Meltdown at Mission Gallery
Snowflake bowl, Andy Griffiths
Swansea’s Mission Gallery is showcasing work by a group of sculptors working in cast iron (until 31 October)
Meltdown aims to show what 21st-century cast iron looks like, bringing the material out of the industrial heritage and manufacturing pigeonhole and into that of contemporary art and craft. Aside from the difficulty of working with molten metal, the problem with manipulating cast is finding the correct tools. This means that a lot of sharing goes on with local centres such as Carmarthen’s West Wales School of the Arts attracting networks of makers. Many of the exhibitors showing here have connections to the school, including Andrew Griffiths who’s the head of sculptor there, and the exhibition underlines how Welsh artists are currently leading the cast iron field.
The work they produce is varied, with one-off pieces made from multipart moulds. There’s a lot experimentation going on with both the castings and materials – different metals are mixed into the irons as well as non-related materials such as textiles or ceramics and the casts are much smaller than those used industrially. It makes for a series of unexpected, complex and more ‘craft’ results, a long way from the slicker pieces produced by the likes of Anthony Gormley or Guiseppe Penone who use cast iron produced by industrial foundries.
www.missiongallery.co.uk
