Call for Clay catalogs the results of E. Saffronia Downing’s crowd-sourced clay project, which explores wild clay as a material embodiment of place and memory. Through public open calls in 2023 and 2025, Downing invited participants to send her samples of foraged clay along with letters describing the places where the clay was gathered. Forty contributors from nineteen states and three countries responded, mailing parcels of clay alongside stories that describe deeply-held relationships with the land. Presented as a scrapbook and archive, Call for Clay demonstrates collective attention toward our shared earth.

"Foraging wild clay is an opportunity to unearth stories held by people and places. Although the earth is a source of healing, the land also holds histories of harm in its sediment. Sometimes these histories are visible in the clay, like the traces of lead, cadmium, and barium that leach from industrial landscapes and settle in clay strata. Often, these stories require conscious digging to bring to the surface."