Disobedient: London Craft Week 2021

Ruup & Form explores wearable sculptures with makers who are disobedient to their material, whether by material, technique or presentation. These artists use their medium to address political, ecological and personal dialogues through works that would look good either on you or displayed as art. Participating artists are Alise Kennedy, Annette Marie Townsend, Beatrice Mayfield, Bridget Harvey, Claire Malet, Eva van Kempen, Eva Fernandez Martos, Jed Green, Jessica Jue, Katherine James, Lifu Zhou, Lynne Speake, LOT Collective, Melissa Hampson Smith, Naomi McIntosh, Sarah Pulvertaft and Rachael Colley Ruup & Form is a carefully curated collection of effortless aesthetics and unique contemporary crafted objects. Since its inception in 2019, they have worked with emerging, mid-career and established contemporary makers, nationally and internationally. Every work is handmade, unique and personal. They specialise in contemporary textile, ceramics, glass, wood, paper and interdisciplinary works. Ruup & Form believes craft and design in all its forms demonstrates creativity, ingenuity and practical intelligence. It contributes to the economic and social wellbeing of communities, connects us to our cultural histories, and is integral to building a sustainable future. Their mission is to grow on this principle and do it with makers that they love.

For more  information, interviews and visuals contact

Varuna Kollanethu

+44 (0) 7414747677

varuna@ruupandform.com

www.ruupandform.com

#ruupandform #meditationinmaterial

Annette Townsend creates ‘Creep’ Townsend looks intimately at her own relationship with nature, through a series of common daisies, hand sculpted from beeswax and arranged in the form of a chain necklace. The flowers are worn close around the throat and the roots twine downwards until they touch a long surgical scar which runs the length of the artist’s spine. The hyper realist sculpture carries interwoven narratives of perfection, imperfection, beauty and value. It speaks of the power of the natural world, our attempt to manipulate it and its ability to heal us.

Sarah Pulvertaft is fascinated by the repetition in nature, forms that are same but minutely different, the meditative quality of the build-up of many thousands or millions of these elements in, like the field of wheat. She uses traditional jewellery making techniques to create pieces in silver and gold. She is fascinated by kinetic jewellery since her student days, repeated and articulating elements are recurrent themes in her work. Sarah incorporates movement wherever possible, creating undulating surfaces and an element of surprise in her pieces.

Beatrice Mayfield is interested in exploring what textile jewellery can be, questioning how pieces are worn and where there are cross overs between garments & jewellery. Hand embroidery techniques are always at the centre of these designs, creating the texture & colour, normally provided by precious metals and gems. She explores the use of nonprecious & unconventional materials to create heirlooms of the future.

Jed Green is constantly searching for new ways to express her creativity and inspirations in glass. She is inspired by the idea of using an inexpensive everyday material and turning it into something unique and precious.

Jed designs and makes jewellery using a variety of materials including glass, silver, gold, wood, paint, pearls, stainless steel, and paper to create innovative contemporary and exclusively handmade, one-off pieces. From clear, hollow borosilicate glass tubes various shapes are lamp worked, carved and cut to form various shapes. Moving pieces or clusters of these are linked together by drilling and pinning. Colour is applied by painting the interior of the glass wall and applying handmade transfers to pattern the outside. Her recent collection incorporates precious metals as an integral part of the work. As well as setting silver wires into the carved glass she has now included gold elements to add warmth and colour. The concept of creating microenvironments has become more sophisticated developing three-dimensional collages, using material, pattern and form.

LOT is a collaborative project between three makers, the jewellers Sarah Pulvertaft and Jed Green and embroiderer Beatrice Mayfield. Their work is united through an importance of materiality, an interest in pattern, a thoughtful use of colour and movement. Each of them imaginatively transforms raw materials into beautifully crafted, wearable objects.

Alise Kennedy works with repurposed textiles and precious metal. She enjoys the potential of repurposed textiles for dramatic colour and texture, their ability to convey a three-dimensional form by cutting and shaping, and the way they retain visual traces of contact with the wearer. Denim is particularly expressive in this respect. Using denim from discarded jeans adds a layer of narrative to the jewellery. She also work with cloth that has been handwoven from organic fibres which has a distinctive weight and weave. Her jewellery reframes denim, transforming it into tactile jewellery that has an emotional connection for the wearer evoking memories and textures and inspiring interpretations.

Claire Malet In Our Hands 3 , “This piece continues to explore the relationship we have with the natural environment; making the link between the materials we use and too often undervalue. The organic environment from which we take them. In this piece the flower is a brooch which can be removed from its ‘environment’, worn and returned. An altar of sorts, a memorial."

