Deviants

‘Hello?’ (475×250×240 mm) by Richard Slee; Photo © Crafts Council Collection, 2008

Peer into the subversive world of craft

Deviants is a Crafts Council exhibition showing at Hub: National Centre for Craft & Design, Sleaford, from 26 July – 31 August 2008, followed by a UK tour.

Deviants is an exhibition of 16 curious pieces from the Crafts Council’s Collection that deviate wildly from what we think of as traditional craft. These pieces are by ten of the UK’s leading craft makers, including Jill Crowley, Carol McNicoll, Richard Slee and Hans Stofer.

All of the makers on show are highly skilled in the age-old techniques of their particular craft, yet skills in the hands of these maverick makers become utilised in very different and unusual ways.

We are presented with playful, mischievous and bizarre aberrations of familiar objects; teapots with legs, an unfurling jug, a pot with ears or a glove with 25 fingers. The ordinary becomes the extraordinary and the functional becomes the dysfunctional.

Accompanying the exhibition is an alternative gallery guide written by the Dundee-based writer and artist The Lonely Piper. Through his own musings and imaginative stories about each piece, The Lonely Piper captures the unconventional essence of these deviant objects. For him, Henry Pim’s A Pot with Ears “spies on its owner by covertly eavesdropping on conversation”, Hans Stofer’s Grape Trap “portrays a grape imprisoned for the crime of being not green enough” and Angus Suttie’s Teapot is “a painted clay celebration that’s not for the prudish of nature”

Deviants delights and disarms in equal measure and provokes many different reactions; a chuckle, a squirm, a quizzical look. Whatever the reaction, this subversive face of craft challenges us to look at objects with new eyes and set our imaginations free.



For press information and images please contact Jill Read, Press Officer, Crafts Council, Tel: +44(0) 207 806 2549 or Email: media@craftscouncil.org.uk

Notes to Editors

• Deviants is part of the Crafts Council Touring Exhibition Initiative that offers museums and galleries the opportunity to host innovative curated exhibitions showcasing the Crafts Council Collection.

• Deviants is available to hire. Please contact Cathy Stafford, Exhibitions Project Officer, Tel: +44(0)207 806 2549 or Email: c_stafford@craftscouncil.org.uk

• The Hub: National Centre for Craft & Design is the largest gallery in the UK specifically dedicated to the exhibition, celebration and promotion of national and international craft and design. Located in Sleaford, Lincolnshire, the Hub houses two gallery spaces, a craft and design shop, a cafe bar, an extensive learning programme and workshop facilities. Hosting over 12 challenging exhibitions a year within the building, the Hub has also recently initiated an international touring exhibitions programme. For more information please visit www.thehubcentre.info

• 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.

• The Crafts Council is funded by Arts Council England. The Arts Council works to get more art to more people in more places by developing and promoting the arts across England and acting as an independent body at arm’s length from government. For 2006 to 2008, Arts Council England have six priorities: taking part in the arts, children and young people, the creative economy, vibrant communities, internationalism and celebrating diversity.