An Idea Needing to Be Made is an exhibition centred predominantly around the idea of the vessel form and its continued use and reinvention by contemporary artists working with clay.

It is foregrounded historically by the work of the Australian artist Gwyn Hanssen Pigott, whose interest in and interrogation of the vessel and the still life tradition ushered in a new way of thinking for ceramicists about function, display and purpose.

Most of the artists in the exhibition deal with one or more of the enquiries and ideas explored by Pigott: how can a vessel function as both something to be used but also about use; in what ways can an artwork be understood as a collection or suite of objects; and why is the past an eternal present in ceramic practice?