CATALOGUE OF FAILURES

X GRAYS WHARF
A project by Alice Clough

”It’s okay to not know what you’re doing.
It’s okay to just have a go
and for things to not work out.”

This special edition of Catalogue of Failures contains extracts from a series of conversations held during a 6-month programme at Grays Wharf between September 2022 – January 2023. The programme was made possible with funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

Artist Alice Clough offered a sensitive-yet-critical lens through which exhibitions, artists and processes could be encountered, and a safe space for conversations about failure to be held. Alice also took her project to local secondary school, Penryn College, where she invited pupils to share their thoughts around ‘failure’ while making small clay pinch pots.

This publication is shared with huge thanks to the programme artists: Melanie Stidolph, Amy Lawrence, Chloe Bonfield, Lucy Willow, Liam Jolly, Samuel Bestwick, Janet Holland and Shallal Studios for their open, honest, and generous support and contributions.

The special edition is available to purchase as a spiral bound publication which includes 3 postcards and a 'sharing copy' mini newspaper of the text. The newspaper supplement is also available separately. 10% of the sales of this edition of Catalogue of Failures supports future creative programmes at Grays Wharf.

To buy this special edition, please visit:
www.catalogueoffailures.com


ABOUT CATALOGUE OF FAILURES
@catalogueoffailures 

Catalogue of Failures is a hybrid project which explores and questions the well-worn (and often unhelpful) stories told about failure. As well as offering workshops and public engagement, the project designs and produces an independent publication series that aims to re-situate instances and experiences of ‘failure’ as both fertile and routine.

The printed Catalogues act as devices for generating conversations about success and failure, accepted norms (and the unacceptable), worthiness, and value. Failures (the unexpected, the unruly, the uncontrollable, the accidental, the not-part-of-the-plan, the undesired outcomes) are taken out of their original context and encountered as unique and independent works or moments to be explored and experienced.

The Catalogue of Failures is conceived and designed by Alice Clough as part of a larger project exploring the role of vulnerability in facilitating social change.

“Lots of people seem to have positive things to say about failure – it’s productive, it’s ‘normal’, it’s necessary and shouldn’t be shied away from. In practice, however, I’ve felt failure as heavily stigmatised, as shameful, frustrating, too-revealing, or as something that has the ability to make or break my image or potential as ‘successful person’. By assembling varied examples, opinions and responses to failure, this project hopes to create a space where it is both normalised and destigmatised.” Alice Clough

Alice Clough is a research-based artist working across a range of media and techniques including text, sculpture, installation, workshops and ethnography.
www.aliceclough.com