Craftspace

07.09.09

EXHIBITION: taking time: Craft and the Slow Revolution

A touring exhibition from Craftspace curated with Helen CarnacTouring nationally from October 09

A new touring exhibition of contemporary craft

Taking Time: Craft and the Slow Revolution is the title of Craftspace’s next major national touring exhibition, curated with maker and academic Helen Carnac. The exhibition launches at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery on 17^th October 2009 and will tour to seven venues including Dovecot Edinburgh, Harley Gallery Nottinghamshire, Millennium Court Arts Centre Northern Ireland, University of Hertfordshire St. Albans, Plymouth Museum and Art Gallery and the Platform Gallery in Lancashire until 2011. Taking Time: Craft and the Slow Revolution features the work of nineteen contemporary makers and artists reflecting on a slow revolution: considering ideas around time and process, material and value, site and locality, relationships to community and the changing nature of production and consumption.

“The exhibition considers a position where craft making and contemporary studio practices have obvious similarities to the values and philosophies of the Slow Movement. Parallels include the common ground shared with artisanal food production, as it is committed to values of quality, provenance and locale, but also to engaging in a more reflective mode of practice. Thinking about these philosophies and how they relate to current social issues we hope that we can begin to show that craft and its methodologies can generate a modern and timely response.”

Helen Carnac, Maker and Academic

“The taking time exhibition shows how craft fits into the Slow culture-quake. It offers a thrilling reminder that every object has a story behind it and that the art of making matters hugely to all of us.”

Carl Honoré, Author of In Praise of Slow

The nineteen exhibitors cover a broad range of practice including ceramic, textile, jewellery, upcycling fashion and textile, letter cutting, furniture, enamelling, animation, digital representation, photography and participatory work. Many of the exhibitors have been commissioned to make new work for the exhibition, responding to a series of ideas including how audiences may be encouraged to think and engage with objects and how makers think about their work through the context of others.

Ceramic artist Paul Scott, is using the collection at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery as a starting point for a collaboration with Ann Linnemann a ceramic artist based in Copenhagen. Taking old maps of Birmingham city gardens and orchards off Temple Row and Bull Street, and Church Gardens, which mirror the Kings Gardens in Copenhagen, Paul will produce images for a new collection entitled Body Blue porcelain tablewares. Textile artist Matthew Harris uses hand stitching to make and re-work work. Matthew incorporates the structure of music into the production of his work, “The Estonian composer Arvo Part talks about certain sounds/signals that have a quality of having lasted an entire life-time; of having a past or future that is outside time. I want the work that I make to have this quality, both in terms of material, colour and images.”

Exhibits will also be loaned from international exhibitors: Israeli artist Esther Knobel’s range of brooches and plates from the ‘Mind in the Hand’ series visually describe ‘hands at work at a variety of tasks’ whilst American artist Sonya Clark will loan her piece ‘Climb’ from the ‘Calculated Gestures Series’. The pieces in this series are made by slowly and methodically beading gestures or movements. ‘Climb’ took over 120 hours to make by hand, whilst ascending a ladder of the same height might take a matter of seconds. The hands at either end of the piece metaphorically stretch between one place of being or mindset and another.’

The exhibition will encourage visitors to reflect on ‘slowness’ and time taken in making work however, it will also show that not all making is literally slow and that the exhibition does not intend to oppose concepts of speed, aiming to take a more philosophical stance. Visitors will also be given the opportunity to contribute to ‘Garland’ a textile installation created by Shane Waltener. Working with dance artist Cheryl McChesney Jones, Waltener will instigate the beginnings of this knotted, knitted and woven textile installation at the exhibition’s opening, through a dance piece. Visitors will then be invited to add to the piece by adding knitting, knotting and weaving to the structure during their visit. With each knot and stitch, thoughts will be entered into the woven structure with the intention that connections will made between the maker, the craft practised and the materials. The resulting woven fabric will be a document of this interaction.

