Spiritual GPS
Solo exhibition at Omnibus Galleri, Oslo, 2025
South Pointing Fish -- 58 x 95 x 48
Throughout 2025, I began visiting Neolithic sites near my childhood home in southern England together with my dad, including Silbury Hill (c. 3000–2700 BC) and Windmill Hill (c. 3200 BC), made from clay, soil and stone by early agrarian people of southern Britain. Positioned over chalk aquifers, they may hold unusual geomagnetic qualities, recorded in Burke and Halberg’s book: Seed of Knowledge, Stone of Plenty. I found this deeply inspiring, contemplating how ancient builders may have sensed and engaged with invisible forces and materials in the landscape. How did they know where to place these mounds?
These Neolithic journeys became the point of departure for reflecting on alternative and shared histories of our landscape, and the importance of sensorial knowledge. The exhibition Spiritual GPS presented material experimentation with clay, chalk and magnetite, materials found at the site of Avebury, in different firing techniques, temperatures and atmospheres. Through these experiments, I explored the material and sensorial qualities of these minerals and their reactions with clay, as they undergo metamorphic-like geological processes inside of the kiln. Alongside this material development, I exhibited hand built ceramic sculptures which employed visual motifs such as compasses, scales and door knockers. Not to signify literal instruments of orientation, but as metaphors for searching, navigating, directing. A searching which manifests as direct engagement with earth-based materials and the unexpected stories and sites these processes direct me towards. A longing to connect myself to our surroundings and this supposed familiar ground.
Spiritual GPS considers how ancient geo-engineers interacted with clay, stone and landscape, and reimagines how contemporary ceramics can engage with these ideas today. By weaving together personal narrative, geological investigations and material experimentation, the exhibition seeks to open dialogue around our environment and reconsider our histories from material and relational perspectives.
South Pointing Fish -- Ceramic, glaze, water, cork, magnetised needle pointing south, salt
The compass - dependant on its incorporation of magnetite, was developed during the Han Dynasty (200 BCE-220CE). Beyond our functional conception of the compass, it had a spiritual origin which connected the personal to the cosmos. Initially inscribed with concentric rings of symbols and systems, which all related to the cosmos and the natural world: the constellations, the eight trigrams of the I Ching and twenty-four cardinal directions.
Magnetic Masonry -- Clay, glaze, grout. Material tests include: magnetite, slag, copper oxide, chalk, fishing thread, clay
Magnetic Masonry (detail shots)
Magnetic Masonry -- 42 x 52 x 8
Door knocker series -- Ceramic and motor. 49 x 36 x 23
Door knocker series -- kinetic knocker hits three times every ten minutes
Throughout the exhibition appears ceramic crustaceans, this speaks to the ability for some fish and shellfish to orient themselves using the earths magnetic field. Tiny crystals of magnetite have been found in various invertebrates and they could act like microscopic compass needles inside their cells.
Fish Amulet -- Ceramic
Crab amulet -- Ceramic
Upstairs: Hill Series -- Ceramic and decal, photography: Alice Davies
Windmill Hill, 2025
Silbury Hill, 2025
These ceramics show Windmill hill and Silbury hill, both pictures were taken at dawn, as the sun was rising. At dawn, the earths magnetic field strengthens as sunlight reaches the atmosphere.
