Maya Selway's Metalpleater
Still from Metalpleater
Silversmith Maya Selway gives visitors to Cockpit Arts open studios a new slant on silvermaking in Metalpleater, a short film showing at the studios on 20 and 21 June
Metalpleater is the result of a collaboration between Maya Selway and filmmaker Charlotte Prodger. The two were introduced by the Craft Council’s Madelaine Furness as Prodger was looking for a silversmith to help her bring to life a short story she had written about a fictional tool, the metalpleater. ‘We had to work out together how best to create a physical manifestation of the machine’, explains Selway. The result is a short film which gradually exposes this strange, slightly ambiguous machine, and in the process reveals a lot about silversmithing too.
The film was commissioned by Artangel and realised as part of TAZ, the Temporary Autonomous Zone project designed to encourage experimentation. And it has done just that, as the process of working with someone outside her field has forced Selway to re-appraise the way she works. ‘It was a really positive experience and has shown me the value of playing with materials and allowing an element of chance into my work, as every stage of the project was experimental,’ she says.
www.mayaselway.com
