National Museum of Ireland inspires students to link past and present

2 February 2021

A new generation of makers takes cues from the institution's cache of treasures

2 February 2021

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Contour earrings and pendants, Deirdre Murphy. Image: National Museum of Ireland

There’s no finer way to stir the creative soul than by exploring a museum collection – particularly when you’re given the rare privilege of holding the objects in your own hands. This was the opportunity that the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin gave a group of students from the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland (DCCI), allowing them to delve deep into its cache of treasures. The result is 97 new pieces by jewellery, goldsmithing and ceramics students that will be shown alongside the 22 historic pieces that inspired them, in the exhibition InForm, taking place online and at the museum in the spring.

Detail of the Japanese iron vase in the National Museum of Ireland's collection that influenced O’Sullivan’s necklace
Siobhán O’Sullivan’s Ouroboros Necklace. Image: National Museum of Ireland

‘Our aim was to spotlight the high calibre of craft in Ireland, and to use the Museum collections as inspiration for the next generation of makers,’ says the Museum’s metalwork curator, Edith Andrees. ‘We also wanted to bring objects to the fore that may not have been seen recently. This collaboration was a way of re-interrogating the collections, while highlighting what’s being made in Ireland today.’ The students’ choices range from scientific instruments and Asian metalwork, to a model screen by mid-century designer Eileen Gray and Irish folklife objects. Alongside these eclectic items sit the graduates’ own work, animated by sketches, craft tools and videos of the making process. ‘The project has pushed their creativity forward,’ says Eimear Conyard, DCCI’s jewellery and goldsmithing tutor. ‘You can see this both technically and from a design perspective.’

Detail, leg of bedstead from India, Bidriware with inlaid silver, which influenced Deirdre Murphy’s pendants and earrings. Image: National Museum of Ireland

Siobhán O’Sullivan’s Ouroboros Necklace takes cues from a Japanese iron vase, adorned with a dragon. ‘My aim was to make it as dynamically three-dimensional, minimal and flexible as possible, so it moves like a serpent,’ says O’Sullivan, whose neckpiece has been acquired for the museum’s collection. Deirdre Murphy’s pendants and earrings are inspired by the spiralling silver inlay of Indian bidriware, while Antonio Julio López Castro used a wooden box camera from the 1800s as the basis for a ceramic pinhole camera. ‘The personalities of the makers and their influences are both clear,’ says ceramics tutor Karen Morgan. InForm lives up to its name, shedding light on the past while revealing new talents and future making.

For more on ‘InForm’, visit the National Museum of Ireland website. The physical exhibition will begin when Covid-19 restrictions lift and the museum can reopen to the public.

Opportunities
The Golden Fleece Award - for Irish or Ireland-based craft artists

The Golden Fleece Award - for Irish or Ireland-based craft artists