houseplace @ Blackwell, the Arts & Crafts House
In January 2016, I undertook a residency at Blackwell, The Arts & Crafts House which is situated on the banks of Lake Windermere in the English Lake District. Organised by The Craft Potter’s Association and Lakeland Arts and funded by The Headley Trust, I was able to spend time in the house - researching, absorbing, and becoming familiar with this extraordinarily beautiful dwelling, designed by MH Baillie Scott and built as a holiday home for the Holts, a Manchester brewing family, in 1900.
Chris Keenan
London, England
envisaging wet Edwardian summer afternoons when perhaps the most entertaining thing to do might be.....a jigsaw. That was the genesis of this interactive piece in the White Drawing Room – a space full of monochromatic surface details which are echoed by the assortment of tiles. Please make a picture and upload an image.
this henge-like piece is a memorial to Joseph Holt (son of Edward Holt, for whom Blackwell was built) who was killed at the age of 33 in WW1. There are 33 hollow but fully enclosed pieces and the title comes from a line in the WW1 song Hush, Here Comes A Whizzbang….. ‘And you’ll see all the wonders of no-man’s land, If a whizzbang hits you’
pursuing a desire to use actual motifs from the house this group of functional pots uses bespoke ceramic transfers taken from William de Morgan’s Anemone tiles which can be seen in the fireplace in the newly-refurbished bedroom.
these functional pieces make abstract reference to the decorative use of flora throughout the house. The bowls and beakers have no base and allow the hand to travel from rim to rim across the glazed surface. The monochrome glaze contrasts Baillie Scott’s use of colour in the dining room.
houseplace – encompasses a gilded copper, maple-wood plinth and numerous small bowls that each revolve around their own axis. The piece reflects the repoussé copper lampshades above. The close proximity of the bowls to one another and its all-round instability give houseplace a distinctive and potentially disconcerting percussive quality.
a response to Baillie Scott’s fondness (present in his designs for both houses and gardens) for the idea of emerging from darkness into light. The way the pots are glazed also serves the dual purpose of echoing the shapes of the fells observed through the window behind.