Category: Interview

 

Could you tell us a bit about your experience working within Intoart? 

I have been at Intoart for 10 years now. I like working in the studio and getting ready for shows. Working with other artists, having visitors and audiences. Work makes me happy. Amazing, wonderful, marvelous, gorgeous beautiful colours. 

What are your preferred materials to work with and why?

I do drawings, blending the colours on the paper, turquoise blues and bright blues, the browns and greens. I always like pink, orangey yellow and pinky yellow. I like doing black shiny ink on tracing paper to make the pattern and then choosing the ink colours for printing.  On the screens I use the paint brushes, thin, thick and medium. I enjoy doing the squeegee. When I take the screen off, I see it’s going to be amazing and wonderful on the silk textiles.

I like making work about concerts and the theatre stage. These are my ‘Theatrical’ artworks. I look closely at my drawings, drawing the stage with browns, the dancers with black shoes. I close my eyes and imagine being at the theatre, in the audience scared of the dark and then happy when the stage lights shine. The dancers are dancing on the stage, I am hearing classical music. The dancers in my silks are like a melody.

I make my ‘Botanical’ artwork because I like to make work about flowers, laying them out on the table, drawing and making prints. Screen printing on paper and on silk textiles.

 

What do you enjoy about the process of collaborating with a company like John Smedley?

I have made new drawings and chosen new colours. It’s exciting.

 

In what way is creating work that will ultimately be worn different to your usual creative practice?

I do make my own costumes. I wear my costumes, it’s like I am wearing a uniform. [For this collaboration] I like seeing my artwork on clothes, and other people wearing my drawings.

 

What is inspiring you at the moment?

My work for knitwear is about the picked flowers and the botanical garden.

 

What are you looking forward to working on next?

In the future I want to be making more costumes and outfits. If I make lots of costumes, it looks like I am doing a catwalk. Fresh music and bright lights. 

 

Intoart’s studio is located in the heart of Peckham.  The full time studio programme spans art, design & craft and is an alternative art school for people with learning disabilities to develop a long-term creative practice. Intoart has realised exhibitions and commissions with contemporary art galleries and museums in the UK and internationally. 

www.intoart.org.uk  @intoart_uk

Image Credits:

Artworks – Botanical Hand painted and printed silk textiles. Courtesy of the artist and Intoart

Portrait – Photographer credit Alun Callender

How did you first discover your passion for glass?

Back in 2014, when I was a 20-year-old sophomore at the China Academy of Art, I visited an international glass exhibition in Hangzhou. I was deeply impressed by the material and its many possibilities. I decided to give it a try and I never looked back.

 

 

What is it about glass that makes it so suited to exploring ‘themes of environment, emotions, and personal experiences’?

For me, glass is inclusive, colourful, and has many possibilities. It is not only a material, but also a means to express myself.

The qualities of transparency and translucency provide glass with great potential to express ideas. Colour and shape convey emotion, thus manifesting an atmosphere through the expansion of colour boundaries. I combine colour blocks and abstract forms – reflections and impressions of my experiences, which have gradually condensed over time. I work at adjusting the balance between colour harmony and forms, going back and forth between my own initial paintings and the final glass work, contemplating how colour interactions can work.

Atmospheric phenomena often manifest as optical phenomena, caused by interactions between the light of the Sun or Moon with elements in the air. Many artists, including myself, take inspiration from this and seek to capture it. Some artists aim to reproduce this visually, through pigments and immersive spacial installations, whereas I chose to explore it through the attributes of three-dimensional glass objects, and through effects obtained via techniques that change colour and opacity.

 

 

How do new ideas emerge for you and what is the process for developing them into finished pieces?

I get inspiration from individual experiences such as my travels, my family relationships, people around me, the place I live, etc. And after that, my primary research method comprises studio-based personal experimentation with painting, varied applications of colour and density, as well as combinations and distributions of colour across the form. I undertake tests to explore how the appropriate levels of opacity and transparency might be achieved.

Atmospheric phenomena are further explored outside the studio, where I reorganise my memory and my written poetry to translate the intangible and sublime qualities of atmosphere into a new expressive language through the medium of glass. The interplay between imagination, observation, memory, and atmosphere are contextually entwined with colour theory, aesthetic research, and the descriptive language of the sublime.

What are you in the process of exploring through your PhD at the Royal College of Art and where do you hope it will take you?

I came back to London in 2023 to resume my PhD after my Artist-in-Residency in China. My current research by practice seeks to ascertain how qualities of atmospheric and sublime phenomena can be expressed through hot glass. In particular, the question of how ethereal and intangible qualities of atmospheric phenomena can be revealed, physically captured, and translated into hot glass, to effectively convey novel and personal meaning. In so doing, I hope my research shall provoke new understandings.

