Exhibition – Power of Making

A V&A and Crafts Council exhibition
Crafts Council is supported by Arts Council England

6 September 2011–2 January 2012

The Porter Gallery
Room 48
Admission free

“The V&A and Crafts Council celebrate the role of making in our lives by presenting an eclectic selection of over 100 exquisitely crafted objects, ranging from a life-size crochet bear to a ceramic eye patch, a fine metal flute to dry stone walling. Power of Making is a cabinet of curiosities showing works by both amateurs and leading makers from around the world to present a snapshot of making in our time.

The exhibition showcases works made using a diverse range of skills and explores how materials can be used in imaginative and spectacular ways, whether for medical innovation, entertainment, social networking or artistic endeavour.

Making is the most powerful way that we solve problems, express ideas and shape our world. What and how we make defines who we are, and communicates who we want to be.

For many people, making is critical for survival. For others, it is a chosen vocation: a way of thinking, inventing and innovating. And for some it is simply a delight to be able to shape a material and say ‘I made that’. The power of making is that it fulfills each of these human needs and desires.

Those whose craft and ingenuity reach the very highest levels can create amazing things. But making is something everyone can do. The knowledge of how to make – both everyday objects and highly-skilled creations – is one of humanity’s most precious resources.”

 

 

 

Via About the exhibition – Victoria and Albert Museum.

Talking Textiles exhibition

Trend forecasting and design guru, Lidewij Edelkoort, will be promoting young textile design talent from the UK and Europe at her Talking Textiles exhibition at the Salone Satellite 2011 Milan Furniture Fair which will be celebrating its 50th anniversary and will be expecting around 300,000 visitors from 12th to 17th April.

‎”Exhibition curator Li said, “It is so important to take notice again of contemporary textile designers who are becoming an endangered species. With the expenditure at colleges and art schools rising, the textile ateliers are the first to be downsized or removed.”

A selection of young graduate designers will be showcased as part of Edelkoort’s ongoing initiative to promote textile design education, bringing the freshest European design talent to public attention. Supporting the graduate designers exhibiting and Li’s quest to save the endangered discipline of textile design are Skillset, British Fashion Council, UKFT and Texprint.

The designs on show will include textiles, rugs, curtains, lighting, accessories and upholstered furniture, but also multimedia installations, digital animations and film projections.”

Hard Graft: Yorkshire at Work

New Book Hard Graft: Yorkshire at Work – Terry Sutton (£20)
Terry Sutton is one of Yorkshire’s most gifted illustrators, and in Hard Graft he has used his talents – both as an artist and as a photographer – to pay tribute to Yorkshire’s rich heritage of craftsmanship and industrial achievement – its willingness to roll up its sleeves and set to work. As well as over 75 of his own watercolours, Terry has included a carefully chosen selection of engravings and historic photographs to celebrate Yorkshire’s industrial past and it appetite for hard graft. Available from mid-October. There’ll be an exhibition at the Piece Hall Halifax next April.

Event dates: 02-04-2011 – 29-05-2011

Discover some of the past industries of Yorkshire through the fantastic illustrations and photographs of Terry Sutton. Following Terry’s successful exhibition, Yesterday’s Yorkshire, A Celebration of the Industrial West Riding by Terry Sutton in 2004, Terry once again uses his wonderful illustrations and photographs to captivate audiences young and old.

 

30 Years of Japanese Fashion

“How excited are we for this new exhibition at The Barbican, London – Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion. With all of the most influential names in Japanese fashion… Rei Kawakubo, Issey Miyake plus some of the newest names too. Also a great reference point for our Autumn Winter 2011-12 ‘Worn’ theme.”

Read the Trend Boutique report here

URBAN@ WYPW

URBAN@ WYPW
An exhibition by artists who depict urban scenes.

Preview tonight Friday 16th July 6.30 – 8.30pm- meet 3 of the artists

Anne Desmet – Liam Spencer – Emelbi -Clare Caulfield

TALK – Liam Spencer – Sunday 18th July – 2.00-4.00pm – booking essential Email wypwexhibitions@yahoo.co.uk
Please book immediately as the talk will be canceled later this evening if there are no further bookings.

EXHIBITION – July 20th – August 12th
Tue – Wed – Thurs 10.30 am – 6.00pm
Saturday 10.30am – 3.00pm
Free all welcome

Revolutionary Fabrics and Furniture 1957-1980

Shirley Craven and Hull Traders

Revolutionary Fabrics and Furniture 1957-1980

Bankfield Museum, Halifax: 13 March – 9 May 2010

www.hulltraders.co.uk Thanks to Curator Lesley Jackson for the information below

Big bold abstracts in eye-popping colours, Shirley Craven’s extraordinary textiles encapsulate the exuberance of the Swinging Sixties. A major exhibition at Bankfield Museum in Halifax celebrates her remarkable creative partnership with Hull Traders, the local company who printed her designs.

Hull Traders were based at Trawden, near Colne in Lancashire – not in Hull! They were named after Tristram Hull, who founded the company in 1957. Yorkshire-born Shirley Craven was their chief designer and art director for 20 years. She won a string of awards during the 1960s for her remarkable hand screen-printed furnishing fabrics with their giant painterly designs.

Shirley Craven sprang to prominence in 1959 at the age of 25 shortly after leaving the Royal College of Art. Pioneering a style more akin to painting than textiles, she broke all the rules, revolutionising post-war furnishings with her dramatic, unconventional, large-scale designs.

Hull Traders was distinctive from the outset. Its first collection featured designs by the maverick duo, sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi and photographer Nigel Henderson collaborating under the name Hammer Prints.

