Friday 11 November 2011

Surface and Substance at the CAA

Last week at the enamelling course Joan Mackarell mentioned a contemporary enamelling exhibition that was being held in the Contemporary Applied Arts gallery. I went there today, just in time too as it ends tomorrow...


It was an interesting exhibition, although I have mixed feelings about the wear-ability of many of the pieces. Well, let's say they were art jewellery, pushing the boundaries and all that. Some pieces were particularly beautiful, some were in my humble opinion just boundary pushing :-)

There were lots of matte surfaces, rough surfaces, things embedded in surfaces... I joined a group of students who were having a guided tour by the girl who works there, and she mentioned that people are a bit suspicious of matte surfaces in enamel, they don't think of them as practical or wearable, although they will still buy a brooch if it's huge but has a shiny finish. Interesting.

The gallery itself was really lovely - the exhibition was on the top level, and there were ceramics, textiles, glass and jewellery in the basement. I saw some lovely pieces of ceramics by Paul Scott, Jane Adam walked in with her Christmas jewellery collection, and I spent far too long browsing the books and magazines...

There was one book in particular which I really wanted, way too expensive though:


Inside it I discovered the work of Robin Kranitzky and Kim Overstreet which is pretty amazing. They do art brooches in mixed media, well worth a look!

I know I should probably have been at home making jewellery, but I guess that's what I'll be doing over the weekend...

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