Introduction
What role does ‘the materiality of things’ play in our relationship to the objects we create and consume?
There is a renewed interest in what the act of making does to humans and our understanding of ‘the object’. Makers and designers are at a point of reflection: re-evaluating our sensitivities to objects and materials. The exhibition and accompanying symposium reflect on how objects come to be and how the making of an object affords it ‘a voice’. Selected works by five artists and designers collectively explore how they engage with objects through materiality and the making process.
Michael Marriott has chosen pieces from his installation Mies Meets Marx / MMM at The Geffrye Museum (2002). The work consists of objects Marriott has borrowed, bought and collected, presenting the way he relates to the world of objects. Neil Brownsword’s extraordinary understanding of ceramic production processes and the material clay, is inherent in his work SY Series. The maker’s closeness to the material enables the work to speak of the history of a place (Stoke-on-Trent) where the ceramic industry is synonymous with its name. Jasper Morrison’s slideshow A World Without Words is a collection of images which have ‘made an impression’ on him. The slideshow celebrates human inventiveness with materials and structures resulting in the utility of things. David Clarke’s work has a strong evocative quality. While suggestive of the familiarity of everyday objects, Clarke’s work critically engages with the history of the material, often challenging its conventions. The raw material quality and visible trace of making give a powerful presence to Gareth Neal’s Block 2: Side Table. Revealed slowly within the work is a sense of time, labour, and sensitivity to the material.
Building on Camberwell’s reputation for ‘making’, the exhibition proposes to create a dialogue around notions of ‘the maker’, ‘the making process’ and ‘the material’. The symposium will facilitate an exchange of ideas between designers, theoreticians, makers of objects, curators, art and design historians, anthropologists, educationalists and material scientists around the theme of ‘Thingness’.
