Abstract:
The Silver Studio was a commercial design practice, founded by Arthur Silver in 1880. Between 1880 and 1963, the Studio completed more than 20,000 schemes for furnishing fabrics, wallpapers, tablecloths, rugs and carpets. Silver Studio designs were sold to a range of manufacturers around Britain and abroad, often becoming anonymised in the process. After it closed, the contents of the Silver Studio -artwork, record books, photographs, correspondence and so on - were given to Hornsey College of Art, which became part of what is now Middlesex University. This material is now the focal collection of the Museum of Domestic Design & Architecture (MoDA), Middlesex University. In 2008, the Silver Studio Collection was awarded Designated Status by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA), in recognition of its quality and importance as a national resource. The Designation Scheme identifies the pre-eminent collections of national and international importance held in England's non-national museums, libraries and archives, based on their quality and significance.Cite
Installation project that addresses the interface between architecture and ceramics. In this and its companion piece, ‘House for
an Art Lover’, an installation at Blackwell, de Waal aimed to interpret particular spaces rather than reproduce solitary ‘exhibition’
pieces. De Waal’s research aim lies at the interface between architecture and ceramics: the interpretation of specific spaces rather than
reproducing solitary ‘exhibition’ pieces. This interest emerges from a concern to extend the interpretation of crafts and
architecture, an area that has been little theorised.
Two interconnecting projects extended this. Arcanum: Mapping Eighteenth Century Ceramics at the National Museum and
Gallery of Wales arose from the Museum’s concern to reinterpret its major collection of 18th century European porcelain. The
exhibition (June 2005-September 2005) included examples of normative exhibition practice, some radical new displays of the
historic porcelain coupled with two installation pieces of de Waal’s own work made in response to the research. This project was
developed further by an intervention House for an Art Lover at Blackwell, an Arts and Crafts mansion designed by Baillie Scott
(September 2005-January 2006). This project explored how ceramics could be used as a sculptural medium to interrogate
architectural spaces.
The idea that an environment could work as a resource for practice in a similar way to an historic collection is proving influential.
The methodology of these projects has been cited in the Arts Council museumaker project that brings museums and artists
together. The discovery of correspondences between 18th century poetics of display and installation was influential in rethinking
the display of other museum collections.
The dissemination of both projects was considerable through publications, seminars and reviews. For Arcanum a bi-lingual
catalogue was published. An international seminar was given. An interview was recorded by the National Electronic and Video
Archive of the Crafts (NEVAC), available online. For House for an Art Lover a catalogue designed by Pentagram with
photographs by Graham Murrell was published. Two museums, MIMA, and the Lakelands Art Trust also purchased work from
the exhibition.
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This article looks at the Silvern Series, a set of photographs of items from the South Kensington Museum’s collections. The Series was created and published by Arthur Silver in 1889 and was intended as a source of inspiration for textile manufacturers. Arthur Silver was a commercial pattern designer who founded his own design company (the Silver Studio) in 1880. The Silver Studio was a key producer of designs for wallpapers and textiles for manufacturers and retailers around Britain and abroad, from 1880 until the 1960s.
This article draws on evidence from the Silver Studio Collection, now part of the Museum of Domestic Design & Architecture, Middlesex University.
Textile
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These are the interpretation panels for the 2018 Katagami in Practice Exhibition at Asia House. The Exhibition was put together by the Museum of Domestic Design & Architecture to showcase some of the outputs from the Arts Council England funded project 'Katagami in Pratice: Japanese Stencils in the Art School. The project started with 400 Japanese katagami stencils that form part of the Silver Studio collection, and were acquired by the Silver Studio in the late 19th century as inspiration for textile and wallpaper design. Several researcher and arts practitioners then developed project work inspired by these objects and the processes that went into making and using them. The panels outline the historical background and summarise the research outputs.
Wallpaper
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The official catalogue for the exhibition, Art Nouveau Designs from the Silver Studio Collection 1885-1910, held at the Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow, in 1986. The exhibition examined the important contribution made by the Silver Studio to the development of British Art Nouveau. It featured items from the Silver Studio Collection which subsequently became part of the Museum of Domestic Design & Architecture, Middlesex University.
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This research explores the development of new alloy and patination techniques in the production of a series of vessels. The research developed from an AHRC funded practice based study into Japanese metalwork techniques and materials, and applied knowledge developed during extensive laboratory based testing in the development of work in the studio. The study is characterised by the reinterpretation of historical craft processes and a dialogue between complex surfaces and simplicity of form. The research expands the standard palette of metal alloys and colours, and uses novel finishing and joining techniques to produce new surface finishes in traditional materials.
Work in this series has been exhibited to a national and international audience at solo exhibitions at The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 2008, and Galerie Marzee, Netherlands 2011 (catalogue IBAN:NL09ABNA0436467321); and group exhibitions including National Metalwork Design Award, Millennium Galleries, Sheffield, 2008; Object, Rotterdam 2009; Collect at Saatchi Gallery, London 2010/11/12; PAN, Amsterdam 2011; Silverstruck, Ruthin Craft Centre and National Museum of Wales (catalogue ISBN:978-1-905865-33-8) 2011; Beneath the Skin, SIA Gallery, Sheffield (catalogue ISBN:978-1-84387-334-1) 2011; KunstRAI, Amsterdam 2012; CAA, London 2010/12; National Craft Gallery Ireland 2009/10/12; Dubh, AIHS, New York, and Oliver Sears Gallery, Dublin, 2012 (catalogue ISBN 978-0-906630-45-7).
