Rooted in Cornwall: Art and China Clay at Wheal Martyn
Amy Cooper
When I first wrote about Rooted in 2022, the exhibition was still showing at Wheal Martyn. Coming back to it a few years later, I realised that these images are worth keeping as a little record of the show in their own right.
Rooted brought together artists and makers with very different approaches, but all responding in some way to Cornwall's china clay landscape, its materials, history and atmosphere. It was a fascinating idea then, and looking back at the work now, I think it still is.
Rooted at Wheal Martyn
Rooted ran at Wheal Martyn in the autumn of 2022 and brought together 17 makers rooted in Cornwall. Ceramics were at the heart of the exhibition, but there was also jewellery, photography, metal, film and other work.
The starting point was the china clay industry and the extraordinary landscape it has created around St Austell. The artists responded to the material itself, the history of the industry, its effect on the land and the people who have lived and worked within it.
Lucy Spink
I particularly like that the work wasn't simply inspired by how Clay Country looks. Some of the artists actually incorporated its materials into what they made. Lucy Spink and Bridget Macklin collaborated on two neck pieces for the exhibition: Bridget gathered material from around Wheal Martyn and incorporated it into porcelain tiles, which Lucy then transformed into jewellery.
What is Wheal Martyn?
If you haven't visited before, Wheal Martyn Clay Works sits just outside St Austell, right in the heart of Clay Country.
The museum is based within two former Victorian china clay works, now protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument. It tells the story of an industry that has shaped the landscape, economy and lives of people in this part of Cornwall for more than 250 years.
There is plenty outside as well as in: old settling tanks and industrial buildings, historic vehicles and working waterwheels, including Cornwall's largest working waterwheel. From Pit View you can also look out across the modern clay workings. It makes Wheal Martyn an especially appropriate place for artists to explore the relationship between industry and landscape.
Bridget Macklin
Different responses to the same landscape
This was the thing I liked most about Rooted. The responses were so varied.
Joe Fenwick-Wilson made ceramic pills inspired by the fact that china clay turns up in all sorts of unexpected places, from medicines to industrial products. Paula Downing's ceramics drew on the Cornish landscape, while Reece Ingram brought his wonderfully characterful sculptural approach. Then there were the textures of Lucy Spink's jewellery, Amy Cooper's work and Bridget Macklin's fascination with the landscape and the materials found within it.
Reece Ingram
Joe Fenwick-Wilson
Paula Downing
Where are the artists now?
When I came back to this article in 2026, I couldn't resist having a look to see what some of the artists had been doing since.
Amy Cooper, who had been making her distinctive porcelain lighting professionally since 2003, decided at the beginning of 2026 to take some time away from production and make space to explore other work. I rather like that. After more than twenty years working in one recognisable form, there must be something both daunting and exciting about giving yourself permission to see where else things lead.
Lucy Spink has continued exhibiting her jewellery around Cornwall and much further afield, with work shown in London, Yorkshire, Chicago and at jewellery events connected with Milan. In spring 2026 she also spent time as artist in residence at Arctic Hideaway in Norway.
Bridget Macklin is still exploring geology, landscape and found materials through ceramics, but has also been experimenting with collage, layering and image transfer. Rather wonderfully, those experiments on paper have begun finding their way back into her work with clay.
Reece Ingram continues to make sculpture in ceramics, wood and stone, with animals, birds and the natural world remaining a recurring source of inspiration. He took part in Cornwall Open Studios again in 2026.
Joe Fenwick-Wilson's practice has moved in a different direction. He is now based in Margate and in 2026 was a studio holder at Open School East, working across drawing, painting and ceramic sculpture.
Paula Downing, meanwhile, continues making hand-built ceramics shaped by her response to Cornwall's land and seascape, coastline, ancient history and mining landscape.
Art and exhibitions at Wheal Martyn
Rooted wasn't a one-off. Wheal Martyn continues to use temporary exhibitions and creative projects to explore Clay Country from different angles, bringing together industrial and social history with contemporary art, landscape and community.
In 2026, for example, the Roger Preston Gallery hosted Robin James Sullivan's And Everything And Nothing Has Changed, an exhibition exploring landscape, memory, industry and community through sculpture, performance and fieldwork. Its centrepiece was a two-metre ceramic standing stone created with local communities and originally fired beneath one of the area's iconic sky tips.
So even though Rooted itself has long since finished, the gallery is still worth seeking out when you visit. You can see what's currently showing on Wheal Martyn's exhibitions page.
Looking back at Rooted now, what stays with me is just how differently those artists responded to the same place. China clay has changed this part of Cornwall physically, economically and culturally, and the exhibition found some very thoughtful, and sometimes unexpected, ways of showing that relationship.
Rooted ran at Wheal Martyn from 22nd October to 20th December 2022. This article was revisited and updated in September 2026.
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