Which other artist-makers do you admire?

There are so many artists/makers that I admire. Such as J.M.W. Turner and Mark Rothko whose atmospheric paintings and boundaries of colour inform my practice and research. I am also inspired by the concept of vast and infinite space in the traditional Chinese paintings of Ma Yuan. The installations of James Turrell, Olafur Eliasson and Antony Gormley also provide strong theoretical framing and contextual reference to me.

 

 

How will you be celebrating Chinese New Year?

This question brings memories of my past three years’ experience in China; any description is underwhelming. Prior to 2020, no matter the distance our family will always be whole during the festive holidays. But still it was always a special experience for me. My last Chinese New Year in London was in 2019. Time is like a slow boat, bringing me back to London after four years. I am enjoying everything that is happening – there is a lot to look into, and I believe life is an Unknown Journey.

Zhao Jinya is represented by Ting-Ying Gallery and her work can be seen at Connolly in Mayfair until 17th Feb 2023.

info@ting-ying.com
www.ting-ying.com
@connolly

Photo credit: Wang Zhi

How does it feel to steam bend wood and what feeling do you think it brings to its eventual owners’ homes?

Every single steam-bent piece brings me so much pride. Every bend furthers my respect for the sustainable wood that we use – it delights me that I’m able to reflect the beauty of our Cornish surroundings in a lighting or homeware design, whilst using an ecological method that’s kind to the planet. I love to think that this mesmerising moment is replicated when our customers open their box and take out their newest design at home. The beauty of our scandi-inspired designs is timeless joy – it never loses that feeling of being special.

 

 

You aim to operate a circular design chain by 2024. Could you tell us a bit about the key changes that will involve?

We believe design can be a force for change. Crafting heirlooms of the future, our goal is to make superior quality pieces that are loved, used, and stand the test of time. These heirlooms of the future are the anti-dote to over consumption and as well as sharing this message as loud as we can, we also want to continue to improve the way we work. Along this journey we are looking to prevent the creation of waste and pollution, circulate products and materials for future use, whilst helping to regenerate nature. We are making good progress, but we need all businesses to focus on reshaping our economy and protecting the planet. 

 

What do you think it will take for circular design to become the norm?

I think accountability is the biggest hurdle we are facing at the moment. Plenty of companies, big and small, have proven change can be made to create sustainable, circular design, but we need everyone to take a step back, rethink their processes and be innovative to implement positive change. 

 

 

What role does craft play in your household over the festive period?

Right from when I opened my first tool belt at 7 years old on Christmas morning, the woodworking spark began. To me, nothing shows care more than handmade gifts, and that is why crafting is so dear to the festive period. Whether my children are drawing on Christmas cards, or I am in the workshop working on gifts for loved ones, a handmade gift is from the heart and is a piece of you. 

 

 

Where will you be sourcing your conscious gifts this Christmas?

I’m a big advocate of ‘buy better, buy less’. Every year, I make a mindful effort to gift from small, local companies who carry a sustainable ethos that aligns with my own. Grabbing a hot chocolate from my local café and exploring the great gifts found in various Cornish towns has become part of my Christmas tradition. It’s always nice to chat to fellow small business owners, and I will continue to support them whenever I can.

Your work features on the cover of the new book ‘Craft Britain: Why Making Matters’. Could you tell us a bit more about the piece and why you think it was chosen?

The book is full of so many people I have a great deal of respect for and I’m sure a lot of their work would have looked great on the cover, so it’s just lovely to have been chosen for this spot. These pieces are slightly otherworldly and really question our notion and take on craft.  Many would question that if something is made without the hand is it even craft? I love the fact that Chislett and Linley are open to exploring the evolution of making, including the tools and methods that craftspeople use. The book itself covers traditional methods of making all the way through to the most advanced technological methods, and these vessels demonstrate that journey from traditional to contemporary that is outlined in the book.

 

 

How does your experience as a maker feel during the process of 3D printing raw sand compared to working hands-on with wood?

What’s so wonderful about the process of printing directly from the computer is the ability to see what you think it’s going to look like prior to committing precious material and resources to its existence. The process is not only exciting, but gives me a real sense of freedom as anything is possible. The added bonus is that you can make endless variations with a few small detail changes. The piece’s form can be evolved by tweaking the drawings until we think we have something really special. From this point I make small prints to evaluate them in the flesh, though this is all divorced from the hand-making process, I get a great deal of satisfaction and pleasure from this ability to respond and not get caught up in the problems of (hand) making, this also frees me up to keep making in the wood workshop on new and experimental works. We will have a collection of wooden objects and sand vessels on display at the open studio to give people a flavour of the variety of work that goes on here at the studio.

 

 

A private client gets in touch regarding a new commission. What’s going to get you excited?

