Catalogue of Failures x GRAYS WHARF

Between September 2022 - January 2023, Catalogue of Failures designed and delivered a research strand as part of a 6-month creative programme at Grays Wharf. I had conversations with each of the programme’s participating artists (Melanie Stidolph, Amy Lawrence, Chloe Bonfield, Liam Jolly, Samuel Bestwick, Lucy Willow, and Shallal) as well as Megan Beck (Programme Director at Grays Wharf) about their experiences and ideas about failure in life and art.

As part of the project I also designed and delivered a workshop with students at Penryn College, using clay as a medium to explore failure, improvisation and play. 

The project culminated in a special edition of the Catalogue featuring excerpts of these long and varied conversations. The content touches on themes including being a parent, childhood art classes, cultural labour, what success means as an artist, being childless not by choice, and learning about failure through materials-driven processes.

I wanted the special edition to include a shareable element, to both increase the accessibility of the content and encourage conversations about failure within and between friends, acquaintances and communities. It therefore includes a set of three postcards featuring quotes from the text, as well as a newspaper ‘gifting’ supplement. 10% of all sales go towards supporting future creative programmes at the gallery.