Karen Ryan & Straw Dogs

Karen Ryan - Custom Made in England, Vanity series - seen here

I like Karen Ryan's work very much, and I wish I could get down to London in time to see the show she is in at Spring Projects called Straw Dogs - it finishes on 30 July so I'll miss it.

The exhibition includes Jason Brooks, Jake & Dinos Chapman and Hans Stofer and is a response the philosopher John Gray's 2003 book Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals. This book has been a major influence for me in the last few years and I used it as the basis of my essay for a Philosophy of Art module I took trough Cardiff Centre of Lifelong Learning in 2008. It is a bleak view which questions Humanist ideas of progress and suggests that the impetus to understand the world in terms of linear progression is a hangover of Christian theology. He suggests that the drive towards constant improvement has created a paradigm of greed and dislocation from the natural world which has brought us to the brink of self destruction.

Karen Ryan - Fear, Installation - seen here

Gray has been criticised for his bleak approach to his subject, and he is hard to read and come out unaffected, but I feel there is some very important issues for the art world to consider in his ideas. So, I am doubly upset that I won't get to see this show!

Karen Ryan - In the Woods - seen here

James Plumb

James Plumb - For Richer For Poorer (Concrete Stitches series) - seen here

James Plumb - To Have and to Hold (Concrete Stitches series) - seen here

Thanks to David Restorick on his excellent blog, for introducing me to James Plumb (who is actually Hannah Plumb and James Russell). I like their recycled and hybridised furniture. The use of concrete in these chairs is intriguing and contrary, I like that too.

Here's a couple more of their designs that made me smile.

James Plumb - Sampson - seen here

James Plumb - Cluster Chandelier - seen here

Nacho Carbonell

Nacho Carbonell - The Diversity series - seen here

Nacho Carbonell is a Spanish designer based in Holland, his new series of experimental pieces, Diversity is now on show at Palazzo Ferre in Milan.

Nacho Carbonell, Diversity (preview) from robertanderson on Vimeo.

“I like to see objects as living organisms, imagining them coming alive and being able to surprise you with their behaviour. I want to create objects with my hands, then I can give them my personality. I turn them into communicative objects that can arouse one’s sensations and imagination. In short, what I want to create are objects with a fictional or fantasy element, that allow you to escape everyday life.” Nacho Carbonell

Ralph Turner - Crafts curator

Ralph Turner talking about Collecting a Kaleidoscope curated from the The Crafts Council Collection

The Glynn Vivian Gallery in Swansea has a small space which is used to show exhibitions of craft and design objects, the shows are curated by Ralph Turner. A former exhibitions Officer for The Crafts Council, Ralph Turner is renowned as a curator, writer and craft critic. Quiet and understated, these shows are exquisite little gems showing important and significant makers.

The current exhibition is called Sitting Pretty and features chairs as design objects.

Mario Botta - Seconda Chair 1982 - photo Louise Bird

The gallery says: A well designed chair can bring a sculptural element to any room and, as this exhibition shows, there are a number of ways of achieving this. Starting in the early 20th Century with the revolutionary work of Gerrit Rietveld and Alvar Aalto, the exhibition includes later examples of Italian design from the 1950s & 60s by Giancarlo Piretti and Anna Castelli Ferrieri.

Swiss architect, Mario Botta is represented with structured work from the 1980s, alongside Britain's Richard La Trobe-Batemen and Fred Baier. More recently, BarberOsgerby's successful London practice covers a wide range of products, as does Jasper Morrison, whose cool handling of aesthetics has established his global reputation.

Alongside Rietveld, there are four more contemporary Dutch contributors to the show with individual approaches to furniture: Ruud-Jan Kokke, Tejo Remy, Erik de Graaff, and Tord Boontje. In Britain, Jim Partridge and Edward Teasdale both work with wood, whilst Joe Wentworth, the youngest maker in this exhibition, produces unexpected designs such as cement stools, demonstrating that experiments with unorthodox materials can pay off. Seen here

Mary Sikkel and Simon Gaiger

Treasure Trouvé - from World of Interiors (February 2010)

We're all a little bit proud in the gallery of our Education Officer Mary Sikkel and her husband Simon Gaiger. Both trained as sculptors, they met at college many moons hence. Their exquisitely beautiful west Wales home is featured this month in World of Interiors magazine (February 2010). Feast your eyes - but go out and buy a copy too to keep forever!

