https://courtauld.ac.uk/research/research-resources/publications/immeditations-postgraduate-journal/immediations-online/immediations-no-18-2021/the-promise-of-parasites/ 

Fire Choir https://thenestcollective.co.uk/projects/fire-choir

The False Bride, Folk Song that Claye mentions with ‘I’ll lie in my grave until I get over you’

About the Museum Registrar Traineeship: https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/fine-art/news/article/2675/museum-registrar-traineeship-opportunity-in-leeds-from-september-2024#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThe%20traineeship%20sees%20the%20successful,collections%20work%20amongst%20other%20students. 

Brandon Labelle: https://brandonlabelle.net/

Gluck: https://www.npg.org.uk/schools-hub/gluck-by-gluck

Living Well Dying Well - Andrew’s End-of-Life Doula foundation training - https://lwdwtraining.uk/ 

Grief Tending in Community https://grieftending.org/ 

Francis Weller, The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief, North Atlantic Books, 2015 

Camille Barton, Tending Grief: Embodied Rituals for Holding our Sorrow, North Atlantic Books, 2024

Top, at Henry Moore Institute https://henry-moore.org/whats-on/claye-bowler-top/

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Hello! This is Maddie Rose Hills, host of The Mater Podcast.

This week's episode is a little different, and a lot shorter!

I have just got back from a week-long Research Residency at West Dean School of Arts, Craft, Design and Conservation. What is a research residency? Well it can really be anything - but for me it meant wandering around the school, meeting people from lots of different departments, and talking with them about what attracted them to the craft and materials that they were studying or teaching. I wrote a diary while down there and have put together a selection of the thoughts here.

This text can be read on the Mater website: https://mater.digital/stories/a-research-residency-at-west-dean/

Or listened to here on the podcast platform

I will also share more images on the Mater Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mater________/?hl=en

Find out more about West Dean: https://www.westdean.ac.uk/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/westdeancollege/?hl=en

West Dean Fine Art on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/westdeanfineart/?hl=en

More about West Dean: 'Our schools of arts, design and conservation offer a uniquely broad range of world-leading courses. At the heart of all we do, is our belief that 'making' makes our lives better. We celebrate the intrinsic value of work that has been hand-made by artists and artisans, and challenge the assumption that mass-produced must be the only way because, across the world, the maker movement is growing.'

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Today I am chatting with Lucila Kenny and Barbara Collé about COLOUR

Lucila Kenny is an Argentinean textile designer as well as a researcher focused on Natural Dyeing and the colourants produced by a range of plant species. As a natural dyer and educator she has worked with universities, art academies, fashion designers, biologists and artists exploring, preparing and producing plant colorants for dyeing, inks and paints.

Barbara Colle is a Dutch visual artist and philosopher, investigating our experience of colour. She publishes her findings through essays, artist books and visual essays. On the subject of colour she guest lectures at universities, contributes to publications and curates. 

The two have bonded over colour and perception through many conversations and collaborations, so it was very moving to be able to be a fly on the wall for one of their chats. We discuss how colour is changing all the time, and letting go of a desire to control colour when natural dying and while growing pigments. Lucila describes is as seeing that the plants are 'gifting' us, instead of what we want to take. They discuss the language we use to describe colour, and how it says so much about our relationship with it.

Links

Lucilla's website: https://www.lucilakenny.com/ | On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lucila.kenny/?hl=en-gb

Barbara's website: https://www.barbaracolle.nl/ | On Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/barbara___colle_/

Indigo website: www.growingblue.info

flower, fruit, leaf, husk and root (book): https://www.lucilakenny.com/shop/book

Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer

Elmer, by David Mckee (the children's book about colourful elephants)

The Color Kittens, Margaret Wise Brown (Barbara's children's book)

Eleanor Irwin, Colour Terms In Greek Poetry (1974)

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This week I’m joined by Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin of Formafantasma. Formafantasma are a design studio who investigate the ecological, historical, political and social forces shaping the discipline of design today. Their extensive client list includes Prada, Hermes, Vitra Design Museum, Fendi, The Venice Bienale, Rijksmuseum, and the National Museum of Norway.

This conversation was recorded at The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, in the middle of feb 2025 just before the opening of Studio Formafantasma’s exhibition Oltre Terra. Oltre Terra is is an ongoing investigation of the history, ecology, and global dynamics of the extraction and production of wool. The show will run until July 13th so make sure to check it out..

Oltre Terra at Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam - https://www.stedelijk.nl/nl/tentoonstellingen/formafantasma

Formafantasma website - https://formafantasma.com/studio

Formafantasma on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/formafantasma/

Cambio - https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/whats-on/formafantasma-cambio/

Geo-Design at Design Academy Eindhoven: https://www.designacademy.nl/page/5809/geo%E2%80%94design

Interview with Tim White - Exlana sheep breeder https://vimeo.com/780306084

Artek x Formafantasma collaboration: https://www.artek.fi/en/company/designers/formafantasma

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A conversation about Plastic with designer Shahar Livne and environmental humanities scholar Heather Davis.