It’s not always the project itself that gets me excited but the type of client. If they love an element within my portfolio and are open to me and my creativity then this is how the best relationships are usually forged. However, I would love a project that worked with a magical and very traditional space where the client was keen to be respectful to its traditions but to put it strikingly on the contemporary map. I would also be interested in collaborating with an architect on a new build, totally developing a space and imagining what could be.   

 

You have an experimental practice and have talked about pushing the limits of what’s possible to create your ‘dream piece’ with the SIO2 ‘1755’. Where do you go from there? 

For the past year, I have been experimenting with recycled plastic and 3d printing polymer with a robot arm, through creating complex models that are inspired by the movements found in traditional craft techniques such as willow weaving and crochet. We have developed new and unique methods for using these tools to build complex open weave forms and structures. Some of the experimental samples from this recycled plastic project will be on show during the festive open studio over the weekend (26th of November) but to see the final things you will have to wait until 2023. 

 

You are hosting your own Festive Open Studio this week; what other cultural happenings have caught your eye across the capital for this winter? 

There are always brilliant cultural events happening across London, whether they are exhibitions, talks, shows there really is something for everyone. In the craft world we see the creation of more maker’s markets each winter, and more open studios taking place with the lead up to Christmas. These are a great place for creatives to show and sell their work across the capital. They are also a reassuring reminder in the number of people who are still making or starting their making career. An exhibition we are excited to see is ‘The Carpenters’ Line: Woodworking Heritage in Hida Takayama’ at Japanese House.

Gareth hosts his festive open studio at 57a Lawford Road on Saturday 26 November, 11am-3pm.

 

Image credits:

Si02 Twisted Pair Sand Vessel – photo by James Champion

Gareth making the Zaha Vessels – photo by Petr

It’s the second week of Goldsmiths’ Fair, where 136 makers bring together ancient techniques with modern day technologies, from wire work to 3D printing, traditional goldsmithing to intricate engraving.

Exhibiting for the second year this year is young-silversmith Annabel Hood. Part of the Craftmasters family, Annabel creates contemporary silverware designed for the home, which uses surface decoration – including hand engraving, chasing and etching – to prompt conversations on important issues, from visual impairment to climate change.

While at the Fair, we spoke to Annabel about what she will be showing this year and the inspiration behind her latest pieces.

You are currently exhibiting at Goldsmiths’ Fair, can you tell us a little bit about what you are showing there and in particular the series of pieces that explore patterns and formations relating to rock erosion and melting glaciers?

In 2018 I camped on The Outer Hebrides, which coincided with two hurricanes off the coast of America; the 80 mile-an-hour winds soon hit Harris and I was almost blown away! I spent the rest of my holiday thinking about how extreme weather affects our environment. My research into land and glacial erosion brought me to Tom Hegen’s breathtaking aerial photography and his Two Degrees Celsius series has been the main inspiration behind my designs. The dramatic contrast of the turquoise flowing ice melt over pristine white glaciers spoke to me and hand engraving really lends itself to this; when the light catches the engraving it looks like flowing water. The centrepiece of the collection is a silver tea set which resulted from conversations I had with Glaciologist Prof. Peter Nienow over a cup of tea. In Britain having a cup of tea and putting the world to rights is something we are famous for! I like to create functional pieces that can start a conversation.

 

 

What prompted you to explore this subject through your silversmithing practice and how do you see conversations around sustainability relating to craft?

I have always focused on making pieces that are not only beautiful and functional but have a story or message. I am dyslexic, so am aware that not everybody absorbs data in the same way. I wanted to create an accessible visual catalyst to start discussion about the issues I was trying to raise on several levels: the endangering of our environment, and trying to create a circular economy where we can.

It is extremely difficult to be completely sustainable in our craft; much of our industry’s materials come from mining. As climate change is the reason for the inspiration behind my glacial flow series I decided to use 100% recycled silver and Scottish bog oak in this collection, attempting to create as small a footprint as I could. Making my practice more sustainable is a continuous evolution, but worth the effort.

Who or what has been your greatest inspiration?

That is a very difficult question! I don’t think I am ever inspired by just one thing – many different types of artists and designers influence my practice. I think one of my biggest inspirations from my time at school is Katie Paterson. Katie’s work intersects the Science / Art border regularly, which I find fascinating. I vividly remember attending a lecture in Cambridge where she was discussed her Osram Moonlight and Space projects; I was stunned by her ability to visually show ideas that were complex and powerful. Looking back at my work in the last ten years it too has revolved around such issues, from deforestation to the visually impaired. I am always astounded and inspired by what Katie creates, learning about her Future Library project reduced me to tears.

 

 

Are there any particular works at the Fair that you have found especially inspiring in terms of style or technique?

