World Crafts Council exhibition
Katherine Morling - Stilted Life (detail), 2010, Crank clay, porcelain, porcelain slip, black stain, silk, casters, wood, Slab and hand built. Winner of Prix de la Communauté française Wallonie-Bruxelles
British makers win plaudits at World Crafts Council exhibition
A neon glass brainwave, Royal Crown Derby with a twist and a ceramic living room are amongst the exciting new work by UK makers selected for the second European Triennial for Ceramics and Glass that takes place in Mons, Belgium, until 23 January 2011.
The European Triennial for Ceramics and Glass features exhibitions by two guest countries alongside an exhibition of Belgian makers. This year the invited guest countries are the UK and Spain. The Triennial is presented by the World Crafts Council – Belgique Francophone (WCC-BF) and aims to bring together the best contemporary craft from across Europe.
The UK exhibition was curated by potter Julian Stair who was appointed by the UK’s Crafts Council. Stair has selected ten makers that demonstrate the rich and multi-faceted nature of contemporary British ceramics and glass. The selected work ranges from functional to architectural and sculptural pieces and is ambitious and site specific.
Two British makers won plaudits from the WCC-BF jury; ceramicist Katharine Morling scooped the Triennial’s top prize – Prix de la Communauté française Wallonie-Bruxelles (Prize of the Ministry of the French Community) and glass maker Anna Dickinson received a special honorary mention from the Jury. The jury said of Morling’s life-size ceramic domestic interior “She makes a very personal use of the ceramic medium, both on a formal and a conceptual level, and translates it in a dreamlike and out of ordinary way”
Other work includes; Robert Dawson who has interpreted an aerial image of Mons through a large-scale ceramic tile installation; Kate Maestri whose glass responds to and complements architectural space by bringing light and fields of pure colour into buildings and Jessica Lloyd Jones whose blown glass sculptures merge art, science and technology.
ENDS
For more information please contact Gemma Hutchinson, Communications Assistant, Crafts Council, on T: 020 7806 2540 or email media@craftscouncil.org.uk
Notes to Editors
• The makers featured in the UK exhibition are; Neil Brownsword, Robert Dawson, Anna Dickinson, Ken Eastman, Jessica Lloyd-Jones, Kate Maestri, Katharine Morling, Keiko Mukaide, Nicholas Rena and Annie Turner.
• The World Crafts Council is a non-governmental organisation recognised by UNESCO and is made up of five regions – Asia, Africa, North America, Latin America and Europe. WCC-Europe represents 21 European countries and works closely with WCC-BF – a professional association of more than 200 designers that aims to promote contemporary applied arts in Belgium and abroad.
• The Crafts Council’s goal is to make the UK the best place to make, see, collect and learn about contemporary craft.
o We believe that craft plays a dynamic and vigorous role in the UK’s social, economic and cultural life.
o We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to make, see, collect and learn about craft.
o We believe that the strength of craft lies in its use of traditional and contemporary techniques, ideas and materials to make extraordinary new work.
o 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.
• 12% of the UK population visited a craft exhibition in 2009/10, and 18% participated in craft activity in the same year (DCMS/ACE Taking Part data update August 2010).
(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.