Work from the series were purchased for the Crafts Council of Ireland / Department of Foreign Affairs collection in 2009/12 and for the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths’ Modern Collection, London in 2011. Goldmiths’ curator Ransome-Wallis commented “The Goldsmiths’ Company acquires contemporary items for its Collection that demonstrate innovation in design and technical skill by leading artist craftsmen. Coilin O’Dubhghaill’s two bowls, that were acquired for the Collection in 2011, are examples of how a talented artist craftsman has understood the ancient, almost extinct, Japanese technique of Shakudo and expressed it in vessels that are entirely 21st Century in feeling and utterly individual.”
Craft
Reinterpretation
National museum
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Selected showcase
I was invited to show in this exhibition by the curators Doug Cocker and James Castle. This exhibition would comprise of a group of artists working in diverse locations from New York City to the Western Isles, from rural Perthshire to the Antarctic. As part of the exhibition in February, the artists were asked to produce a text on their relationship with the studio and for photographic documentation of the studio. This information would be displayed in the exhibition next to the artwork and included in the exhibition catalogue.
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Guide to Winchester School of Art Library's specialist art and design library. One of the Library’s strengths is its Artists’ Books Collection - this collection, which concentrates on books made either by hand or in limited editions, was started shortly after the School of Art moved to its current premises in Park Avenue in 1966. It now includes over one thousand items and is a collection of national standing.
National library
Collection development
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‘Collect @ V and A’, sponsored by British Crafts Council and Victoria and Albert Museum, comprises internationally recognised Applied Arts Galleries, Gallery Ra, Gallery Marzee, Amsterdam, Australian Crafts Council, etc., with selected works of their represented practitioners. Six textiles, each 3 metres in length, five completed December 2005, were selected and profiled by the Crafts Council/Scottish Gallery. These works extend research initiated by Starszakowna in the SRIF funded (£148,000) Research Futures Project she established at UoAL in 2001. This research addressed the ubiquity of the digitally derived textile through interventions of synchronous, embossed screen-printed image and other experimental processes to create a chimeric textile; a paradigmatic shift within the field. This research has subsequently been subject to invited presentations to industry and academia, including Mantero Lab (Milan/Como), Dutch Textile Museum (Tilburg), etc.
The resultant textiles form a palimpsest of filmic, translucent glazed digital image and opaque, three-dimensionally textured, embossed and oxidised surfaces that effectively challenge perceptions of virtual and actual reality. These qualities are optimised to reflect issues addressed within the works, namely the nature of cultural identity and the impact of socio-political change, dislocation and the urbanised environment. ‘Diasporas’, for example, specifically addresses enforced exile, the impacting loss of a mother tongue, and the nature of cultural estrangement, anomie and ‘otherness’. Purchased for the permanent collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum 2006, ‘Diasporas’ was featured in Surface Design Vol.30 Summer 2006, published Surface Design Association (USA), ISSN 0-74470-89282-3, and may be viewed in V&A Magazine, pub. V and A Museum, Issue 10 summer 2006, and on V and A website www.vam.ac.uk. Six later works completed in 2006/07 were also selected for exhibition at ‘Collect @ V&A’ 2007 (Collect catalogue, published Crafts Council ISBN-13 978-1-85759-511-6), two being purchased for permanent installation Bank of Scotland HQ.
Craft
Handicraft
Hobby
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On the basis of his record in reinterpreting and interrogating craft practice, Boontje was invited by the Design Center, Philadelphia to examine the extensive historic collection of Quaker Lace in the archive of Philadelphia University. Boontje’s expertise is demonstrated by his work in numerous public collections, such as MoMA, V&A, Manchester City Gallery, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Stedelijk Museum and Indianapolis Museum of Art. At Philadelphia, he was commissioned to design new objects and create an exhibition as part of a three-person show.
Boontje’s research explored three-dimensional lacemaking to create new products. It combined traditional artisan techniques and crafts with unconventional materials, including natural fibres such as grass and raffia, and synthetic fibres such as Aramid and Dyneema. The exhibition consisted of a sofa, jewellery, a dress, lights and development models and tests.
While lacemaking has become conventionalised and scorned by modernist designers and consumers, Boontje reinvigorated an apparently moribund practice. He demonstrated how traditional but disappearing skills of artisans can still have a purpose in manufacturing, and continues his project of reintroducing emotional and humane values to design (Margetts 2006). The work carried out in the studio involved sketching, testing, model making, prototyping, and production of finished pieces, planning the space and then executing the installation in the galleries in Philadelphia.
The work was discussed in McQuaid and Packer, Lace in Translation (2010) and by Ruyak in Fiber Arts (2009). Boontje’s approach was also discussed in the New York Times (2009) and the Financial Times (2010).
Boontje was subsequently invited by Marsden Woo Gallery in London to create a solo exhibition, ‘The Lacemaker’ (2010).
Craft
Modern art
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Spaces Buildings Make is an installation research project which takes as its medium the site of the Phase Two Building on the Cat Hill Campus of Middlesex University (Archs: Howell, Killick and Partridge, 1974) – plus the logistic information held in the archives of the architects held by Middlesex University. It was made possible by a AHRC Fellowship in the Creative and Performing Arts.
Selected details about the building's fabrication and design were printed in the Ceramics Studios onto glazed dinnerware of the same design and style currently used in the university refectory. These dishes were randomly entered into the regular refectory stock and used by staff and students. Video and photography were used to document this performative research process as it developed over a period of three months. In turn these video and photographic texts were made available (online) to other researchers as part of the developing Spaces Buildings Make archive.
This project was constituted in a series of installations and publications, plus a conference held at the Tate Modern Gallery, London in February 2007. The conference section was develped with Anthony Keindl and Aoife Mac Namara.
In the way that this piece explores archives and transient conceptions of architectural place, this work is in keeping with other earlier pieces (eg. Peter's Smoking Room). Documentary materials will be available on the department's website;
http://www.visual-culture.com
Performative utterance
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