William Cobbing: Dumb mud, I love you

When: 11 October 2025 to 10 January 2026
Where: The Burton At Bideford, Kingsley Road, Bideford EX39 2QQ
Cost: FREE
Suitable for: Any age

Rooted in sculpture, William’s work encompasses a wide range of media including video, performance and installation. Clay is a central material in his practice, both in its raw and fired form.

‘Despised mud, I love you’ is William’s first solo exhibition in the South West of England, bringing together sculpture and video work that uses clay to explore human interaction and emotional states. Installed alongside The Burton’s ceramic collections, it draws attention to the timeless, primitive qualities of clay that have made it a vital material for individual expression over thousands of years.

Alongside fired objects, video performances made using raw clay subvert our expectations of the material’s possibilities.

The title of this exhibition is a quote from the poem ‘Unfinished Ode to Mud’ by the French poet Francis Ponge (1899-1988). It speaks to William’s interest in clay as a transgressive material, which can provoke conflicting feelings of attraction and repulsion in its wet, muddy, unformed state.

The exhibition is accompanied by a live performance and book launch for the artist’s first major monograph ‘William Cobbing: Social Substance’, taking place on Saturday 8 November 2025.