Fast Company

Artists Turn A Craft Fair Into A Laboratory For New Materials

Margaret Rhodes — Fri, 24 May 2013 21:30:00 GMT

At this year’s COLLECT: The International Art Fair for Contemporary Objects, in London, few things are what they seem.

Translating an artist’s vision into logic, or even plain English, is difficult. Modes of self-expression work in mysterious ways. So it would follow that the recent Crafts Council’s COLLECT: The International Art Fair for Contemporary Objects show would be a house of riddles. Instead, it was a veritable greenhouse of experiments with new materials. The show comprised of 32 international galleries, hailing from nearby, in the U.K., Scandinavia, Belgium, Germany, and The Netherlands, as well as far flung countries such China, Japan, and South Korea. Whereas other concurrent art fairs, like this year’s Frieze, showcase provocative images, COLLECT focuses on provocative craft.

For example, the artist and silversmith David Clarke, distorts how we perceive everyday tools such at cutlery. By upcycling metal materials, and creating decorative, but typically less functional pieces, he’s created an Alice in Wonderland scene of objects that have personality but don’t quite work.

Fast Company

Artists Turn A Craft Fair Into A Laboratory For New Materials

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