'You take an object from your pocket’: stories, families & objects in exile

Edmund de Waal, the internationally acclaimed contemporary artist, master potter, and author, is renowned for his large-scale installations of porcelain vessels often created in response to collections and archives or the history of a particular place. De Waal's book The Hare with Amber Eyes was awarded the Costa Book Award for Biography, Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize in 2011 and Windham–Campbell Literature Prize for Non-Fiction in 2015. De Waal's second book The White Road, tracing his journey to discover the history of porcelain, was published in 2015.

Much of de Waal's work over the last decade has been around the idea of migration - of people, ideas and objects. In exhibitions in Vienna, Venice and Paris, and in books on his family and on the cultural history of porcelain, he has tried to navigate ideas of home, exile and homelessness. In this illustrated lecture, the Upton Lecture 2024, he wants to explore how the Psalms have formed an undercurrent for this work and where studying them might lead him next.

The Upton Lecture is named after Charles Barnes Upton, Professor of Philosophy at the College between 1875-1903. The lecture is held annually and alternates between philosophical and religious themes. This year’s lecture has been made possible by the generous support of The Sekyra Foundation.