Laurence Kavanagh new craft resident
Laurence Kavanagh will be the next artist to take up a six-month residency at the Sackler Centre for arts education at the V&A from July to December 2010.
Kavanagh has been selected by the Crafts Council and the V&A for his cross-disciplinary practice that combines sculpture, installation, mobiles, film and collage and will create new work throughout his residency.
Kavanagh will look at specific objects in the V&A and Crafts Council collections and create sculptural works in response. Referencing various theatrical devices, he is interested in how sculptural objects might offer a temporary, physical space between past and future, creating an altered experience for the audience.
Kavanagh’s recent work has been an investigation of ‘Magic Assemblage’; a term to describe secular magic, started in the 18th century, that includes theatre, magic lanterns, cinema and shadow puppetry. The artist describes Magic Assemblage as a point where entertainment meets and shapes modern culture, and his constructed environments provide a material language which investigates this. In exploring these environments, the viewer can become part of the work, or “the main character in their own film”.
Laurence Kavanagh said: “This residency is a unique opportunity for in-depth engagement with the collections at the V&A and the Crafts Council. Themes of time travel and re-incarnation are of specific interest to me. I intend to explore the craft of ‘automata’ as a means to physically animate sculptural objects. I intend to create an ambitious body of work during the residency using the extensive facilities, workshops and support that are provided.”
The Craft Residency is run in partnership with the Crafts Council and is part of the V&A’s Museum Residency Programme giving four artists per year the chance to have a studio in the Sackler Centre. The Museum Residency Programme is supported by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.
For further information on the Crafts Council contact Jill Read, on 020 7806 2549 or email media@craftscouncil.org.uk
For further information on the V&A contact Elinor Hughes on 020 7942 2500 or email e.hughes@vam.ac.uk
Notes to Editors
For information about the V&A’s residency programme, please visit www.vam.ac.uk/school_stdnts/education_centre/residency_programme
Previous craft residents are artist jeweller Dorothy Hogg and contemporary basketmaker Mary Butcher, 5500 people have engaged with the two craft residents.
Information about the Crafts Council
• The Crafts Council’s goal is to make the UK the best place to make, see, collect and learn about contemporary craft.
• We believe that craft plays a dynamic and vigorous role in the UK’s social, economic and cultural life.
• We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to make, see, collect and learn about craft.
• We believe that the strength of craft lies in its use of traditional and contemporary techniques, ideas and materials to make extraordinary new work.
• We believe that the future of craft lies in nurturing talent; children and young people must be able to learn about craft at school and have access to excellent teaching throughout their education.
• 11% of the UK population visited a craft exhibition in 20089/09, and 17% participated in craft activity in the same year (DCMS/ACE Taking Part data update August 2009). Taking Part is an ongoing survey being carried out by Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and Arts Council England (ACE).
• More than 2.8 million visits were made to the Crafts Council website in 2009. To find out everything you need to know about where to make, see, collect and learn about contemporary craft visit www.craftscouncil.org.uk
• The Crafts Council is supported by Arts Council England. Arts Council England works to get great art to everyone by championing, developing and investing in artistic experiences that enrich people’s lives. As the national development agency for the arts, it supports a range of artistic activities from theatre to music, literature to dance, photography to digital art, and carnival to crafts. Between 2008 and 2011, Arts Council England will invest £1.3 billion of public money from government and a further £0.3 billion from the National Lottery to create these experiences for as many people as possible across the country.
Information about the V&A’s Sackler Centre for arts education
The V&A’s Sackler Centre for arts education gives visitors the opportunity to learn from and work with some of the UK’s most talented designers and teachers, develop their own skills and to participate in workshops, talks and debates, festivals, conferences and courses. The Sackler Centre is part of the V&A’s FuturePlan to transform the Museum through new galleries and redisplays of its collection to improve visitor experience.
