a crowded private view....

still hanging by a thread...

hanging

We are open!

The exhibition is now open- and we look forward to seeing you there!

Rhona McCallum

I graduated from Edinburgh College of Art’s Jewellery and Silversmithing department in 2011, and since then have undertaken a residency at the Glasgow School of Art. The work selected for this exhibition comes from my degree show collection.

I am fascinated by natural landscapes, in particular that of the west coast of Scotland. Lines and surfaces from geological forms and coastal plant life from this weather-beaten region have inspired my current collection. By transforming these details into linear compositions, I create intricate structures. Layering and repetition of straight lines allows three-dimensional structures and clusters to develop; the movement achieved highlights the wild and ever-changing environment of these coastlines.

I develop my designs through mixed-media drawing and photography, alongside material development in the workshop. I interpret textures, both natural and drawn, through processes such as reticulating the surface of the metal, and use heat to colour and tarnish brass wire. The controlled and restricted forms offer a contrast to the unpredictable nature of the surface techniques used.

Laura Bradshaw-Heap

The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitude of mind… If you change your mind, you can change your life.

- William James.

  

My process.

My practice seeks to create a social experience within marginal community groups with little or no experience of the creative arts. For me, the end product is not the jewellery produced by the group. Rather the producing of jewellery is a means for developing a social experience within the group. It is these social experiences, of which I become a part of, which then inform my work.

This is me; a project.

The ‘this is me’ project was developed through a series of informal jewellery workshops with a group of women from the Irish Traveller community based in London, in co-ordination with Brent Irish Advisory Services (B.I.A.S.).

The aim of the women who took part was to show an alternative side to Irish Traveller life; one very different to that shown in the Channel 4 series “My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding”. B.I.A.S.’s aim was to create a coffee morning which would give the women a place to meet outside their site once a week, to offer new experiences and to develop self-confidence.

My aim as an artist was to create a shared dialogue with the women through the creation of jewellery; to gain a small insight Irish Traveller culture and to develop a collection of jewellery pieces which reflected the themes that emerged through our informal conversations.

My resulting jewellery pieces look to embody these themes. They are informed by the womens’ sense of colour and fun; the objects created during the workshops, and the processes used to create them.

 Without these women, these pieces would not exist.





Alice Bo-Wen Chang

Previously trained as an architect, I have always envisioned buildings as machines. Architec­tural elements are designed to form spaces that manipulate activities and movement. While jewellery cannot divorce itself from the human body, the most intimate space lies in between the body and the object(s). I approach jewellery design as constructing spaces on the topographic contours.

Experimenting with different metals, plastics, enamel, and combining innovative technology with traditional hand craft skills, I am always in search of new materials and new ways of working. My exploration entitled ‘Bodyspace/bodyscape’ starts from a flat surface as it does not possess a spatial relationship, lines can be cut and pulled apart to create an animated form that express the expanded space.

The uncompromising lines and squares in Bodyspace/bodyscape, repeat in a predictable manner and are folded into endless possibilities of forms and shapes. The rigorous and logical orders result in an unpredictable, even organic growth of variations that contrast and interact with the curvature of the body. The objects perform the transformation that is frozen in time. The manipulation of lines disintegrates the rigor of squares and straight angles, the structure folds, collapses, reconstructs and extends its motion into space. When the action comes to a halt, the movement continues visually.

The study results in a series of undulating solid squares resembling the body landscape. Each of them is a fragment of the body mosaic, and the wiry structure is situated on the tilted fields, grows out of the folded planes, or sometimes converses and dialogues with the unaligned surfaces. The objects can be made small, or large, depending on the number of units; the modular nature of the patterned units allow pieces to oscillate in scale effortlessly. The action in which the movement occurs is presumptuous and temporal, but the effect is long lasting. The colors and textures not only provided a different ambiance, they show the versatility and adaptability. In one of the earrings, the oxidized silver provides a darker background to support and contrast the white structure, of which some of the lines and corners are highlighted with fluorescent pink color. The piece instantly possesses an animated quality, and a very dynamic and hierarchical transition from the body surface to the tip of the angle reaching out to infinity.