Shahar Livne is an award winning conceptual material designer. Livne's lifelong fascinations in nature, biology, science, and philosophy developed into an intuitive material experimentation way of work during her degree studies at the Design Academy Eindhoven. Shahar brings life to unique stories through objects and installations centered around materials as carriers of narratives. Some of Livne's projects deal with obscure materials such as blood, man-made fossils, crystallization and more, today we are going to be focussing on plastic, and Shahar has put me in touch with Heather Davis who I am thrilled to have here as our second guest today

Heather Davis is Assistant Professor and Director of Culture and Media at The New School in New York City. As an interdisciplinary scholar working in environmental humanities, media studies, and visual culture, she is interested in how the saturation of fossil fuels has shaped contemporary culture. Davis is the author of over 80 articles, book chapters, reviews, and catalogue essays. Her most recent book, Plastic Matter (Duke University Press, 2022) traces plastic’s relations to geology, media, biology, and race to show how matter itself has come to be understood as pliable, disposable, and consumable.

LINKS

Shahar Livne: https://www.instagram.com/_shaharlivnedesignstudio_/

https://www.shaharlivnedesign.com/

Shahar Livne, Metamorphism: https://www.shaharlivnedesign.com/metamorphism

Heather Davis: https://heathermdavis.com/

Heather Davis, Plastic Matter: https://www.dukeupress.edu/plastic-matter

• Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent, French philosopher and historian - Heather spoke about her writing on the endless possibilities of matter and material. Plastic as a material is deeply connected to wanting to manipulate matter at the most fundamental levels
• Zakiyyah Iman Jackson:  https://scholars.duke.edu/person/zakiyyah.jackson#:~:text=Her%20research%20investigates%20the%20fundamental,and%20rhetoric%20of%20Western%20science Thinking about the emergence of the category of the human, and the way it emerges through the hierarchy of humanity. The forced plasticity of the human body in various forms of black suppression. Various humans as abject other that carries the weight of plasticity.
• Pollution Is Colonialism - book by Max Liboiron
• Heterotopia: https://foucault.info/documents/heterotopia/foucault.heteroTopia.en/
• Geo Design, https://www.designacademy.nl/page/5809/geo%E2%80%94design
• Pinar Yoldas, Ecosystem of Excess.
• Crimes of the Future
• The podcast Heather referenced at the end about adaptive capabilities: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/garbage-patch-kids/id1554578197?i=1000641946004

Follow us: https://www.instagram.com/mater________/?hl=en

Get in touch: [email protected]

The Mater website: https://mater.digital/

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Claire Baily is a London-based artist, researcher, and educator whose work navigates the intersections of art, sustainability, and material innovation. I had been following Claire’s research on Instagram, after knowing her as an artist working with an array of materials, with amazing technical casting ability.. And then seeing her document a shift away from Petrochemicals, resins etc, looking at what a sustainable making practice might look like in the context of the climate emergency, documenting her experimentations with new materials for casting. I enjoyed the way she was sharing the research, the tests and the trials online - developing more sustainable art production systems with regenerative resources at their core, she is focusing on developing bio-based materials and processes that can be viable alternatives to existing making methodologies dominated by petrochemicals.

Claire suggested Sarah King as our second guest for the conversation.. Sarah is a circular economy researcher, sustainability and innovation consultant with experience in project management, design led research, and systems change. For the last eight years she has worked closely with businesses and academic institutions to educate and identify innovation opportunities in response to current environmental challenges, supporting the development of new technologies, products, and services. Her areas of scope include the built environment and construction, plastics and packaging, textiles and apparel, and sociocultural behaviour change. Recent projects include the culturing of pure Bacterial Cellulose for use in the apparel industry, food waste composite materials for interior panelling, and natural pigments for utilisation with digital processing techniques.

Links

Claire: https://www.clairebaily.com/?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaZNJHTKnISc_3qDtrvlDlsbt0S0pMjc86KwWqx9wbRp9MWsV78-i3k6dao_aem_FlxJwHA1EmzgFcSs0Whekg

Claire on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clairebaily/

Sarah: https://www.earthliprojects.com/

Sarah on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarah_earthli_projects/

Materials Club: https://steamhouse.org.uk/news/materials-club-biomaterials-101/

On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/materials_club/?hl=en

Steamhouse Birmingham: https://steamhouse.org.uk/

More on the HS2 project in collaboration with British Ceramics Bienial: https://www.britishceramicsbiennial.com/news/from-waste-to-resource/

Centre for Ecology and Art Goldsmiths: https://www.gold.ac.uk/research/centres-units/research-centre/centre-for-art-and-ecology/about-us/

Olivia Aspinall: https://www.instagram.com/do_not_go_gentle_/

Material Futures at CSM https://www.arts.ac.uk/subjects/textiles-and-materials/postgraduate/ma-material-futures-csm

Follow Mater on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mater________/

Original writing commissions by Mater: https://mater.digital/

Get in touch with any thoughts, questions, or even suggestions for future episodes: [email protected]

Please make sure to follow, subscribe and rate if you are enjoying the podcast, it means the world!

