Galoshans Festival, Greenock, october 2026
The Milk it Pours responds to research into the Inverkip (‘inner’kip) witch panic of 1662, looking at the socio-economic conditions that allowed witch trials to flourish and examining women’s lives across time.
Historical records offer fragments of the accused women’s lives, with references to milk, food, domestic spaces and relationships. A common feature in witch accusations was the theft of milk, which became a starting point for thinking about what nourishes us and the jug as an object and metaphor for caregiving: containing, the constant pouring, overspill and overwhelm.
Working alongside carers and women with experiences of motherhood, maternal mental health, ageing and the care and health industries, we hand-built ceramic milk pitchers through a series of workshops. The making offered time to reflect on care, labour, nourishment and exhaustion, and the experiences that connect us. we learned about the wider witch trials across europe and north america and we discussed why the cultural archetype of the witch was so enduring.
The vessels were bisque fired at the glasgow ceramic studio and half were later pit fired wrapped in a selection of natural materials whilst the other half were finished with horsehair raku.
The pitchers were exhibited in the Laird’s pew in the Old West Kirk in Greenock, uplit as a congregation of ceramic vessels. Placed within the church, the work considers the lives and knowledge of ordinary women accused of witchcraft and the ways women’s experiences continue to be understood, valued or overlooked. the vessels were returned to participants when the exhibition ended.
alongside the ceramic workshops and exhibition, i delivered a wider programme than included the screening of ‘i am not a witch’ 2017 by Rungano Nyoni and ‘Häxan’ 1922 by benjamin christensen. A foraging walk along the sites mentioned in the ‘confession’ of marie lamont was organised but was called off due to storm boelo.
this project was supported by rig arts and creative scotland.