Mella Shaw is an artist who uses the medium of clay to make consciousness-raising work about environmental issues. In 2019 she first heard about the increased number of mass strandings of cetaceans along the West Coast of Scotland. Since then, these strandings have continued in scale and frequency, and are increasingly drawing the attention of the press, with the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme (SMASS) and other sources gathering and collating a large amount of data around these tragic and increasingly common events.
Since then, these strandings have continued in scale and frequency, and are increasingly drawing the attention of the press, with the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme (SMASS) and other sources gathering and collating a large amount of data around these tragic and increasingly common events.
It is now understood (by leading scientists such as Dr Andrew Kitchener and Georg Hanke at the National Museum of Scotland) that the beachings have a direct link to mid-water-sonar used in naval exercises and oil exploration in the affected areas. This has a devastating effect on marine life and in particular the deepest diving species of whales (such as bottlenose and Cuvier’s beaked whales) that depend on echolocation.
As Mella’s craft-based artistic practice focuses on highlighting environmental issues and allowing the public access to statistics or scientific data in ways which are engaging rather than alienating, as well as informative and unashamedly emotive, as soon as she heard about the strandings she wanted to tell the story of these whales, what is happening to them and how deadly this mid-water sonar – an invisible pollutant – is to these protected species.
Mella applied to be a Connected Innovator to undertake a period of research and development to further her work on the strandings project, which was subsequently titled ‘Sounding Line’, with the specific intention of travelling to the Hebrides to collect a sample of whale bones to make a completely new type of clay; whale-bone-china.
“Bone” china is literally made using a proportion (usually approx 40%) of bone-ash from cows. The bone is sintered and incorporated to increase whiteness, translucency and strength combined with fragility. Mella, with permission from Nature Scotland, created her own whale-bone-china to make an installation of large-scale forms inspired by the shape of a whale’s tiny inner-ear bones. This work represented a new area of practice for Mella, exploring innovative ways to combine and incorporate the stranding data that is so key to this subject.
Consideration was given not only to using statistics on the types and locations of the strandings, but also exploring how the sonar itself could be represented to communicate an understanding of the animals, their behaviour and how it is disrupted. To this end, Mella collaborated with another member of the Creative Informatics community, Theodore Koterwas, who is a digital artist with expertise in sound. Together, they developed a system delivering a pulse vibration based on mid-water-sonar, which was passed through large red ropes wrapped around and suspending the ceramic forms, harmoniously uniting these two elements of the project and creating an immersive sensory work.
“When making my original application I was clear that one of the reasons to apply was that Creative Edinburgh through Connected Innovators would give me an opportunity to meet other people with the necessary skill-sets and knowledge to push the data/interactive element of the project forward. I feel very lucky to have been introduced to Theodore Koterwas at the Innovation Showcase 2022. It would not have been possible for me to have made this work in the form it is without his input.”
Mella Shaw
Visitors interact with Mella Shaw’s Sounding Line
Sustainability is a key element of all Mella’s work, and initially she had hoped not to have to fire the work created, in order to reduce its environmental impact. However, the sculptures were too vulnerable to withstand the vibration in the rope if unfired. But serendipitously, this initial idea of leaving the work unfired inspired Mella to travel back to the Outer Hebrides in summer 2023 in order to return one of the forms to the sea, capturing this process on film (funded by Creative Informatics Project Extension Funding), which was then incorporated into the final exhibition to further tell the story of whence these animals had come, where they had died, and their restoration to the ocean which had been their home.
A still from the Sounding Line film
Prior to application, Mella had already secured permission from Nature Scot to collect pre-existing beached whalebones to make an artwork or series of artworks that will have an educational public benefit. However, even with such a licence, artists are forbidden to sell anything made out of any part of the animal, making funding this work challenging without the support of organisations such as Creative Informatics.
In October 2023, ‘Sounding Line’ was one of 10 exhibits by artists considered to be making innovative work in the field of contemporary ceramics, selected to be in the AWARD exhibition of the British Ceramics Biennial in Stoke-on-Trent, with Sounding Line eventually being announced as the overall winner, and Mella receiving £10,000 of prize money. A huge achievement with an important environmental message which has been brought to a new and wider audience than the artist has experienced before, and further opportunities for exhibiting around the country are currently being explored.
Making the award, Alun Graves, Chair of the Award selection panel and the V&A’s Senior Curator, Ceramics and Glass 1900–now, commented:
“Mella Shaw’s ‘Sounding Line’ is a truly exceptional and remarkable work, powerful in concept and majestic in execution. It represents in every aspect an extraordinary feat of making, rendering a work that is both poetic and sublimely beautiful, but also confronting and unequivocal in its message. Mella Shaw has realised a work of huge ambition, demonstrating the potency of ceramics and its ability to engage with the issues of our time.”