I am always drawn to pieces of work that I look at and think ‘how on earth was that done’! My favourite book is Alice in Wonderland and I think anyone who has an imagination that challenges their practice is inspirational. In past fairs I have been drawn to Nan Nan Liu’s work and how she uses wire to bring her drawings to life. Her candlesticks and menorah blew me away; it is incredible work, particularly the way in which she has soldered all of the wires together so flawlessly. This year I have found Andrew Lamb’s work very inspiring; having his stand next to mine I have been able to  look very closely at his work and it is amazing how he draws down wire to 0.3mm to create incredibly intricate designs. Artists like these who challenge their drawings to become phenomenal pieces inspire me to push my own drawings harder and, in a slightly mad way, push some boundaries in my practice.

What are you looking forward to working on in the year ahead? 

Having completed the tea set I feel a sense of closure on my Glacial Flow series, I have enjoyed working on it the last three years immensely. There are still a couple of pieces I would like to make in the series, including exploring how I could include enamel.

I am looking forward to next year developing my work not just in style but in theme. I am planning on taking a break somewhere quiet where I can focus on some sketchbook work that will inform the next body of work. Dorothy Hogg always reinforced the importance of drawing to my lecturer at the ECA, Susan Cross who in turn encouraged our sketchbook work. I am looking forward to developing my drawings and exploring them in new ways that will inspire my next collection. I would also like to improve my engraving and learn a couple of new styles which I can use in my work.

Annabel Hood is currently exhibiting at Stand 14 at Goldsmiths’ Fair, which runs until 9 October 2022.

 

Can you tell us a little bit about what you will be showing at The Italian Glass Weeks this year, and any new materials or techniques you have used to create these works?

This year I will be showing some of my largest work so far, inspired by Roman columns. All unique pieces, free hand blown, some engraved with different linear patterns. I love the idea of people interacting more with glass by touching it, sitting on it, being creative with it. Glass is a soft and smooth material and strangely has a warm and sensual feel to it. I have also danced freely with other type of sculptures, using very thick fascias of texturised glass. I love to use classical Venetian techniques in my work, there are so many interesting ones that are really worth being preserved.

What have been your main inspirations for this latest body of work?

I spent most of last year in Rome walking around the Roman Forums and looking at these amazing skeletons of the past. Architecture is fascinating, especially when it’s been consumed and aged by time and the natural elements. The way stone and marble react and change their textures and shapes, how they break or chip without ever losing their solidity and grace. With my larger sculptures I wanted to reproduce the feeling of walking in an Archaeological site made of glass elements. Transparent ‘ghosts’ of age and time. My other inspirations came from little elements of which nature is rich: insects.

 

Image: Alice Diaz de Santillana, Stili I, 2021. Free Hand Blown Glass, Engraved. Murano, Italy, 46 x 30cm. Courtesy of Alice Diaz de Santillana and Elizabeth Royer S.R.L.

You have mentioned before that you’ve drawn on skills that you’ve learned in Haute Couture — can you tell us a little more about this and the way it has influenced your practice?

I found so many similarities between Haute Couture and traditional glass making. The importance of teamwork and patience, every little detail is made with so much attention and it is always a collaboration of great knowledge, meaning also lots of tricks for special effects, and I find that fascinating. Glass is a very fragile element, like Couture fabrics, laces and embroidery, but with good care these materials can last for centuries. The transparencies, the illusion of lightness, the plastic three dimensionality that is achieved by layering different types of fabric often times resembles the process of glassmaking. 

You come from a great legacy of artists and designers in glass, but clearly bring your own creativity and style to the medium; is there a dream project that you would like to realise or a new experiment in glass that has yet to be tried?

There are so many experiments that I am looking forward to working on. The next project will definitely be a large installation, as I am very intrigued by the idea of working around the concept of space, bringing more architectural elements into my work. I would love to create something for the outdoors as well, glass and nature are quite an interesting combination. I am very respectful of materials and history, I don’t feel an urge to push the material to necessarily create new things. I prefer to work around the idea of bridging past techniques with modern necessities, in order to create objects or sculptures that are free of the concept of time. 

What are you most looking forward to at The Italian Glass Weeks?

I am always most curious about what the younger artists have created, how they are able to be quite free in their approach to the material, sometimes creating very interesting pieces that feel fresh and new. It’s always interesting to see how the past is perceived and interpreted with an eye towards the future. I like to see how a really old practice can be given a new life by a fresh perspective. I am also intrigued by the contamination that glass will have with other media, other materials. And of course, I want to see the big Venini light installations at Le Stanze del Vetro. My ancestors are always a great source of inspiration for me.

The Italian Glass Weeks take place in Milan from 10-18 September and Venice, 17-25 September 2022.