Rhythms and arrangements
Playing with a few pieces looking at compositions with the made and the found laid out almost as language, maybe my language.
Exhibition news- Finland, Sweden and the V&A
I have had confirmations of a few upcoming shows, with my work being accepted for two yesterday. I’m really pleased that the piece I submitted for Art Jewellery Network‘s exhibition “Home” has been accepted. You Carry It With You will be shown during the international event Koru5 during August 2015 in Finland (an event organized by the Finnish Jewellery Art Association), and during October 2015 in Space CRAFT Gallery, Ireland.
Yesterday I also confirmed the title of my solo show with Konsthantverkarna in Sweden which opens on the 19th of September and is called “Gathered/Formed”. In this I will be showing a series of utensil and vessel forms alongside found objects and images lifted from the landscapes of County Down, Northern Ireland. I’m also hoping to travel over for the opening and give an artist talk to accompany the show.
Finally I have the exciting news that I will be showing with the Contemporary British Silversmiths in the exhibition “Silver in Contemporary Life” exhibition in the Silver Galleries of the V&A in 2016. For this I will be making a small series of utensil objects as drawings and investigations into my connection with the landscape, using silver as an expressive medium.
More to come this year as well but that it’s looking pretty good [and busy!] already.
Box series
A few images of the new series I’m doing at the moment, experimenting with different materials and construction techniques. To sit as vessels or to be joined to become utensil and tool forms.
Shoreline – Belfast Lough, North Down.
Yesterday evening I took a walk down to the shore near Greys Point, the light was fantastic and I took a few pictures looking at structures and textures and gathered a few items. I also collected a bundle of fishing line – one of the old look-outs has a container for collecting un-used line as anglers use it quite often. I took advantage of this to do a little clean up of a small section of beach. I do collect line myself- preferably in interesting colours or if it has nice weights or hooks, I got a few pieces for myself alongside some wood and shells. Felt good to be back along the shore.
You carry it with you
A recent piece I made for an application for an exhibition organised by the Art Jewellery Network. I don’t usually make jewellery objects but I thought this was a good opportunity to try something different and the final piece moved away form my initial idea in quite an interesting way. I had intended on making one of my abstract objects – using the form of the key to represent the idea of home, and have it attached to a loop of string to make a necklace. However I ended up using the overall form of a chain and pendant as the underlying form. The idea of home was expressed through the materials used- rose thorns gathered from the garden where my studio is sited, beach combed objects from the local beach where I walk, metal pieces found on the streets of Belfast and pine needles from the woods where I wander. I also used linen thread which to me has strong associations with Ireland. The steel loop of the pendant was made from a worked reinforcement bar from car windscreen wipers [which I use a lot in my work] and the ceramic stopper found on the beach is from a Belfast brewery which closed in 1950- which had to be used for its strong associations with home.
Hopefully if it is selected it will be exhibited in Koru5 during August 2015 in Finland and October 2015 in Space CRAFT Gallery, Ireland.
And yes it is uncomfortable to wear- snags and catches- but then Home isn’t always a comfortable place to be.
Masterclass – Collecting, thinking, drawing.
I’m doing a masterclass on the walking part of my practice entitled Collecting, Thinking, Drawing at the National Craft Gallery of Ireland in Kilkenny on the 17th of April 2-6pm alongside the exhibition Side by Side. I’ll be giving a talk on my work, taking participants on a walk around the nearby environment to collect and document before returning to the gallery to examine and explore the objects, shapes and textures we have found as a basis for informing design.
http://www.nationalcraftgallery.ie/exhibitions
The Lime Walk Project
The next exhibition I am involved with opens this saturday the 11th of April at 3pm, Void Studios, Derry and is an ongoing project involving members of the applied art group mak9- Heather Wilson and Gail Mahon with collaborations from Alice Clark, Aidan Deery and Paola Bernardelli. The exhibition is our response to the mini residency we undertook in Castleward last year during Craftfest, taking the ideas and inspiration we discovered there and developing them into more complete works.
The exhibition Side to Side curated by Christina Jansen, ,director of the Scottish Gallery, opens this week on Friday the 27th of March at the National Craft Gallery in Kilkenny, Ireland. The show features the work of 22 makers from the Portfolio Critical Selection 2015 and features a 12 piece set of my work alongside silversmiths Cara Murphy, Mike McCrory and Cóilín O Dubhghaill as well as makers form other disciplines such as ceramicist Sara Flynn and basket maker Joe Hogan. 
Paris exhibition with Portfolio: Critical Selection
Portfolio: Critical selection is an initiative with the Craft and Design Council of Ireland which promotes a number of Irish makers and designers through a series of exhibitions. This year I will be showing my work alongside many excellent irish makers in the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris in June as part of the series. I got a fantastic surprise when I found out they used an image of my work on the cover of their programme from April – July 2015!
New Spoon
Getting back into the swing of things for 2015, I’ve a busy year ahead. Fresh off the bench – a little teaspoon. Driftwood, linen thread and silver 14cm long.
Stuart Cairns 