Time in Print a community focussed project delivered in partnership with the National Trust has been run as an action research project while the Taking Time: Craft and the Slow Revolution exhibition has been in development . A group of African Caribbean elders from the West Midlands Caribbean Parents and Friends Association, have been working with designer Linda Florence at Wightwick Manor in Wolverhampton. They have produced their own creative responses to the issues surrounding the Slow Movement which are inspired by William Morris and the Arts and Craft Movement. A selection of their hand printed wallpapers will be exhibited in the Taking Time: Craft and the Slow Revolution exhibition.

Taking Time: Craft and the Slow Revolution will tour nationally until 2011. For more information please visit www.craftspace.co.uk.

ENDS

Artists

Gary Breeze - Lettering Sculptor,

Neil Brownsword – Ceramics,

Sonya Clark-Hair, beading,

Rebecca Earley-Upcycling – fashion,

David Gates–Furniture,

Matthew Harris-Textile artist,

Amy Houghton-Animation: video and porcelain,

Sue Lawty–Textiles,

Elizabeth Turrell -Enamel artist,

Judith van den Boom & Gunter Wehmeyer-Slow design in China,

Heidrun Schimmel-Textile artist,

Paul Scott & Ann Linnemann –Ceramics,

Shane Waltener & Cheryl McChesney Jones -Participation & social engagement,

Esther Knobel–Jewellery,

Ken Eastman & Dawn Youll-Ceramics

Curation And Partners

Curated with Helen Carnac.

Contact

Artists and venues interested in the exhibition and its issues can contact Craftspace on 0121 608 6668.

Editors Notes

MEDIA CONTACT:

Please contact for further information or images:

Lisa Falaschi, Press and Media Officer, 0121 608 6444 (Mondays and Tuesdays), l.falaschi@craftspace.co.uk

Emma Daker, Exhibitions officer, on 0121 608 6664 or email emma.daker@craftspace.co.uk

NOTES TO EDITOR:

‘...hands at work at a variety of tasks’. Text taken from ‘In conversation with Tami Manor-Friedman.’ The Mind in the Hand, Esther Knobel.

taking time exhibitors:

Gary Breeze - Lettering sculptor,

Neil Brownsword – Ceramics artist,

Sonya Clark- Textile artist

Rebecca Earley- Textile designer and expert in environmental textiles,

David Gates–Furniture designer,

Matthew Harris-Textile artist,

Amy Houghton-Animation artist

Sue Lawty–Textile artist,

Elizabeth Turrell - Enamel artist,

Judith van den Boom & Gunter Wehmeyer-Slow designers

Heidrun Schimmel-Textile artist,

Paul Scott & Ann Linnemann –Ceramics artists

Shane Waltener & Cheryl McChesney Jones – Artist and Choreographer

Esther Knobel–Jeweller

Ken Eastman & Dawn Youll-Ceramics artists

Tour schedule

17^th October 2009 - 4^th January 2010, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery,

18^th January – 22^nd March, Dovecot Studios (Innovative Craft), Edinburgh;

2^nd April – 13^th June, Harley Gallery, Worksop;

4^th August – 25^th September, Millennium Court Arts Centre, Northern Ireland;

11^th October – 22^nd November, University of Hertfordshire Gallery, St Albans;

12^th February – 9^th April 2011, Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery, Plymouth;

9^th May – 20^th June 2011, Platform Gallery, Clitheroe.

Funding: The exhibition has been supported by Arts Council England Grants for the Arts.

Time in Print: The Time in Print project has been developed as a partnership between the National Trust and Craftspace, as part of the National Trust’s ‘Whose Story? project.

Craftspace

Craftspace is a crafts development agency working to increase opportunities for makers and to develop and promote contemporary crafts through touring exhibitions, education projects, action research partnerships and consultancy.

www.craftspace.co.uk info@craftspace.co.uk

Helen Carnac

Is a practicing artist, academic and maker based in London.

www.helencarnac.co.uk

makingaslowrevolution.wordpress.com

Craftspace, 208 Custard Factory, Gibb Street, Birmingham B9 4AA

Tel: 0121 608 6668 Fax: 0121 608 6669

www.craftspace.co.uk

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