Fragment Found: An interview with curator Eva Jack
Piecing together shared heritage and histories, from the ground to the gallery...
Established by Scottish artist Eva Jack in 2021, Fragment Found is an ever-evolving project that celebrates printed pottery sherds (broken pieces of ceramic material). An online archive functions as a digital museum of lost, broken, unwanted and discarded artefacts, rediscovered centuries later in fields, on beaches, and in rivers. Anyone is welcome to submit their finding to the archive and become part of its sprawling network of people, places, craft, local heritage and the natural environment.
This summer, Eva launched the beautiful Fragment Found book, which brings together 154 finders and 14 writers to delve into the ways in which pottery fragments connect us to the past, the land and each other. For this week’s newsletter, we spoke to Eva about the project’s origins, its community, and the shifts from digital to analog that Eva and her collaborators navigate.
Fragment Found: an ever-evolving, collaborative archive of shared heritage and history
DD: Could you tell us how the projected started - what first inspired you?
EJ: I grew up in West Lothian, on a housing estate that backed onto crop fields. I’ve always done lots of walking there and at harvest time lots of old rubbish was churned up by the farm machinery. I’d go and scavenge the fields for any little bits of things I could find - bits of glass, bottle stoppers, unidentifiable metal things, but mostly broken pottery. I was so drawn in by the fact that there was history beneath my feet. I’d never really thought too much about where the pieces came from, how they got there or what they might once have been part of; I was motivated by the process of finding, what I found didn’t really matter. In about 2020, I became more invested in trying to identify things and spent more time than I’d like to admit on niche internet Facebook groups, where people share their finds in order to trace back their origins. Up until this point, I didn’t quite realise how big a thing and what a long a history practices like mudlarking have. I started archiving my own finds on the website and invited other people to submit theirs too, not knowing if anyone would. I really like that it brings people together through this shared interest which in one way seems specialist but in other ways is quite ubiquitous - most people have seen or picked up a sherd on the beach, for example.
How does Fragment Found connect to your own practice?
My art practice centres around walking, collecting, archiving as a way of interpreting and understanding landscape. Working across disciplines, Fragment Found has become an expansive project, spanning writing, drawing, ceramics, performance and who knows where it will go next. The way I approach my work is rooted in noticing, paying attention to small details or really honing in on something specific and from there, drawing out connections, meaning and stories. I also find the process of going out and looking for fragments deeply grounding, I go for walks and as thoughts come to me I take lots of notes on my phone which I revisit sometimes months or years later when I am stuck for ideas - reading them back kind of takes me back to that place and frame of mind.
The digital format makes this archive accessible and inclusive, it’s a vision of what online space should look like! Can you tell us more about the importance of community to Fragment Found?
The website has had about one and a half thousand pieces uploaded from various countries across the globe (I’m still working my way through getting them all online!). Behind each fragment is the person who found it, a place and a time. By pinning each find to the map and asking people to include as much detail as they can , I try to show that the project is about more than just the object itself. A sense of human-ness really comes through in the stories. For me at least, fragment finding is a fairly solitary pursuit, so it’s really nice to have a place to share with other people who are excited and knowledgeable. The project would be nothing without all the people who have contributed to the archive and everyone I have collaborated with along the way. It’s been especially nice to meet in-person with people who have written something for the book after lots of back and forth on email.
On the Fragment Found website, you mention Heritage Craft’s Red List of Endangered Crafts, why is it important to preserve these histories? How can they speak to us today?
The sherds could be viewed as rubbish, [just] everyday items that were broken and disposed of. They have no material value and wouldn’t find a place in a conventional museum. However, behind each of them is a huge amount of skill: each design would have been hand-engraved into a copper plate before being transferred onto the ceramic, something that isn’t done any more, at least on a commercial level. I think the sherds speak to us in terms of how we attach value and meaning to things. Again, it’s not so much about the object itself but considering the hands the object passed through before your own. Who made it, bought it, ate from it, broke it, threw it away? It’s about finding that human connection through time.