As Colour and Design Consultant, Shirley Craven was the creative lynchpin of Hull Traders from 1959-1979. She masterminded their entire collection, creating a third of the designs herself, as well as selecting work by emergent artists and designers. Craven’s choices were eclectic, visionary and avant-garde, ranging in style from Abstract Expressionism to Op Art to Pop Art.

In 1966 Hull Traders branched out into furniture with the tomotom range – an icon of the pop era. Designed by Craven’s husband, Bernard Holdaway, tomotom was made of giant cardboard tubes painted in bright colours. Cheap, stylish and fun, tomotom was a runaway success. George Best chose tomotom  for his Manchester fashion boutique in 1967.

Curated by Lesley Jackson, a leading authority on post-war design, this ambitious exhibition is the first devoted to Shirley Craven and Hull Traders. ‘Shirley Craven was a big name on the 60s design scene, but has since been forgotten,’ says Jackson. ‘This exhibition puts her firmly back in the spotlight where she belongs. Hull Traders’ textiles and furniture have an explosive visual impact and will transform people’s perception of post-war design.’

A major new book, Shirley Craven and Hull Traders – Revolutionary Fabrics and Furniture 1957-1980 by Lesley Jackson, is on sale at the exhibition for £20.

For further information about the exhibition and the book, visit www.hulltraders.co.uk

Bankfield Museum

Boothtown Road

Halifax

HX3 6HG

Tel. 01422 352334

Open: Tuesday to Saturday 10-5

Sunday 1.30-4 (Closed Mondays)

Last admission 30 mins before closing

Admission Free

Walls Are Talking The University of Manchester

6 February – 3 May 2010

The first major UK exhibition of artists’ wallpapers with work by over 30 artists including Andy Warhol, Sarah Lucas and Damien Hirst. Kitsch ideas of home decoration are turned upside down as artists subvert the stereotypes of wallpaper to hit home messages about warfare, racism, cultural conflicts and gender.The exhibition is grouped around themes: subversion, commodification, imprisonment and sexuality. In Sonia Boyce’s work Clapping, a feeling of claustrophobia and menace is strengthened by the repeated design of the black and white hand print. Zineb Sedira uses wallpaper patterns to illustrate social inequalities and gender difference from her French-Algerian Islamic perspective. Thomas Demand, one of the foremost conceptual artists working today, covers the entire South Gallery in his Ivy wallpaper – intricate pieces of paper cut out and photographed make up a lifelike work of imprisoning beauty. In stark contrast to this are popular commercial papers that reinforce cultural and gender stereotypes; from Barbie or the Spice Girls to the use of male symbols such as beer cans, football teams or idealised female bodies.

via Walls Are Talking The University of Manchester.

CUBE : Centre for the Urban Built Environment : Exhibitions

A MUST VISIT for all graphics students …a retrospective of the work of the grandfather of modern English graphic design Alan Fletcher. In Manchester CUBE gallery until April

CUBE : Centre for the Urban Built Environment : Exhibitions.

Runs: 22.01.2010 to 03.04.2010
Curator: Emily King

“Described as ‘Britain’s best ever graphic designer’ by the Observer and ‘one of the giants of 20th Century design’ by the Guardian, CUBE Gallery is delighted to announce that a major retrospective of Britain’s most celebrated graphic designer is to be showcased in Manchester.”

“Alan Fletcher was the most prolific graphic designer of the 20th Century and his legacy continues to influence global trends in graphic design. This will be the first time that Manchester and beyond will see such a vast and important retrospective archive celebrating fifty years of the designer’s work (and play).”

Curatorial Talk by Emily King
12:30pm
Friday 5th March
Allerton Lecture Theatre
University of Salford
This event is free, but places are extremely limited. For more information contact: info@cube.org.uk

Does economic hardship increase innovation? A look at the Bauhaus

“Why does every designer start to sketch with a geometric shape? And why are circles the most popular? Just as much if not more than Gestalt theory, the Bauhaus must be responsible for these preferences and behaviors. It’s fascinating how profoundly Bauhaus shaped our contemporary visual world and the rules of what we call “design” today, in the mere 14 years of its existence.”…… follow the link to read more

Does economic hardship increase innovation? A look at the Bauhaus The Bauhaus retrospective and archives from the school—“Bauhaus 1919-1933: Workshops for Modernity”—will be on display until January 25 at the New York MoMA. Please check out the exhibition web site—it features the original Bauhaus pieces, and has impressive information architecture.

Lucy Orta exhibits a land without borders | Design Indaba

Lucy Orta exhibits a land without borders

reblogged original Posted December 18th, 2009. Maciek Dubla

Lucy Orta doesn’t just stand by and watch the world change. She creates the change she wants to see giving those who see her work a glimpse into a world with a better future.

Antarctic Village – No Borders is an installation by Lucy Orta and her partner Jorge Orta, in which tents are hand-stitched by a traditional tent-maker using sections of flags from countries around the world. For the artists, Antarctica represents a neutral land and a land free of conflict. The artwork embodies the global village, a place where people are allowed to move freely, unaffected by the political and social strife of society.

Orta is a contemporary visual artist realising her work through sculpture, public art, video and photography. Although trained as a fashion designer she began to focus on work that she called “architectures with souls” – art that evokes the need for change, poetically heralding reality and advocating alternative lifestyles.

This incredibly evocative artwork, first installed in Antarctica in 2007 is now on exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London until 31 January 2010. Since the war in Iraq and the conflict between Palestine and Israel, the dome-dwelling artwork has come to represent the plight faced by many struggling to gain freedom by escaping social and political conflict within their countries.

via Lucy Orta exhibits a land without borders | Design Indaba.