The Happenings artist development commission
ALIGNMENT is a material-rich installation by artist Natalia Kasprzycka, commissioned as part of The Happenings 2021 and installed at Burslem Port in October 2021.
Created from Etruria marl clay, found bricks, bottles, rope, netting and fragments of industrial detritus gathered around the site, ALIGNMENT forms a low clay-stone pathway embedded in the ground. The artist describes this as her attempt to capture and temporarily shape the essence of Burslem Port — a place whose heritage lies in canal trade, dereliction and emerging nature.
Because clay, when unfired, undergoes continuous cycles of accumulation and erosion, the materiality of the work points to its own impermanence: over time the pathway will disintegrate, returning its components to the site from which they came. In this way ALIGNMENT engages with processes of decay, regeneration and the passage of time.
Significantly, the work refers to megalithic stone alignments — ancient human interventions in landscape — but positions itself in conversation with the concrete poles and fencing that frame many modern canal-side areas. Unlike the stark verticality of industrial infrastructure, ALIGNMENT gently guides visitors toward the quieter natural beauty of Burslem Port.
By placing found waste and natural material into a sculptural alignment, Natalia invites visitors to rethink overlooked places, recognise hidden networks of material and memory, and participate in a shifting conversation between human culture, industry and ecological process.
