In-conversation: 'Material Language | Language Material'

'Material Language | Language Material' exhibiting artists Claire Baily, Harriet Carter, Hannah Hughes, Angus Pryor and John Summers will come together for an in-conversation event. They will explore themes that are conceptualised in ‘Material Language | Language Material’.

‘Material Language | Language Material’ presents sculpture, painting and drawing that explores the emergence of knowledge when working with materials and methods. Works by Baily, Carter, Hughes, Pryor, and Summers tell stories of a discursive engagement with material and tools, where artworks become thinking places, raising questions about what they really do, and how they are experienced.

Claire Baily is an artist, researcher, and educator whose work navigates the intersections of art, sustainability, and material innovation. Emphasising slowness and embodied engagement, Claire draws on the embedded histories of materials to reimagine how stories are shaped and shared. She approaches material as a site of layered narratives, where making becomes a way to participate in interconnected lifecycles. Working within an ecological framework her work embraces time, care, hope and experimentation, whilst acknowledging the presence of grief, loss, failure and impermanence. Claire is a Sculpture Tutor at Goldsmiths College and is an active member of the Centre of Art & Ecology. She is currently leading a 19-month research project in partnership with British Ceramics Biennial exploring the creative re-use of clay extracted from UK construction spoil alongside a PhD at the University of Gloucestershire. Claire is also part of Artangel’s Making Time programme for 2025, supporting artists to embed environmental consciousness in their practice.

Harriet Carter is a painter. Her work has been exhibited internationally, recently in group show Material Thinking at The Lightbox, Woking. Harriet attained her AHRC-funded PhD from Birmingham City University in 2022 where she examined the birdsong compositions of Olivier Messiaen through a drawing practice. Harriet’s work explores painting as both site of encounter and object, interested in ways in which surfaces and materials perform. Harriet also teaches Fine Art at the University of Gloucestershire and writes. Selected publications include text in Air, Sea and Soil: Drawing with Place published by The Museum of Loss and Renewal (2024), a drawing in Special Issue: (Inter-)epistemic Translation, published by Translation Matters (2024), and an article Drawing birdsong: A comparative analysis between the electronic and the human in ‘Drawing: Research, Theory, Practice’ (2020).

Hannah Hughes is a London-based visual artist. She graduated from the University of Brighton in 1997, and her work has since been exhibited internationally. Her work focuses on the use of negative space, and the salvaging and re-purposing of found materials. She is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Gloucestershire, and her practice-based research explores processes of fragmentation and strategies of re-fitting within the areas of collage, sculptural photography and ceramic sculpture. Her first book Mirror Image was published by Jane & Jeremy in 2023; and she has participated in two collaborative publications with artist Dafna Talmor, Glossaries, published by Folium in association with Sid Motion Gallery, (2023) and Glossaries II, as part of Emic Units 1, published by Shibboleth, 2023). Her work is included in an experimental publication by Rodrigo Orrantia, 'Material Immaterial’, which has included performances at Cosmos, Arles and Offprint, Paris.

Angus Pryor is a painter, writer and curator. His practice explores the culture and artistic style of Ethiopia through painting, paying homage to Ethiopia’s religious iconography and the manner that it is displayed for public worship and participation. His practice is invariably enriched by international collaboration, with projects completed in the UK, India and Holland. Angus also works in the higher education sector, pioneering Practice as Research at The University of Gloucestershire, leading artists, photographers, filmmakers and performers to be able to gain national and international recognition for their research. In 2025, Angus curated Material Thinking at the Lightbox Gallery, in partnership with the Ingram Collection and the University of Gloucestershire. Angus curated artist work alongside historic works in the Ingram Collection to explore the importance of material language in making art today.

John Summers, born in Colorado, USA has lived and worked in London since the mid-90’s, studying at the Slade School of Fine Art and then at the Royal College of Art (Sculpture School). He is a recipient of the Mark Tanner Sculpture Award and has shown in New Contemporaries, Zabludowicz Invites, and most recently at the Millenium Gallery in Sheffield in ‘These Mad Hybrids’, curated by Olivia Bax & Sam Cornish. He has work in several private collections nationally and internationally, including the Graves Gallery collection.

Places are free, but booking is essential.

Head to Standpoint | Gallery for more information on the exhibition.

Photo ©Tim Bowditch