Features

gifted

1 Dec 2006 in Visual Arts & Crafts

Created in Scotland By Hand

GEORGINA COBURN welcomes the participation of Highland and Islands artists and makers in a prestigious crafts exhibition.

NOW IN ITS second year, ‘gifted’ at the National Museums of Scotland is an important opportunity for Highlands and Islands artists and makers to promote their work in the central belt.

In resposne to advertising in the Applied Arts Scotland Bulletin, on the craftscotland website and through Craft Officer’s posts throughout Scotland, twelve makers from the region were selected by Curator Rose Watban to take part in the exhibition of “over 40 of Scotland’s most innovative and cutting edge designers”.

With an emphasis on displaying a wide range of contemporary works distinctive for their quality and imagination, this year’s exhibition includes local work by Brodie Nairn and Nicky Burns (Glasstorm, Tain), Rachel Skene (Textiles, Sutherland), Karen Livingstone (Adorable Accessories, Textiles, Nairn), Lucy Woodley (Jewellery, Tain), Veronica Newman (Ceramics, Nairn), Gilly Langton (Jewellery, Plockton), Suzanne Shearer (Textiles, Shetland), Patricia Shone (Ceramics, Isle of Skye), Shaija Walia (Textiles, Oban), Laura West (Book Binding, Isle of Skye) and Andrea Williamson (Textiles, Shetland). 

The combination of traditional skills with contemporary design is one of the defining features of the exhibition, and demonstrated in the work of Sutherland artist Rachel Skene. The creation of works on a 16 shaft floor loom using fibres such as silk, viscose ribbon, suede and wool to explore tension, pattern and rhythm expand our ideas about traditional hand weaving.

What is most striking about the artist’s work is the abstract concept of design governing each piece, the exploration of rhythm not only in the act of weaving but its visual translation into the finished work.

The result is the production of cloth that is dynamic in its visual effect, utilising what the maker describes as “scale and colour”, “repeating patterns and patterns which repeat on different scales”…“to create interplay between warp and weft yarns”. The feel of the cloth itself is luxurious, especially those pieces incorporating silk, and is ideally suited to the production of exclusive one-off fashion or interior accessories.
 
The work of Tain glass artists Brodie Nairn and Nicky Burns has previously been represented at Museums of Scotland, DCA and The Lighthouse, Scotland’s Centre for Architecture and Design. Showcasing unique art works and a range of contemporary functional glassware Glasstorm also succeed in expanding our expectation about their chosen medium. Nicky described the positive promotion of contemporary craft through the Museum of Scotland who print cards for all makers involved to be distributed during the high profile event.

This is particularly important to Highlands and Islands makers who have few opportunities to sell and promote work on this “scale and quality”.

“It is great to feel part of an increasingly buoyant craft scene”. She added: “I would hope that Scotland creates only the highest quality juried/ curated art fairs and exhibitions (like this showing in Edinburgh). We must aim long-term to promote Scottish makers on a national and international level. If we all raise the bar, with this I mean the makers and the various organisations; the crafts field can only continue to thrive and in turn raise the profile of Scotland as a whole.”
 
Prices range from £6.50 to £350, making the showcase commercially accessible to the public, especially over the festive season. Giving the public the opportunity to choose original gifts made in Scotland makes an attractive alternative to the High Street and an annual event such as this sustains high expectation.

Supporting the work of artists by placing them in a national context and in terms of excellence in design is particularly appropriate with next year’s Six Cities Design Festival across Scotland fast approaching.

The further development of regular opportunities for Highlands and Islands makers to exhibit their work in the wider context of national promotion and to celebrate the innovation of our designers internationally is of great importance to the health of cultural industries.

(gifted: CREATED IN SCOTLAND BY HAND is at the Crafts Gallery, National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, until 21 January 2007)

© Georgina Coburn, 2006

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