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Emii Alrai & Amanda Pinatih discuss material artefacts, memory, belonging and museum practice.

Emii Alrai: https://www.instagram.com/emiialrai/?hl=en-gb

https://emiialrai.com/

Amanda Pinatih: https://www.instagram.com/amandapinatih/?hl=en-gb

https://madepinatih.com/

Design Museum Dharavi: http://designmuseumdharavi.org/Design_Museum_Dharavi/Dharavi.html

Guna Guna, When things are beings exhibition at Stedelijk https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/production-static-stedelijk/images/_whats%20on/tentoonstellingen/2022/When%20things%20are%20beings/WhenThingsAreBeings2022-EN-FINAL24112022-SMALL.pdf

A Lake as Great as its Bones: https://emiialrai.com/A-Lake-as-Great-as-its-Bones

Royal Armoury Museum https://royalarmouries.org/leeds

Horsehair with Nicola Turner & Mick Sheridan on The Mater Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-mater-podcast/id1749226924?i=1000665067091

Emii Alrai is an artist and trained museum registrar whose work spans material investigation in relation to memory, and critique of the western museological structure and the complexity of ruins. Working primarily in sculpture and installation, her work operates as large-scale realms built in relation to bodies of research which concern archaeology and the natural environments objects are excavated from. Her material explorations weave in oral histories, inherited nostalgia and the details of language to question the rigidity of Empire, the power of hierarchy and the static presence of history. Clay vessels, gypsum forms and steel armatures punctuate the labyrinth-like spaces Alrai creates, mimicking museum dioramas and romanticised visions of the past.

Amanda Pinatih is an art historian, curator and PhD candidate. As Design Curator at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, she brings new perspectives to the museum’s vast design collection. Her experimental working method is driven by an interest in developing new formats for knowledge transfer, while her exhibitions and projects explore the intersections of social, political, (de)colonial, environmental and economic issues. Simultaneously as a PhD candidate at the VU Amsterdam, Pinatih is researching the affordances of Indonesian objects around social and political contestations of belonging for diasporic communities with roots in the Indonesian archipelago, both in the museum, at home and in artistic practice. 

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Bosco Sodi: https://www.instagram.com/studioboscosodi/?hl=en

https://www.boscosodi.com/

Alberto Rios de la Rosa: https://www.instagram.com/ariosdel/?hl=en

Casa Wabi: https://casawabi.org/en/

Mater Website: https://mater.digital/

Mater Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mater________/?hl=en

Bosco Sodi is an artist known for his richly textured, vividly coloured large-scale paintings. Born in Mexico City. Bosco Sodi has discovered an emotive power within the essential crudeness of the materials that he uses to execute his paintings. Focusing on the spiritual connection between the artist and his work, Sodi seeks to transcend conceptual barriers. In 2014 he founded the non-profit art centre Fundacion Casa Wabi in Mexico’s Puerto Escondido. 

Alberto Ríos de la Rosa is a Mexican art historian. He currently serves as a curator at the PAC ART Residency in Houston and as curator of the International Biennial of Arts

and Cultures of Antioquia for the World 2025, Colombia. His academic background includes a Master's in Art History from The Courtauld Institute of Art, London (2014), and a Bachelor's in Art History and French Literature from Macalester College, Minneapolis (2011).

From 2014 to 2023, he worked as a curator at the Casa Wabi Foundation, where he curated solo exhibitions for artists like Daniel Buren, Michel François, Harold Ancart,

Jannis Kounellis, Ugo Rondinone, Izumi Kato, Huma Bhabha, and Claudia Comte. He also directed the residency program in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca and Tokyo, facilitating participation of over three hundred art professionals from around the world in community projects. Additionally, he promoted emerging Mexican artists through the

foundation's exhibition platform in Mexico City.

Previously, he was part of the curatorial teams at Museo Tamayo in Mexico (2011- 2013), the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in the United States (2011), and the Peggy

Guggenheim Collection in Venice (2010). Through his work, he continues to make significant contributions to the field of art history and curation, fostering cultural exchange and promoting both established and emerging artists on an international scale.

Fundación Casa Wabi is a non-profit, civil association that fosters an exchange between contemporary art and local communities in three locations: Puerto Escondido, Mexico City, and Tokyo. Casa Wabi statement: "Our name originates from the Japanese philosophy of Wabi-Sabi, which seeks beauty and harmony in the simple, the imperfect and the unconventional. Our mision is focused on forging social development through the arts, which we carry out through five key programs: residencies, exhibitions, clay, films, and mobile library. Casa Wabi is located on the Pacific coast, 30 minutes from the Puerto Escondido airport, Oaxaca. Set between the mountains and the sea, our headquarters have been designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando and under the initiative of Mexican artist Bosco Sodi. Our facilities include a multipurpose palapa, six separate bedrooms, two closed studios and six open studios, a screening room, / auditorium, a 450 m² exhibition gallery and various workspaces that make it an ideal place to recharge and interact with other artists."

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