Artist: Charly Blackburn

County Hall Pottery presents Lanthanides: Rare Earth Spectra, a solo exhibition by the Potter in Residence 2026, Charly Blackburn.

Lanthanides: Rare Earth Spectra presents a body of work developed during Blackburn’s year-long residency, exploring the material and optical properties of rare earth elements through ceramic form.

Incorporating lanthanide oxides into her glazes, Blackburn creates undulating forms, luminous surfaces and colour-shifting structures that respond to light and perception. These elements, integral to technologies we rely on daily, are brought into focus, shifting from invisible resource to tangible presence.

Across the exhibition, scientific language and industrial references intersect with organic, sculptural forms. Domes, bulbs and crystalline surfaces emerge, evoking both the microscopic and the cosmic. Colour becomes unstable, radiant and alive.

The works invite a closer look at the materials that underpin contemporary life. What is usually hidden, buried in devices, systems and infrastructures, is made visible, tactile and immediate.

This exhibition asks us to pause. To reconsider the relationship between material, technology and perception, and to reflect on what lies beneath the surface of progress.