From the Pot to the Earth at Rochester Square is a composition of artworks, dinners, recipes, words and people in a book: clay, food and garden. The book is an eclectic record of the community projects of Rochester Square. Previously an abandoned plant nursery in North London, the site was acquired by Francesca Anfossi and Eric Wragge in 2016 with the aim of turning it into a dynamic arts and crafts centre for socially-engaged projects. The square now hosts a ceramics studio, which is open to professional and amateur potters; it is a garden and a place for communal events, hosting large lunches and dinners cooked and shared by members of the ceramics studio, friends, collaborators, and neighbours from all walks of life, who meet to exchange ideas.
The book includes texts from curators and writers about the square, alongside recipes by chefs, artists, curators, writers, and others who have cooked communal meals there. Over fifty photographs document meals, workshops, the garden, and the ceramics produced by local artists in the studio. All of the different worlds of the square weave between one another across the book’s pages, in an eclectic way akin to how the space itself exists. The typography for the cover and titles throughout suggests the organic and ever-changing nature of the content and creations at Rochester Square, and the connection between the garden and the clay and art made there.
“Rochester Square is an oasis between the trundling traffic of Camden Road and busy York Way that welcomes people of all ages, at all hours, in all weathers to be together to grow and make things. The three animating words: clay, food, and garden summon the organism that Francesca and Eric have fostered. It has its own life, wishes, and wonder. In this book, you will find excellently unusual ways of preparing food, examples of many of the wondrous things made, and the thoughts and passionate solidarity of neighbors and friends.” — Antony Gormley
Photography: Ed Park
