Exhibitions 2025

Hands & Earth
Imogen Charleston

This Winter, ceramicist Imogen Charleston brings the theme of JOY to life through clay, fire, and community. Working with local materials and reclaimed bricks, participants will explore sensory clay experiences, outdoor firings, and experiments in making sound, alongside foraging and ritual-inspired creative practices.

Exhibition open: January - March 2026
Opening night: Date tbc.
FREE TO VISIT

About the Artist

Imogen is a ceramicist and arts educator based in Christchurch, Dorset. In 2015 she founded Moon Studio Ceramics, a studio and teaching space dedicated to creative exploration and community learning.

In 2020, she returned to her own practice through a commission from BEAF, beginning a research project into Dorset’s native clay and ceramics heritage. In 2021, she became artist in residence at Poole Museum, further developing this research. Over the following years, Imogen explored wood firing through community kilns in Upwey and at Oxford University - a process she describes as “true alchemy,” combining her passion for natural materials and sustainable practice.

Building on five years of materials research, Imogen will use her Coda residency to explore both alternative and traditional firing methods, working with locally sourced clay and waste materials. Her practice continues to delve into the connections between landscape, process, and community.

For Imogen, clay is a material that bridges people and place. Through her residency, she invites others to experience the tactile pleasure of working with raw clay, rediscovering a sense of rhythm with the seasons, and celebrating the transformative nature of fire.

Winter Residency 2026

Imogen’s residency with us at Coda recognises the deep links between tradition, community, and nature. The residency will culminate in an outdoor firing event in Coda’s meadow - a joyful gathering around the warmth of the kiln where creativity, ritual, and transformation come together beneath the winter sky.

Throughout the residency, Imogen will also explore the creation of sound-making ceramic objects - whistles, rattles, and totems -decorated using traditional techniques and fired in a wood-fuelled outdoor kiln.

A key part of the project involves designing and collaboratively building a simple updraft wood-fired kiln using reclaimed house bricks. Together, participants will research, construct, and fire this kiln, transforming discarded materials into tools for creativity.

Residency Schedule

January - Research & Development
Exploration of kiln designs and methods for wood-firing with waste materials. Sourcing and collecting reclaimed materials for kiln construction and firing, stored on site in the gallery and meadow.

February - Workshops & Building
Running clay workshops to create miniature sound sculptures. Building prototype kiln structures in the gallery to explore different forms and functions.

March - Firings & Celebration
Testing alternative kiln designs in the meadow, followed by a ceremonial outdoor firing of the sound sculptures - a joyful, communal finale to the residency.

Workshops

• Workshop 1: Bird Whistles
  Create hollow clay bird whistles, polished smooth using stones and later fired in the meadow.

• Workshop 2: Frog Rattles
  Make hollow clay rattles containing small beads to create sound. Decorate with locally sourced clay slip before firing outdoors.

• Workshop 3: Build a Simple Brick Kiln
  Work together to design and construct a kiln from reclaimed house bricks - first exploring forms in the gallery, then building and firing outside in the meadow.