Historical Futures: Four Artists Who Share A Common Fascination With Craftsmanship

Historical Futures

Historical Futures brings together four artists who have a common fascination with the methodologies of craftsmanship. By intensive making processes, each artist in the exhibition explores the ways in which traditional media can be relevant to the contemporary world.

Employing the ancient techniques of embroidery, lost wax bronze casting and ceramics, the collection of sculptural and installation pieces examines how these ways of working can fit into contemporary art practice. Through time-consuming production methods these objects become spectacles addressing both the historical weight of the materials themselves have as art objects and how permanency and labour affect our interactions with the objects themselves.

Craftsmanship and its approach to making are intrinsic to the practice of all four artists in the exhibition. Blair Cahill uses intricate embroidered panels and machined steel structures to create imagery that references poetic narrative. Cheryl Papasian meticulously creates geodes and ores out of bronze and ceramic to examine ideas of value in conjunction with the mass-produced everyday object.  Necole Schmitz uses hand building methods and traditional knotting techniques to make sculptural ceramic vessels and primitive weapons. Alex J Wood’s installation pieces are a combination of paper models and bronze casts that create unconventional narratives.

HISTORICAL FUTURES APRICOT GALLERY Blair Cahill – Cheryl Papasian – Necole Schmitz – Alex J Wood

 2-9 May, 2015 Vernissage: Saturday 3 May, 6-8PM

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