The Annual General Meeting of the Blake Society was followed by a presentation by the ceramicist Diane Eagles talking about the making of The Lamb at the Gate.
The Lamb at the Gate is a ceramic work that incorporates wild London clay from Lambeth, soil from the garden of Blake’s Cottage in Felpham and material excavated from Bunhill Fields when the ledger stone was installed to mark Blake’s exact place of Burial.
In the words of Diane Eagles ‘The project plan was to produce a delicate but life size ceramic Lamb, echoing something of the style of Blake’s many etchings of the Lamb. The ‘Little Lamb’ is a symbol of Christ, innocence and sacrifice. ‘The Lamb at the gate’ alludes to a pastoral idyll as well as the grave being the ‘Golden Gate’ of Heaven and also the gate in ‘Jerusalem’s wall’, which leads to Heaven and through which we may all travel. The Lamb at the gate may then represent William Blake within his grave, and for all of us to heed guidance and re/direction.’
Diane Eagles is a London based artist whose ceramic sculpture is inspired by ritual, emotional and spiritual investment in objects, healing and power fired with the historic resonance within spaces. She has exhibited at Southwark Cathedral, Swedenborg House, Morley College, Draper Hall, the Welcome Collection and the Stromness Museum in Orkney. Please visit her website https://www.edensclay.co.uk/ for more information.