Show 2015: School of Material Innovates in Materials and Methods
Following the dynamism of the Fashion Show earlier in June, the School of Material continues its display of graduate work for Show 2015 across the two campuses. All programmes exhibit, among other things, a persistent drive for innovation through new combinations of material and method, founded on a deep understanding of material and astonishing skills in both hand-making and working with new digital technologies.
Introducing this year’s show, Professor Judith Mottram, Dean of the School of Material, explained that working with material ‘demands a combination of tacit knowledge, of how things feel, alongside aesthetic discrimination, of how things look, and technical knowledge, of how to make things’. She continued: ‘There is an alchemy formed from the combination of these factors and the individual designer, maker or artist.’
Alchemy is indeed a compelling framework for thinking about the School of Material, where hand-craftsmanship meets amazing new technology and produces dazzling innovation. According to Head of Textiles, Professor Clare Johnston, students ‘think independently, critically, and adopt risky and audacious experimentation’. Speaking about Jewellery & Metal (J&M), Head of Programme Professor Hans Stofer said: ‘A lot of the work this year really looks like jewellery, in the traditional sense, but if you look closely you can see that there are many quiet revolutions going on.’
Enormous technical skill is showcased in Jewellery & Metal student Emily Goodaker’s work; inspired by a trio of minerals that she describes as ‘dalmatian jasper, polka-dot agate and minty Zoisite’, she has employed an impressive array of processes, including enamelling, electroforming, milling, plating and printing. In Textiles, Rozanna Walecki’s striking black garments combine hand-making and digital embroidery, while Stephanie Rolph’s technical skill and strong aesthetic pushes traditions of weaving, creating textiles of a subtle animal quality, with feathers and effects reminiscent of fish-scales and reptilian skin.
An identifiable strand of common endeavour across programmes is in combining new technology with a real understanding of material properties to create meaningful connections between object and body, and with feelings, in the senses of both tactility and emotion. In Jewellery & Metal, Carrie Dickens’ 3D-printed chain-link pieces have extraordinary malleability and movement, made to be touched, to shape to the body and, in her own words, to ‘drape’ and ‘nuzzle’. For her beaded necklaces, Kaat de Groef has employed 3D-scans of her body to shape the pieces, and employs new kinds of connections, weaving beads through clothing and taking into consideration the feel of a brooch-back against the skin.
Taking the bodily connection to further extremes, Victoria Shennan (J&M) presents her experiments with bodily bacteria and smells, things that we wear and can be attractive or repulsive, and Mengfei Zhang (J&M) has made a series of elegant pieces constructed from transparent acrylic spheres which enrobe and support different parts of the body, a back brace and wrist guard, for example. In Ceramics & Glass, Neha Kudchadkar presents herself employing her sculptural pieces in different stances and poses, and records visitors to the show interacting with the works in the same way.
Sustainability is a crucial concern for anyone working with material today and is an area being developed throughout the School. In Textiles, PhD candidate Dr Carmen Hijosa has set up business with the help of InnovationRCA’s Incubator, developing products using a sustainable alternative to leather, made from the discarded elements of pineapples. The Textiles programme also works closely with SustainRCA and run a Future Textiles project early in the first year of study, which impacted greatly on the work of Wuthigrai Siriphon, a student who combines his interest in recycling plastic bottles into textiles – specifically spacer fabric, a strong and light, 3D material – with his concern for the cultural sustainability of indigenous craft practices in his native Thailand. The same considerations drive the work of Ceramics & Glass student Mo Jirachaisakul, also from Thailand, who has experimented with recycling different kinds of ash as ceramic glazes.
For more information about student work and opening times, see Show 2015
Read about
the Fashion Shows 2015 here.