Maker on maiden voyage

Ice Cap, Svalbard, 2004

The Crafts Council is supporting maker Tracey Rowledge to be a part of the next Cape Farewell expedition that sets sail in September 2008.

Tracey is a maker whose work includes bookbinding, and 2008 will be the first year a craft maker has been selected to join this significant project. It reflects the changing status of contemporary craft within the visual arts and recognises the importance of a contribution from artists within this field to a unique cultural project.

David Buckland created Cape Farewell in 2001 to instigate a cultural response to climate change. Cape Farewell brings together leading artists, writers, scientists, educators and media for a series of expeditions into the wild and challenging High Arctic. The artists then create human scale responses to the global issue of climate change.

The inclusion this year of Tracey Rowledge and potter Julian Stair is the first time makers have been invited on the expedition. It builds on a dialogue Cape Farewell has already started with contemporary craft following the Blossom installation in 2007, by ceramic artist Clare Twomey at the Eden Project, a partner organisation of Cape Farewell.

Artists on the Cape Farewell 2008 expedition include musicians Laurie Anderson, Vanessa Carlton, Jarvis Cocker, Leslie Feist, Robyn Hitchcock, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Martha Wainwright, beatboxer Shlomo, poet Lemn Sissay, comedian Marcus Brigstock, artists Kathy Barber, David Buckland, Sophie Calle, Michèle Noach, Tracey Rowledge, Julian Stair, architect Sunand Prasad, engineer Francesca Galeazzi, composer Jonathan Dove, theatre makers Mojisola Adebayo, Xialou Guo and Suzan Lori Parks, oceanographers Simon Boxall, Emily Venables and geoscientist Carol Cotterill.

“This exciting opportunity is unbelievably timely for me, as I’m going through a challenging period within my practice. I feel I’ve been handed the chance to reflect, explore and really push my practice. I’ll be stepping out of my studio and out of my discipline: bookbinding. I will be in a place where I can engage with other creative individuals and scientists and from the experience, add to the voices speaking through the arts about climate change.”
Tracey Rowledge

Tracey’s presence on the expedition will engage craft with other disciplines and continue the Crafts Council’s aim to place craft in new contexts. Her experience will feed into the programme that the Crafts Council is developing for mid-career makers, ensuring that makers are supported at every stage in their careers.

Tracey studied Fine Art at Goldsmith’s College and Fine Bookbinding and Conservation at Guildford College of Further and Higher Education. Her work explores the relationship between process and spontaneity. Images of unconscious scribbles and markings are painstakingly recreated using traditional bookbinding and gilding techniques. The effortless appearance of the work belies their carefully crafted construction.

“The Crafts Council supports Cape Farewell in its bid to highlight the issue of climate change in such an innovative and thought-provoking way. We hope that Tracey’s inclusion will not only provide her with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity but will inform how the Crafts Council works with other creative disciplines and how we can support established makers to move their practice forward in new and exciting ways.”
Rosy Greenlees, Executive Director, Crafts Council

“Due to the process of physical making, craft is probably the most pragmatic of the art forms. I am totally intrigued and excited as to how two very different and highly skilled practitioners will respond to the cold and awesome beauty of the Arctic. Due to climate change, this powerful and fragile environment is threatened, Tracey Rowledge and Julian Stair have been chosen to each react and bring their own vision to what is a global challenge. This is the first time we have invited craft based artists on a Cape Farewell expedition and their contribution to our efforts to find creative solutions to the worldwide challenge of climate change is sure to bring a new and welcome dialogue.”
David Buckland, Cape Farewell

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For further information please contact Jill Read, Press Officer, Crafts Council, telephone 020 7806 2549 or email media@craftscouncil.org.uk

For further information on Cape Farewell please contact Hannah Bird, telephone 020 7620 6235 or email hannahbird@capefarewell.com

Notes to Editors

• Cape Farewell pioneers the cultural response to climate change. Working internationally, they bring artists, scientists and communicators together to stimulate the production of art founded in scientific research. Using creativity to innovate, Cape Farewell engage artists for their ability to evolve and amplify a creative language, communicating on a human scale the urgency of the global climate challenge. Cape Farewell is widely acknowledged to be the most significant sustained artistic response to climate change anywhere in the world. Created by artist David Buckland, Cape Farewell has led a series of expeditions into the Arctic exploring the seas that hold the key to understanding the changes in our weather patterns and climate.

• Follow the expedition live at www.capefarewell.com

• Cape Farewell is working with an expanding group of partners, including the Eden Project, Southbank Centre, British Council and the Barbican to bring its cultural work to a national and international audience at this critical time for the planet. Cape Farewell is grateful for the support of Arts Council England

• 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.

• For more information visit www.craftscouncil.org.uk

• The Crafts Council is supported by Arts Council England.