Synchronicity...

tactileBOSCH, Cardiff


tactileBOSCH, Cardiff

I had a synchronous moment at tactileBOSCH yesterday, you'll see what I mean when I post more about the work Jake and I will be showing in March at The Last Gallery...

Radu Comsa - Ice Age Chair

Radu Comsa - Ice Age Chair seen here

Thanks to Mandy Prowse on her Feltbug blog for posting about In Praise of Shadows, an exhibition at the V&A as part of London Design Festival. The work uses the EU directive to phase out low efficiency light bulbs to explore designer's ideas for alternative lighting sources and is curated by Jane Withers.

I love this chair by Romanian designer Radu Comsa.


Radu Comsa - Ice Age Chair see here

Piet Hein Eek

Piet Hein Eek - seen here

I really like the Scrapwood range of furniture from Dutch designer, Piet Hein Eek. Simple but incredibly distinctive. It speaks for itself, but here's what he says about the range:

"The scrapwood cupboard from 1990 was my reaction against the prevalent craving for flawlessness. I wanted to show that products that aren't perfect still can appeal to our sense of aesthetic and functionality. I also wanted to design a product that could be made with limited means, material that was abundant. The combination of uncommon material and also uncommon, but simple methods of working became the thread through our work." Seen here

Piet Hein Eek - seen here

Clootie Wells

Photo: Angus Clyne - Clootie Well at Munlochy, on the Black Isle in Scotland
seen here

In Scotland, clootie means a piece of cloth or strip of rag, it can also mean clothing and cloth for patching. The custom of tying rags to trees and bushes, raggedy bushes, near a well is known across Britain and Ireland. Usually a votive healing ritual - the cloth is dipped in the well and tied to the tree; when the rag rots and falls from the bow, the ailment is cured. There's something strange and atmospheric about the Clootie Well in this image, something slightly spooky but also mournful. It's such a direct intervention. I think it's the simplicity and democracy of the gesture that is compelling to me.

I've been thinking about this for quite a while now. The function and ritual of it, but also the aesthetic. The Mummers plays that are performed around New Year in the UK often include strips of cloth and rags in their costume too.

Mummers performing in Firle in Sussex - seen here

My more recent work has incorporated rag strips and other everyday materials used repetitively.

Kathryn Campbell Dodd - Snowfall 2009

Manon Gignoux

Manon Gignoux - Photo: Eric Morin for Interiors magazine

I was flipping through some back issues of Interiors magazine the other day and I came across an article I had book-marked about French artist/stylist Manon Gignoux. I remember being really drawn to the images at the time (February 2008).

Recently, on a trip to London we visited Egg, the exceptionally lovely shop in Kinnerton Street, Belgravia (there are now two shops opposite each other). The lovely lady in the shop let us have a look in the store room when we told her we were from a contemporary craft gallery, amongst the linen and cottons there were fabulous ceramics from Rupert Spira and others - but also some gorgeous textile necklaces and intriguing little domestic objects 'dressed' in fabric. Some things send a frisson of electricity through you when you see them, they sing against your nerve endings. I have just twigged that this was Manon Gignoux's work left from an exhibition she had at the shop. I wish I had been able to see it!

This is how she describes her practice: "I create fabric sculptures, dressed objects, clothes and accessories – each piece is unique. My work lies between art and fashion".


Manon Gignoux - Photo: Eric Morin for Interiors magazine

Djurdjica Kesic

Djurdjica Kesic - Transition - seen here

I found out about this maker today. Djurdjica Kesic makes jewellery and crafted objects, born in Yugoslavia she is now based in Australia. I really like her series of work from 2008 called Transition. Conceptually succinct and articulate (deconstruction/process/re-appropriation) the images on her website tell the story beautifully.


Djurdjica Kesic - Transition - seen here

Chairs at St Fagans

Chairs at St Fagans: National History Museum

Looking at Angharad's chairs has prompted me to post a picture from my visit to the National History Museum at St Fagan's, Cardiff last weekend. It's one of my favourite places to visit. This picture was shot on a long exposure through the smoky interior of Abernodwydd Farmhouse.

Angharad Pearce Jones

Angharad Pearce Jones

Whilst visiting the Eisteddfod, we also went to the Welsh cultural centre Canolfan Cywain in the park opposite the festival site.

Blacksmith/sculptor Angharad Pearce -Jones has been working on education projects with Oriel Myrddin Gallery recently and I saw some photographs of the giant chairs she was making for the Centre. I was very pleased to get the chance to see them in situ. They were surrounded by beautiful wild flowers covering the little twmp where the chairs are installed.

Angharad Pearce Jones