Out of the Ordinary

This winter, Out of the Ordinary: Spectacular Craft, a joint V&A and Crafts Council exhibition, will feature eight artists who place meticulous craftsmanship at the heart of their work. On display will be unusual and beautifully crafted installations.

The artists featured in Out of the Ordinary: Spectacular Craft take inspiration from the everyday, transforming their subjects using traditional techniques in unexpected ways. Works include a scattering of life-like weeds and plants‘growing’ around the gallery, all skillfully hand-carved from wood; an apparently paint-splattered table which has been inlaid with mother of pearl; a seven metre high crimson cascade made using traditional Chinese paper-cutting methods.

Out of the Ordinary brings together artists from the UK, America, Nigeria, China and Japan. It will feature new commissions by Olu Amoda, Catherine Bertola, Annie Cattrell, Susan Collis, Naomi Filmer, Lu Shengzhong, Yoshihiro Suda and Anne Wilson. These artists use traditional craft skills, including embroidery, wood carving, lace-making and marquetry – playing with extremes of scale or re-working precious, ephemeral or everyday materials such as diamonds, dust and nails to create new and striking effects.

Laurie Britton Newell, V&A Curator of Contemporary Programmes and curator of the exhibition, said: “Out of the Ordinary explores the exceptional skill and meticulous making in the work of these artists. Craft is fundamental to many creative disciplines and this exhibition will show how extraordinary craft can be.”

Rosy Greenlees, Executive Director, Crafts Council said: “Out of the Ordinary is the first in a series of collaborative projects between the Crafts Council and the V&A. The artists included in the exhibition are pushing the boundaries and expectations of what craft is. Through this exhibition we hope to engage a younger generation in the debates surrounding craft today.”

Notes on Artists

Nigerian sculptor Olu Amoda works with scrap metal found on the streets of Lagos. He welds large security doors and window grills with a difference using materials such as nails and discarded machinery parts.

Catherine Bertola will display an installation outside the exhibition space. She will recreate an historic wallpaper pattern from the V&A’s collections using dust gathered round the museum.

Scottish artist Annie Cattrell’s work is about capturing the evasive. She creates laser etchings of clouds inside solid blocks of glass and uses traditional lamp-work techniques to create a fragile glass sculpture representing the breath trapped inside a human lung.

Susan Collis uses embroidery and inlay to produce trompe d’oeil effects. An apparently paint-splashed dust sheet or ladder are in fact intricately embroidered or inlaid with lavish materials such as diamonds, silk and mother of pearl.

Naomi Filmer will present holographic images and dramatic jewellery designed for the forgotten spaces of the body – behind the ear, back of the knee and between the toes.

Lu Shengzhong, the Professor of Folk Art at the Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, uses traditional paper-cutting techniques to create large scale installations of cascading red paper consisting of thousands of tiny hand-cut figures that evoke the imagery of traditional Chinese folk art.

Japanese artist Yoshihiro Suda makes precise carvings of life-like weeds and plants out of wood and installs them in unexpected places throughout the V&A, ‘growing’ from cracks in floors and on gallery walls. His work aims to reveal the beauty in simple, often overlooked things.

American artist Anne Wilson incorporates lace fragments and pins into large installations that resemble miniature landscapes. In other work, she applies traditional techniques such as crochet and lace-making to the medium of animation, bringing loose threads to life.

Notes to Editors

• Out of the Ordinary will be the first in a series of joint projects organised by the V&A in partnership with the Crafts Council. Working collaboratively, the V&A and the Crafts Council will present a programme of events and activities which will bring contemporary craft to a wide audience.

• This exhibition will be the first in the V&A’s newly refurbished Porter Gallery. The new gallery, designed by Block Architecture, will host an exciting programme of contemporary exhibitions and installations including design, fashion, architecture, photography and craft.

• The V&A will hold a conference, Fabrications, alongside this exhibition on 23 November 2007. For further information, visit the V&A website

• To coincide with the opening of the exhibition, V&A Publications are publishing Out of the Ordinary: Spectacular Craft (£24.99 paperback). Edited by Laurie Britton Newell, it includes essays by Glenn Adamson and Tanya Harrod and illustrations by Lizzie Finn. For further information about the book, contact Julie Chan on 0207 942 2701 or 07747 607 822 or email j.chan@vam.ac.uk

• The Crafts Council is the national agency for contemporary crafts. The Crafts Council aims to position the UK as the best place in the world for making, seeing and collecting contemporary craft.

• The Crafts Council is funded by Arts Council England. The Arts Council works to get more art to more people in more places by developing and promoting the arts across England and acting as an independent body at arm’s length from government. For 2006 to 2008, Arts Council England have six priorities: taking part in the arts, children and young people, the creative economy, vibrant communities, internationalism and celebrating diversity.

*Visitor Information *

• Out of the Ordinary is at the V&A from 13 November 2007 to 17 February 2008.

• Admission is free.

For further press information about the exhibition please contact Alex Bratt in the V&A press office on 0207 942 2500. A selection of high resolution images is available to download from www.image.net.