The Jerwood Contemporary Makers 2010 exhibition is the third and final in a curated series intended to give voice and profile to some of the applied arts world's most playful, thoughtful and skilled artists, at a valuable point in their development.



The selectors and curators of 2010's show, Hans Stofer (chair), Richard Slee and Freddy Robins have negotiated their carefully made curatorial decisions not based on the use or function of the objects seen in the show, but on their inherent value as things

Stofer, Hans

English

Royal College of Art Research Repository

1The Making GameThe most satisfying thing a human being can do!–!and the sexiest!–!is to make something.Life is about relationship!–!to each other!–!and to the material world. Making something is a relationship.The verb is the clue. We make love, we make babies, we make dinner, we make sense, we make a di"erence, we make it up, we make it new…True, we sometimes make a mess, but creativity never was a factory finish.The wrestle with material isn’t about subduing; it is about making a third thing that didn’t exist before. The raw material was there, and you were there, but the relationship that happens between maker and material allows the finished piece to be what it is. And that allows a further relationship to develop between the piece and the viewer or the buyer. Both relationships are in every way di"erent from mass production or store bought objects that, however useful, are dead on arrival. Anyone who makes something finds its life, whether it’s Michelangelo releasing David from twenty tons of Carrara marble, or potter Jane Cox spinning me a plate using the power of her shoulders, the sureness of her hands, the concentration of her mind.I have a set of silverware made by an eighteenth century silverworker called Hester Bateman, one of the very few women working in flatware at that time. When I eat with her spoons, I feel the work and the satisfaction that went into making them!–!the handle and bowl are in equal balance!–!and I feel a part of time as it really is!–!not chopped into little bits, but continuous. She made this beautiful thing, it’s still here, and I am here too, writing my books, eating my soup, two women making things across time. I feel connection, respect, delight. And it is just a spoon…But the thing about craft, about the making of everyday objects that we can have around us, about the making of objects that are beautiful and/or useful, is that our everyday life is enriched.How is it enriched?  To make something is to be both conscious and concentrated!–!it is a fully alert state, but not one of anxious hyper-arousal. We all know the flow we feel when we are absorbed in what we do. I find that by having a few things around me that have been made by someone’s hand and eye and imagination working together, I am prevented from passing through my daily life in a kind of blur.  I have to notice what is in front of me!–!the table, the vase, the hand-blocked curtains, the thumb prints in the sculpture, the lettering block. I have some lamps made by Marianna Kennedy, and what I switch on is not a bulb on a stem; it is her sense of light.So I am in relationship to the object and in relationship to the maker. This allows me to escape from the anonymity and clutter of the way we live now. Instead of surrounding myself with lots of things I hardly notice, I have a few things that also seem to notice me. No doubt this is a fantasy!–!but…The life of objects is a strange one.A maker creates something like a fossil record. She or he is imprinted in the piece. We know that energy is never lost, only that it changes its form, and it seems to me that the maker shape-shifts her/himself into the object. That is why it remains a living thing. Of course it is possible to design an object that will be made by others!–!but that is an extension of the creative relationship, not its antithesis. It is the ceaseless reproduction of meaningless objects that kills creativity for all of us, as producers and consumers.But are producers and consumers who we want to be?To make is to do. It is an active verb. Creativity is present in every child ever born. Kids love making things. There are di"erent doses and dilutions of creativity, and the force is much stronger in some than in others!–!but it is there for all of us, and should never have been separated o" from life into art.I would like to live in a creative continuum that runs from the child’s drawing on the fridge to Lucien Freud, from the co"ee cups made by a young ceramicist to Grayson Perry’s pots.We don’t need to agonise over the boundaries between ‘art’ and ‘craft’, any more than we should be separating art and life. The boundary is between the creative exuberance of being human, and the monotony of an existence dependent on mass production!–!objects, food, values, aspirations.Making is personal. Making is shared. Making is a celebration of who we are.Jeanette Winterson16 June to 25 JulyJerwood Space171 Union StreetLondon SE1 0LNT: 020 7654 0171www.jerwoodvisualarts.orghttp://twitter.com/jerwoodjvaJerwood Contemporary Makers will tour to Dovecot Studios with IC: Innovative CraftEdinburgh, EH1 1LT in autumn 2010T: 0131 315 3054www.innovativecraft.co.ukCREDITSSelectors Freddie Robins, Richard Slee and Hans Stofer (Chair)PR and project management Colman GettyExhibition consultant Julia RavenscroftExhibition design and build Michael MarriottGraphic design Turnbull GreyJerwood Contemporary Makers is supported by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation as part of Jerwood Visual ArtsJerwood Contemporary Makers2 3Laura Ellen BaconFragmented Form2008Stripped Somerset willow120cm x 100cmNew work created for exhibition:Surface Form2010Stripped Somerset willow90cm x 90cmwww.lauraellenbacon.comChien-Wei ChangOne After Another2008Silver, brass, ebony138cm x 15cm x 34cmPhoto credit: Stephen Braynewww.chienweichang.co.ukDavid ClarkeOoh Lala2007EPNS, lead25cm x 18cm x 35cm www.misterclarke.wordpress.comJulie CookBilateral Body Bumpers2005Cotton pillowcase, blanket pads, knotted quilting and ties 50cm x 50cm x 2cmwww.julie-cook.comCarl ClerkinDesperate Measures2008 onwardsPlastic buckets, softwood, various hardwareDimensions!