HAND-CUT HOUSES

CREDITS

Created by
DAVID GAGLIARDI

Artistic Director & Designer
DAVID GAGLIARDI

Associate Ceramicist
CLARE POWER

Ceramic Studio
CLAYFUL POTTERY

Story Editor & Composer
AIMEE CHAPMAN

Game Board Prototyping
JEFF GAGLIARDI

OVERVIEW

The Hand-cut Houses project investigates how a toy—made as a gift for children—can be expanded into a meaningful, enduring cultural object that supports imagination, learning, and reflective engagement over time. At its centre is a set of 36 hand-cut ceramic sculptures forming two villages, designed for imaginative play and open-ended storytelling. As tactile objects, the houses invite make-believe and world-building, allowing play to unfold intuitively and without prescribed narratives.

The work consists of:

• 36 Ceramic Sculptures
• A playable chess game
• A chess game as performance art
• A children’s graphic novel
• A 17min music composition
• A photographic and film exhibition

a playable game of chess

The villages also function as a fully playable chess set. Traditional chess hierarchies—pawns, knights, bishops, kings and queens—are reimagined as houses, stables and cathedrals, transforming an abstract strategy game into a spatial, narrative experience. One village is constructed from dark clay with red-glazed roofs; the other from pale clay with yellow roofs, reinforcing visual contrast and symbolic opposition. Felt will be added to the base of each piece, emphasising care, longevity, and use.

a graphic novel

The ceramic work is embedded within a wider, multidisciplinary framework. A children’s graphic novel documents the creative process—from ideation and collaboration through to production—serving simultaneously as a story, an introduction to creative thinking, and an invitation for children to value process as much as outcome. The project also encompasses a photographic and film exhibition, a 17-minute musical composition, a hand-painted wooden chessboard sealed with resin, and a live chess game presented as performance art.

collaboration

Developed over several months, Hand-cut Houses is a collaborative work by David Gagliardi (Designer & Artistic Director), ceramic artist Clare Power and Clayful Pottery, story editor and composer Aimee Chapman, two performers, and a filmmaker. Launching in April 2026, the project positions play as a serious, layered practice—one that can grow with a child and retain meaning into adulthood.