12 artists crafting experimental installations at Collect

9 February 2022

From wire landscapes to fragmented globes

9 February 2022

Laura Quinn, Tacit Dimension I, Glass, silicone, 2021. Photo: Sylvain Deleu

With Collect art fair returning to Somerset House this year, we take a look at the artists invited to create installations as part of the Collect Open programme, the event's platform for pioneering craft installations by individuals and collectives.

Tal Batit, Israel

Israeli designer Tal Batit first showed work at Collect Open in 2020. He returns for the 2022 edition, with his work Smile!, depicting a pop culture-inspired giant ceramic yellow smile, which he hopes will bring happiness back to visitors after a period of collective difficulty.

batitstudio.com

Amélie Crépy and Jacqueline James

A seven-metre-long stretch of woven textile forms the centrepiece of this blue-hued installation by UK-based artists Amélie Crépy and Jacqueline James. Titled The Alchemy of Blue, the custom-dyed textile installation is made from natural fibres, including wool, silk and linen dyed in woad and indigo. It is designed to reflect their concerns around the mass production of textiles.

handwovenrugs.co.uk; ameliecrepy.com

Tal Batit, Smile!, porcelain, ceramic. Photo: Anatoly Krinitzky
Jacqueline James and Amélie Crépy, The Alchemy of Blue (detail of hand-woven textile), 100 % natural British wool, silk, ramie, bamboo, hemp and linen dyed with indigo, 2021. Photo: Agata Pec

Robert George

Wood artist Robert George has an encyclopedic knowledge of the UK’s trees, through his experience as an arborist. He draws on this when creating his sculptures, using a mixture of storm-felled oak and saw-felled sycamore, turned on a lathe and worked using traditional hand tools. At Collect, he will present a series entitled Simmer Down, which features tactile surfaces designed to pay homage to the trees he has taken from.

@robert_george_studio

Jemma Gowland

Kent-based ceramic artist Jemma Gowland has looked into the average lifespan of women in the UK and examined whether or not this figure changes based on the conditions of a person's upbringing. The result is a series of ceramic figures that explore the formative experience, each complete with delicate clothes and dolls' faces cast in porcelain.

jgowland.com

Robert George Website, Simmer Down I, bleached sycamore, scorched oak, 2020. Photo: Gavin Wallace
Jemma Gowland, I Don't Like Mondays, ceramic, layered stoneware and porcelain, fired dressmaker's pins, 2021. Photo: Karen Bengall

Sharon Griffin and Wayne Chisnall

Another artist duo, made up of Telford-based Sharon Griffin and Wayne Chisnall, is set to explore the pandemic through a collaborative sculpture that combines wood, metal, clay and found objects. The construction of the sculptures has formed part of the concept too, which were passed from artist to artist to work on independently as though it were part of their conversation.

sharongriffinart.com; @waynechisnall

Lucy MacDonald

Lucy MacDonald doesn’t travel far to get her materials, and uses raw Ryeland wool fleece sourced within walking distance of her studio. The Aberdeenshire-based artist combines modern design with ancient techniques to create her textile works. At Collect, she will present a series titled Seasons of the Sea, which explores themes of sustainability, traceability and identity.

@arratextiles

Sharon Griffin & Wayne Chisnall, Nail Head, glazed ceramic and found metals, 2021. Photo: Kensa Creative
Lucy MacDonald, Seasons Of The Sea 1.2, plant and indigo hand-dyed British wool, 2021. Photo: courtesy of artist

Line Nilsen

The Nordic landscape in which Line Nilsen grew up forms the basis of her works on show at Collect. Her hand-woven piece draws on the extreme absence and presence of light throughout the changing seasons, reflecting on what effect this has on the body and mind.
linenilsen.com

Caron Penney

The Gobelin weaving technique takes its name from its resemblance to the texture of woven tapestries produced by the famous French factory at Gobelins, and is what textile artist Caron Penney specialises in. Her work for Collect, The Red Line, addresses fluctuations in time, space and motion through the use of repetition and pattern.

weftfaced.com

Line Nilsen, Skog, cotton, silk, paper, linen, polyester, wood, 2021. Photo: Vanishing Point
Caron Penney, The Red Line, wool and cotton, 2022. Photo: Steve Speller

Laura Quinn

Laura Quinn, a glass artist who specialises in blowing, coldworking and lampworking, has created a body of work for Collect named Tacit Dimensions. The intricate glass pieces take inspiration from theorist Michael Polanyi’s writings on tacit knowledge – a concept that refers to an individuals abilities gained through experience, which are hard to put into words or otherwise communicate.

@lauraquinndesign

Loraine Rutt

Creating an installation that brings together her experience as a cartographer and ceramic artist, Loraine Rutt will examine how maps influence our sense of place, belonging, identity, and – in some cases – entitlement. The project will include a wall-based globe, split into 24 slices that can be arranged to display any country at its centre.

lorainerutt.com

Loraine Rutt, Fullers Earth, porcelain, 24 carat gold leaf 2021. Photo: Sylvain Deleu
Laura Quinn, Tacit Light, Glass, silicone, steel, 2021. Photo: Sylvain Deleu

Lisa Pettibone

Glass shapes will hang from a two-metre-long mobile in Lisa Pettibone’s installation, which refers to scientific concepts that have shaped our perception of the universe’s arrangement. Found objects, mirrors, crystals and rocks add to the concept, and explore ideas of gravity and the speed of light.

@lisa_pettibone

Helaina Sharpley

Rural landscapes are created in iron wire, by Yorkshire-based artist Helaina Sharpley. For Collect, her layered installation will be suspended from the ceiling of a room inside Somerset House, creating different assemblages depending on the viewpoint of the visitor.

helainasharpley.co.uk

Lisa Pettibone, Instrument of Thought: A Meditation on Matter and Light, Glass, 2021. Photo: Jason Pettibone
Helaina Sharpley, Drawn Into The Distance, Iron wire, 2021. Photo: Andy Sharp