Do you have any favourite pieces?
One of my favourites is 00781 (see image below). The submitter said “It was found 45 years ago by my neighbour when she was a little girl. Given the thickness of the piece it is probably a tile. The skeleton could be a depiction of death. The figure appears to be sitting on top of something, perhaps on horseback.” It’s just a very unusual one and the fact that someone has kept it so long attests to the sentimental value of it. Similarly, 01007, found by Sarah Innes, again a find kept since childhood. “It has always intrigued me as it portrays an artist’s hand at an easel on one side and some French script on the reverse, which I can’t make sense of. What does it all mean?” We haven’t managed to identify this one yet either.
How did you find the process of taking a digital project into an analogue format?
Bringing the project back to the analog (as an exhibition and book) was really important. I’ve been working on Fragment Found on and off for about 4 years and the release of the publication and the exhibition (which included pots and performances too) is the first public event I have done. The project is all about connecting to landscape and material so I have always felt something was slightly lost once the fragments were uploaded to the website. The book brings everything back to being something you can hold in your hands again. The location for the exhibition was also really important: Stockingfield Park on the banks of the Forth and Clyde Canal, next to the Stockingfield Bridge. The bridge was built to reconnect three fractured communities in the North of Glasgow: Maryhill, Ruchill, Gilshochill, which were previously separated by the creation of the canal in the 1800s. The event was hosted by Make It Glasgow, who are based at Stockingfield Park and who co-create community heritage projects, informed by the industrial pottery history of Scotland. Their longterm goal is to open the Scottish Pottery Museum on the site. All being well, this should open in 2029, which is really exciting!
It must’ve been important to find the right publisher, what led you to work with HumDrum Press?
I met Wibke Bramesfeld (book designer and one half of HumDrum Press, alongside Amy Gowen) during our Masters at Design Academy Eindhoven, Netherlands. Wibke and I hatched the plan for the book a couple of years ago and then set about trying to find the right publisher. Quite quickly we discovered that it was going to be hard to find a publisher that would work an external designer and it was really important that we didn’t lose our collaboration. Another hurdle was that, while Creative Scotland funded the design, writing and research, they do not fund print costs. In the end we decided to publish through HumDrum, which meant we had full creative control over the project. To raise the necessary funds, we ran a kickstarter where people could, in effect, pre-order their copy. It was a bit of a gamble, but thankfully we managed to hit our target. HumDrum was definitely the right choice.
We’re intrigued by the sound of the ceramic artwork series Imaginary Artefacts, can you tell us more about that?
The idea for the Imaginary Artefacts comes from the desire to try and identify things - and the near impossibility of doing so. I’d posted one of my finds (00157) online to see if anyone could ID it and very quickly someone got back to me saying ‘This is Victorian Transferware recalling the Great Chesterfield Potato Disaster of 1827, which was an unprecedented tragedy affecting so many that the story was depicted on crockery so that future generations would never forget the scale of the event. The irony of course is that now hardly anyone remembers the Great Chesterfield Potato Disaster and walk around Chesterfield as if nothing happened.’ I was totally captivated by the idea so did some more research, only to find no mention of the Chesterfield Potato Disaster. When I revisited my post to double check I had the details right, I saw that the comment had numerous ‘laughing emoji’ reactions and realised I had totally taken the bait! Kind of embarrassing but at the same time I loved it - that idea of making history. Using the little bit of detail on the fragments, I started creating drawings that reimagined what the design could have looked like then transferring the drawing onto the ceramics (charity shop and eBay treasures!) using decals and refining it to make it permanent. Now I’ve shown them I’m not sure what to do with them…perhaps I’ll bury them for someone to find?
Thanks to Eva for speaking with us about the project!
The Fragment Found book and other gorgeously produced project merchandise is available to buy here.
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