5th January 2018

Crafts Council: Collect Open

- words by Laura

Since it launched in 2011, Collect Open has been a space at international contemporary craft fair Collect for makers to take their practice up a gear or in a new direction. It encourages practitioners to develop bold, experimental or risk-taking installations at a large scale, and acts as a foil to the gallery-focused showcase that makes up the majority of Collect. This year, design royalty Jay Osgerby has shaped the selection of 14 practitioners, shining a spotlight on the most innovative craftspeople in the UK today.

“I am struck this year by the seriousness of some of the themes which have inspired the works – from the pollution of our seas and scarcity of clean water to child welfare and the environment,” says Project Curator Julia Ravenscroft, who worked closely with Jay Osgerby and the Crafts Council’s Head of Exhibition Collections Annabelle Campbell to whittle the submissions down to the final selection. From Alison Lowry’s glass sculptures that tell the story of ‘fallen’ women confined to Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries to a textile response by Hannah Robson to the work of Italian speculative novelist Italo Calvino, the exhibition demonstrates the power of craft to explore challenging ideas and tell a multitude of stories.

Alison Lowry

Weaver Jilly Edwards has used a scaffolding-pole loom to develop a 13-part tapestry that documents the emotions of her year (one piece per four weeks) through colour and texture, and will present it on a table allowing for close inspection. Ceramicist Mella Shaw will use Collect Open to discuss how plastic is polluting the world’s oceans through an installation of hundreds of smoke-fired ceramic fish and containers. Also playing with scale and repetition is Sue Paraskeva’s A Circle of Porcelain – a circular installation of more 300 vessels thrown at the weight of the human heart, which have been partially damaged to show the fragility of the human condition.

Mella Shaw

Other projects developed for Collect Open include a garden of wearable sculptures by fine art jeweller Donna Brennan, who will include photography into her practice for the first time. East London duo Forest + Found will exhibit a large-scale installation inspired by the abstract pattern of wood and textiles, which they often dye, scorch, carve and stitch in their two-pronged practice. Textile artist Emily Jo Gibbs will present a new body of portrait work that documents craftspeople and the tools they use. Also interested in objects of the everyday, classical musician turned metalsmith Juliette Bigley will create a 20-object tableau featuring a wine bottle, jug and water glasses crafted from a mixture of patinated copper, brass, nickel silver and silver – an exploration of the ritual of eating.

Forest + Found

Jewellery maker Katrin Spranger, who’s work often discusses climate change through science-fiction narratives, will present a range of objects associated with water inspired by materials more commonly associated with plumbing – and even including limescale. Another inventive use of materials can be seen in Lee Borthwick’s Bric-a-brac, a two-park installation featuring a bench and wall piece made from broken brick and precision-cut mirror.

Katrin Spranger

Want to find out more about Collect Open showing at Saatchi Gallery 22-25 February 2018? Visit the Crafts Council's website here.