Meet the artist – Mark Essen

We caught up with Mark Essen, exhibiting artist in Break the Mould (25 March – 6 September 2026) to find out more about his work Deritend Revival (2026).

In his work Deritend Revival, Mark Essen revisits the pottery produced in Birmingham from the 12th to 14th centuries. Reimagining the historic Deritend jug within the aesthetic of street art in Digbeth, the work connects Birmingham’s medieval past with the vibrant creative culture of the area today.

Please introduce yourself?

I’m an artist that makes work in response to the physical and cultural traces left by human activity on the landscape. Working mainly in ceramics I often engage with notions of labour, folk traditions and the built environment, transforming everyday or industrial materials into poetic, sometimes absurd, spatial experiences.

Can you tell us about Deritend Revival and how it came to be?

Deritend Revival came from research I was working on around the history of pottery production in Birmingham, initially I focused on Ruskin Pottery with the studio Modern Clay but now I’ve turned my attention to Deritend ware. This is the start of a new body of work thinking of Digbeth as a museum.

What is the story behind the Deritend Revival?

Deritend Revival uses an archive photograph from Birmingham Museums Trust (Creative Commons 0). It shows a manipulated image of a 13th-century Deritend ware jug, made in Digbeth, excavated at Weoley Castle, and now on display in the museum.

Analysis reveals that the red clay is local to Digbeth, while the white clay slip decoration came from the London area. This suggests potters once travelled from London to Birmingham to make pottery.

I interpret this as a self-portrait. Having moved from London to Birmingham years ago, I feel the medieval ghost potters are haunting me.

This photo reimagines the work as a paste-up, reflecting a key element of Digbeth’s contemporary street art landscape.