Excavation Site

In march 2020, visual artist AP Nguyen came back home to Hanoi, Vietnam, in order to avoid the virus in the UK. Having little means of production and context for making conceptual art, she turned to clay and decided to learn a completely new craft. At first, she struggled to navigate the world of Vietnamese pottery- with all of its mystery and village secrecy. But over the months, she came to befriend and gain the trust of a Bát Tràng family who lets her use their family kiln and even their safely-guarded glaze recipes. A year after that first encounter, Clay Projects became an independent ceramic studio based in the heart of old-quarter Hanoi. Each piece from the studio is a celebration of artistic expression, experimentation and imagination. Taking inspiration from the artist’s background in sculpture and the fantastical dream world of flora and fauna, Clay Projects hopes to cultivate a utopia of ceramic objects that blurs the lines between the quirky and cool, the artistic and the functional.

Since AP relocated to the United Kingdom in 2022, Clay Projects has transitioned from a brick and mortar studio practice to an experimental and liminal project that goes under the name Excavation Site. Responding to a new means of production and the general chaos of postcovid life in London, Excavation Site has become about nurturing an ongoing ceramic practice in the face of a dizzyingly frenetic environment. This ongoing and unpredictable project centres on the timeless act of exploration and unearthing- where objects are created and "uncovered" in moments of spontaneity.