Jack Ky Tan, A Ceremony for the Unborn Future (2025)
© Courtesy the artist. Photo by Zula Rabikowska
Ikon presents Break the Mould, the final exhibition in a trilogy exploring craft, art school pedagogies and contemporary art practice. This show focuses on ceramics, positioning clay as a site of experimentation. Running from 25 March to 6 September 2026, Break the Mould transforms the gallery into a laboratory for residencies, collaborative making and public engagement. Throughout the exhibition visitors will see artists at work and take part in activities that bring the process of making to life.
Break the Mould brings together leading ceramicists and contemporary artists who challenge traditional boundaries of craft. Resident artists Jack Ky Tan, Halima Cassell and Roo Dhissou will work in the gallery during the exhibition, alongside artworks by Kara Chin, Mark Essen and Laurie Ramsell. The exhibition also hosts two Birmingham ceramics workshops; Sundragon Community Pottery, a not-for-profit organisation in Balsall Heath; and Modern Clay, an artist-led cooperative clay studio in Digbeth.
Jack Ky Tan’s A Ceremony for the Unborn Future (2025) features three ceramic urns drawn from Shang Dynasty ceremonial bronzes, developed in dialogue with AI systems. Collaged and adapted images from the Royal Geographical Society sit behind the urns, inspired by Daoist cosmology. Tan’s work proposes a speculative ritual that asks whether AI could be understood as a contemporary cosmic force.
Responding to Birmingham’s history, Mark Essen revisits the medieval Deritend ware jug—pottery produced in Birmingham during the 12th and 13th century. The work blends the image of the jug with the aesthetic of contemporary Digbeth street art, connecting Birmingham’s often-overlooked medieval history with its vibrant modern creative scene in the Digbeth area.
Laurie Ramsell’s work focuses on the creative process,exploring chance and precarity through ceramic works shaped by the kiln and firing process. Whilst Kara Chin presents works envisioned as ‘future fossils’: objects imagined as artefacts for a distant future.
Community and material are central to the practices of Roo Dhissou and Halima Cassell.
Roo Dhissou’s Heal, Home, Hmmm (2025) is a walk-in pavilion that explores sustainable architecture, community care, and cultural memory. Built with reclaimed HS2 clay supplied by Rescued Clay and using traditional Punjabi mud-building techniques, the structure features a sound installation created in collaboration with sound artist Oliver Romoff. The work reflects on how access, care, and environmental responsibility shape the spaces we build.
On loan from Jerwood Foundation, Halima Cassell’s Kirigami (2004), Shiraz (2004) and Concentric Flower (2003) showcase geometric forms, recurring patterns and architectural principles that define her work. Cassell’s ongoing project, Virtues of Unity (2009-present), reflects on shared humanity through hand-carved ceramic vessels. Each form shares a soft, curvilinear form, pierced to let light through. Made using clay gifted by friends and strangers from around the world, the work reminds us that nothing is made in isolation.
In collaboration with Birmingham ceramic studios Sundragon Community Pottery and Modern Clay, audiences are invited to witness making in action and get hands on experience with clay. Through educational partnerships, local students will investigate a range of ceramic techniques, from processing wild clay to making architectural plaster moulds. Schools and colleges are invited to book onto BCU Explore Days at Ikon that introduce post-16 learners to a range of innovative 3D modelling techniques with academic leads from Art, Product Design and Architecture courses. Ikon Youth Programme, funded by Freelands Foundation, will stage a ‘take over’ of the gallery space with Modern Clay during the summer holidays.
The exhibition is co-curated by Daphne Chu, Ikon Curator, and Will Kew, Ikon’s Education Coordinator. Daphne Chu said “Break the Mould shows clay as a material that transforms. It links past traditions with future possibilities.” Will Kew adds “This is a space for making and learning together. It’s about care, creativity and sharing ideas.”
This exhibition is generously supported by Jerwood Foundation, Freelands Foundation and ai. gallery.
About the resident artists
Jack Ky Tan is a UK-based interdisciplinary artist working across performance, sculpture, installation and institutional critique. His practice is an ongoing exploration of social justice that blurs the boundaries between, art, law, governance, and consultancy. Looking toward alternative knowledge systems, Tan interrogates the legacies of empire with a particular interest in Southeast Asian and Tropical epistemologies of resistance. His work attempts to rethink our entanglement with the human and more-than-human worlds, and looks towards alternative ways of living and working. Tan will present outcomes from his studio and curatorial research into the ‘Colonial Asian Middle’ at Camden Art Centre in 2026, and an exhibition about artistic thinking in organisational behaviour at John Hansard Gallery in 2027.
Halima Cassell was born in Kashmir, Pakistan, raised in the north-west of England, and now lives and works in Shropshire. Her multicultural background is a powerful influence that resonates throughout her work. A compelling fusion of cultural influences, her work is rooted in her Asian heritage, inspired by African patterning, and driven by a deep fascination with architectural geometry. Working across a variety of media, Cassell continues to explore and expand her creative practice. In recognition of her contribution to the arts, she was awarded a fellowship of the Royal Society of Sculptors in 2016 and an MBE in 2022 for Services to Art.
Artist and researcher Roo Dhissou‘s practice spans sculpture, installation, moving image, craft, and community-engaged collaboration. Rooted in care, cultural context, and integrity, her work challenges dominant narratives and reflects deeply on disability, lived experience, social, environmental and material justice. Through reflective processes and ethical research, Dhissou values relationship-building and intuition, prioritising process over product to create thoughtful, impactful work. Exhibiting widely across the UK, Dhissou received the Serpentine Galleries’ Support Structures fellowship in 2024, recognising social justice-driven visual art.