–!variousPhoto credit: Dan Hopkinswww.carlclerkin.co.ukMarloes ten BhomerRotationalmouldedshoe2009Polyurethane rubber and stainless steel                                    25cm x 10cm x 14cm Specifically designed for the After Hours installation in the Krannert Art Museum in Illinois, USAwww.marloestenbhomer.squarespace.com4 5Nora FokDisc-florets2008!–9Neckpiece: knitted dyed nylon39cm diameterPhoto credit: Frank Hillswww.norafok.comRobert DawsonWillow Pattern with Uncertainty2003Print on bone china          27cm diameterwww.aestheticsabotage.comDavid GatesFrom the series Anon(.) Parts 1–62009Oak, repurposed refrigerator, string, black steelApprox. 135cm x 35cm x 70cmwww.davidgatesfurniture.co.ukJoseph HarringtonEscarpment2010Cut glass, lost-ice process53cm x 17cm x 12cm www.josephharrington.co.ukTony HaywardLoving Couple2005Mixed media15cm x 10cm x 7cmPhoto credit: Lewis Haywardwww.tonyhayward.com6 7David Rhys JonesCross2006Ceramic with digital transfer printing (5 pieces arranged)12cm x 32cm x 25cmPhoto credit: Stephen Braynewww.davidrhysjones.comNicola MalkinMy Charm Bracelet2010Ceramic charms on a brass chain60cm x 60cmwww.nicolamalkin.comTaslim MartinPortrait head Maiko2007Cast in iron with iron oxide patination 27cm highwww.taslimmartin.co.ukKirsty McDougallNew Dandy2009Wool, reflective yarn Variouswww.dashingtweeds.co.uk8 9Heather ParkGreen Cornucopia 2004White earthenware, oxides, underglaze colours, glaze and lustre  46cm x 30.5cmLina PetersonPinkly brooch2009Red Perspex acrylic, silver, plywood, idigbo, lollystick, clear Perspex acrylic, leather, cardboard, copper, felt, stainless steel, fluorescent pink paint9cm x 11cm x 1.5cmwww.linapeterson.comKaren NicolScribble2007Cotton, braid, Irish embroidery, feathersApprox. 60cm x 200cmwww.karennicol.comFlora McLean   Marcel (from Iconic Heads)2009Wool felt20cm x 30cm x 30cmPhoto credit: Derek Johnwww.houseo#ora.netRowan MershUntitled 102010Synthetic balls, various stretched fabrics100cm x 40cm x 40cmwww.rowanmersh.comGareth NealBlock Plinth2007 Oak95cm x 40cm x 40cm www.garethneal.co.uk 10 11Richard WheaterThe Making of Something2010Neon, argon, borosilicate glass,  hot sculpted glass, transformer50cm x 50cm x 30cmwww.richardwheater.comMaud TraonMilky Way2008–9Found object, modelling clay, synthetic stonesApprox 6cm x 3.2cmx 10cmPhoto: Jack Colewww.maudtraon.netIngrid TaitRomance2004Lambswool with needle-punched lace and diamante embellishment32cm x 162cmPrivate collectionwww.taitandstyle.co.ukTomoaki SuzukiAndy2002Lime wood, resin, acrylic paint  (guitar case: wood, metal, epoxy resin)52cm highCourtesy of Corvi-Mora, Londonwww.corvi-mora.comLaura PotterLove from Berlin pin200918ct yellow gold2cm x 1.5cm x 0.5cmPhoto: Matt Wardwww.laurapotter.co.uk12Emma Wo"endenI Never Really Knew Her2009Painted bottles, glass mirror wood vitrine 122cm x 95cm x 64cmPhoto: Angela Moorewww.bmgallery.co.ukConor WilsonTriple Necked Vessel2009Red earthenware, clear glaze,  tin glaze, lustre, acrylic paint, brass, steel28cm x 20cm x 15cmwww.conorwilson.comDawn YoullAfter the Event2008Slipcast earthenware13.5cm x 32cm www.dawnyoull.co.ukacknowlegements Jerwood Contemporary Makers 2010This year’s Jerwood Contemporary Makers exhibition is the third and final in a curated series intended to give voice and profile to some of the applied arts world’s most playful, thoughtful and skilled artists, at a valuable point in their development.  The selectors of 2010’s show have negotiated their carefully made curatorial decisions based not on the use or function of the objects seen here, but on their inherent value as things. A skein of cloth tells a story about its maker; a blurred plate forces an assumption into play from the viewer; and the tiniest of objects can become a crucible for some very large ideas. In her beautiful catalogue essay, Jeanette Winterson reflects on the sensuousness and importance that maker-made objects hold for us as we traverse our everyday lives. In tandem, this exhibition celebrates each piece as an item of seduction in its own right, regardless of function if not of form; o"ering its own unique perspective on the space it occupies and, as Jeanette witnesses, revealing something of the maker whose ideas are brought it into being.I would like to thank Freddie Robins, Richard Slee and Hans Stofer (Chair) for their humour, rigour and perspective in selecting a confident show which is both coherent and full of surprises. My fullest thanks go to each artist for taking part, and for the conversations that their works initiate. In Michael Marriot’s exhibition design he has sought to grasp the concept of making fully, interpreting these ideas still further through the presentation of the show; as have Turnbull Grey, our graphic designers. Significantly,  I would like to thank Colman Getty and Julia Ravenscroft for deftly overseeing the process and the exhibition, and the Jerwood Space, particularly Sarah Williams, for hosting the series so well as it has developed and grown within the Jerwood Visual Arts programme. At the Jerwood Charitable Foundation we are committed to further exploring our long standing relationship with the applied arts, with a particular interest in emerging artists and emerging practice. This is a crucial time for the confidence of the craft world. We hope to develop new ideas for how the Jerwood Visual Arts programme can continue to be a part of the vital conversation and debate around what it means to make in a contemporary, changing and challenging context.Shonagh MansonDirector Jerwood Charitable FoundationA major initiative of the Jerwood Charitable Foundation.

Jerwood Contemporary Makers 2010

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