Eva Van Kempen In the process of healing from a serious disease goldsmith Eva van Kempen became fascinated by what manmade medical materials and medicine can mean for a human life, and for humanity as a whole. Driven by an urge to reanimate safe hospital waste - out of date intravenous systems, syringes, and expired medicine - Eva van Kempen aims to honour and restore these discarded materials to what they could have meant. Designed for the human body, Van Kempen proves these materials have the perfect scale to become jewels. The works invite the viewer to look with new eyes and rethink prevailing notions on medical materials, societal or even humanitarian issues.

Jessica Jue presents ‘Floral’ is a feminine and fluid collection, introducing the softness of curves through the strength of silver. The pieces capture the essence of form through the gesture of line creating unique and sculptural pieces. The way in which nature presents itself is never restrictive but runs its own course appearing uncontrolled at first sight but forming constellations when viewed in its entirety. This collection is inspired by floral details and the curvature of plants, which are pieced together into harmonic compositions. The pieces are crafted through the ancient art of hammering, while also introducing an abundance of rich surface textures, through the use of pattern and gold.

Katherine James seeks to liberate the aesthetic- language of gender identity. Her jewellery and sculpture works are made by crafting metal chainmail into intricate patterns of lace. The worn pieces range between wearable jewellery and more concept-led adornments, all grounded on the notion of a gendered materiality.

Lynne Speake is influenced by her environment, inspired and excited by things unnoticed ... erosion, peeling paint, rusting metal, colour, texture and pattern. 'Hidden works of Art just waiting to be discovered, discarded by man and shaped by mother nature's elements' , large in scale her work can often sit on the body, a plinth or the wall. Lynne loves the challenge of combining industrial discarded objects with organic finds, hand built ceramics and other special treasures. Dictated to by her materials it is always an emotional journey and one that Lynne gets lost in.For Lynne it is the journey of making that is the most important part, everything else is secondary.

Melissa Hampson-Smith is a contemporary Artist trained in Fine Art, Sculpture, Silversmithing, Carving, Performance & Environmental Science. She creates wearable navigation sculptures, Talismans containing hidden maps & secrets for the wearer. Working recycled metals with beach stones in situ on the Cornish coast, a rich Metal Mining area, she connects Earth, Moon, & Ocean. Adding raw & cut gems alongside "Future Gems" (she upscales from discarded plastics) tree resins, seeds, found things, & vintage finds.

Naomi Mcintosh - Soundscape Through materials and making, working primarily with wood, Naomi Mcintosh creates specific environments and feelings about spaces. Different woods can tell a narrative through grain, colour and form. With the movement when worn, the pieces shift and change as do the ways that volumes, patterns, planes and forms are seen and objects are created that have life and resonance. This group of work considers how objects can respond to place, though sound and materials. By combining two dimensional surfaces, spatial structures are made using circles as a form to make a record of sounds from landscape.

Lifu Zhou looks for common, recyclable materials. Through the exploration of materials, he finds the characteristics and possibilities of materials, then inject them into his creation. During the epidemic, Lifu started to experiment with food and spices readily available in his home. He uses them to imitate various crystals and minerals.

Sha-green series by Rachael Colley Sha-green series presents food waste, in the form of discarded citrus fruit peel, as a biodegradable vegan alternative to the traditionally animal-based luxury decorative surface shagreen (ray or shark skin). This scented material comes alive when worn; as it is warmed by the body it emits a subtle fruity fragrance. The pieces could be seen as a form of ‘cause jewellery’, as they are designed to draw attention to issues around sustainable consumption and food waste. The jewellery's limited lifespan also serves to highlight the fleeting and complex nature of human existence and the passing of time, suggesting the ultimate end that conventional jewellery circumvents through its endurance.

Eva Fernandez presents a series of three wearable sculpture– Pins and Needles, designed from needles and pins, as an ode to her relationship with her mother and childhood memories in rural Spain.

Eva says about her work, “My first experience with a needle - was a very vivid memory for me. As the lockdown situation took a firm grip over the country, it enabled me to develop a contemplative work where ideas flowed from the process of making, repetition, doing/ undoing. The main material in the process is modified sewing needles, which have been arranged and threaded to build up ephemeral wearable pieces which relates to the idea of memories and loss.”

Bridget Harvey presents a collection of brooches and necklaces made from shard and repaired ceramics.

Irene Roca Moracia industrial waste furniture have been used in the exhibition to showcase the artwork.