Foyot Cat Clay Workshop
with Mai Nguyen-Long
360 Mins
Join internationally recognised artist Mai Nguyễn-Long for a Foyot Cat hand-building clay workshop at the Casula Powerhouse Clayhouse.
In this workshop, participants will learn how to make their own small clay cat, standing upright on hind legs. This building activity will introduce participants to clay-working techniques of wedging, pinching, coiling and joining. The facilitator will explain how these basic techniques can later be applied to shaping other animal, human, or organic forms to address the participant’s own creative interests. Participants will be encouraged to find their own forms of expression.
Foyot Cat draws its name from Nguyễn-Long’s early 2023 exhibition titled ‘50 OBJECTS: YEAR OF THE CAT’, a project marking 50 years of friendship between Vietnam and Australia and celebrating Year of the Cat. Whilst this year in Australia we are primarily celebrating Year of the Rabbit, in Vietnam it is Year of the Cat.
Nguyễn-Long’s practice is informed by aesthetics of resistance, transformation, and intercultural folklore. She describes her clay building method as Doba, a dialogue with the unknown informed by a repurposed bombshell. Foyot Cat is a cousin of Warrior Cat, a character exhibited with ‘VOMIT GIRL (BERLIN CLUSTER)’ at the 2022 Berlin Biennale. Nguyễn-Long regards clay as a living entity, and clay working as a conversation with the medium inviting open-ended play and discovery.
At the end of the workshop clay objects will be fired and can be collected by participants at a later date.
About Mai Nguyễn-Long
Mai Nguyễn-Long lives and works in Bulli, Dharawal Country.
Born in Tasmania to a Vietnamese father and an Australian mother, Mai Nguyễn-Long grew up in Papua New Guinea and the Philippines; as an adult she has lived in Australia, China, and Vietnam. This trajectory of migration during times of social and political upheaval has allowed Mai to make sense of her identity, history, and cultural heritage.
In 2022, Mai was included in the 12th Berlin Biennale. ‘VOMIT GIRL (BERLIN CLUSTER)’ was a collection of clay objects which were made through the same process participants will learn about in the Foyot Cat Workshop. Mai’s work is both playful and emotionally rich in the ways it engages both personal and historical narratives.
This Workshop is being held on Saturday 10 June 2023 from 10am to 4pm.
Cost: Adult - $45 Concession - $35
Suitable for both intermediate and beginner levels.
Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre is a cultural facility of Liverpool City Council all transactions and tickets purchases on bank statements will appear from Liverpool City Council.
