Jerwood Visual Arts (JVA) launches the first Jerwood Makers Open, an exhibition of new commissions by four very different artists, at Jerwood Space on 13 July.
With delicately balanced glass sculptures by Heike Brachlow, a sound and clay homage to the Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo by Keith Harrison, jewellery that responds to movement by Farah Bandookwala and a celebration of ceramic glaze by Emmanuel Boos, this exhibition will show how these artists are pushing the boundaries of their practice and chosen materials.
Farah Bandookwala creates jewellery forms using high-tech processes such as rapid prototyping. Her works are reminiscent of exotic plants and creatures, and for Jerwood Makers Open she will create a collection of brightly-coloured, sculptural objects that will light up, vibrate or move in response to human interaction.
French-born artist Emmanuel Boos is fascinated by ceramic glaze – its texture and the possibility of exploring different colours and tones. He will show an installation of richly-coloured cobblestone forms and a series of flat wall pieces which chart his studies of glaze and the domesticity of objects.
Heike Brachlow will create a series of different-sized glass sculpture based on balancing toys, where form and the weight distribution allows objects to move freely on a single point of contact. While balancing toys are weighted, the challenge for attaining balance in these glass sculptures lies in the way they are formed. Although each work will be a single colour, their varying thickness will create different tones. Their colour will also be affected by the change of light through the course of each day.
Inspired by a scene in Werner Herzog ‘s Fitzcarraldo, where the central character voyages up the Pachitea River playing Caruso records from a gramophone perched on a steamer, Keith Harrison will recreate this scene with a contemporary cultural shift. Using a reggae dub sound system in place of the gramophone, he will fuse clay, sound and electricity to make a monumental wall of speakers for the gallery space. From this, he will play music from the film on ceramic records, creating a work that echoes his experience of the Jah Shaka sound system at St George’s Hall, Exeter, in 1994.
Jerwood Makers Open is a new open-submission initiative designed to support and showcase emerging artists working in the applied arts. This annual exhibition series offers significant bursaries to four makers to create new works, which are then exhibited as part of the JVA programme.
The four artists in the first Jerwood Makers Open were selected by Emmanuel Cooper, potter, writer, educator and critic, Siobhan Davies, choreographer and artistic director and Jonathan Watkins, curator, writer and Director of Ikon Gallery from over 200 entries. Each artist has been awarded a bursary of £7,500 to create new work for this exhibition.
Jerwood Visual Arts, developed and managed by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation, is committed to supporting and promoting contemporary applied arts practice. The Jerwood Applied Arts Prize ran for 11 years (1999 – 2007) in partnership with the Crafts Council. This was followed from 2008 to 2010 by Jerwood Contemporary Makers, a nominated exhibition series which provided a platform to show new and emergent work in the field of making.
The Jerwood Makers Open exhibition will be at JVA at Jerwood Space, London, from 13 July to 28 August 2011 before touring within the UK. More information about the initiative can be found at www.jerwoodvisualarts.org or by following www.twitter.comm/JerwoodJVA.
