Elise Bishop's 48 Hours

The environment that dictated my 48 hour improvisation was essentially an urban one, a regular house block close to Ballarat’s CBD. In the process of renovating a Victorian cottage from the ground up, I had at hand a good source of fuel which would otherwise have been waste – timber off-cuts – and the clay came from stump holes that were part of that renovation process. I also had a pile of old red bricks, which, after an initial design failure, became my makeshift kiln.

Because I was in town, my firing had to be small and contained. I ran into a few unexpected problems when building and firing the kiln – all the planning I did before I started meant nothing in the face of the physical reality of what I could achieve in 48 hours – therein lay the fun!

The 48 Hour Project condenses improvisation, and brings to the forefront concepts which make this approach important to me: the idea of an intense relationship with one’s immediate environment, and of using resources carefully and thoughtfully with an understanding that when they are gone, there are no more.

I hope also, that the venture may inspire others to challenge themselves to try their own 48 hour project, maybe with clay, maybe with some other creative pursuit.

Elise Bishop 48 Hour Clay Improvisation 2009