'Saw' by Neasden Control Centre: Photo John Hooper
Tooled Up
12th - 20th September 2014
Art&Graft
G6 City Pavilion
37 Cheshire Street
London,
E2 6EA
www.artandgraft.com
As part of Shoreditch Design Triangle and LDF, Art&Graft are pleased to present Tooled Up, a group show celebrating craft, graft and creativity. Art&Graft have invited some of the most exciting artists, illustrators and designers working today, to take a recognisable object of craft and apply their skill and ingenuity to transform it into a unique form. Whether it is using the nature of the item to inspire a print, reutilising a screwdriver to retrieve the last bit of paint from a tube or adding new forms onto the existing structure; the resulting prints, films and sculptures transcend the original tool to become exquisite objects in their own right.
As contributor Joel Hopkinson notes, “Tools can all be seen as charged instruments of potential, representing an optimism and state of flux. This is particularly true for finer made hand tools that exist as objects of craft; often these tools are emblematic of their own function by being expertly made, and aesthetically considered, indeed they become collectors items of material value - rare specimens. From a more personal viewpoint, as a maker; these fine hand tools whilst fitting the hand pleasingly, hold the promise of things to come, a material realisation of the imagination; as if all the dumb inert matter in the world can be transformed with the elegant sweep of the expert.”
"The idea of teeth. The tool as a musical object. The influence of folk art as an object crafted for it's visual pleasure rather than its practical nature. An illusion based on it's shape." Neasden Control Centre's rationale for his adaptation of an old saw is similar to a number of the involved artists, in that the form is re-appropriated to create a visual and interpretative framework quite distant to the intended purpose of the tool. However, with each evolution the tool takes on a new purpose and a very different set of connotations emerges, reflecting the artists hand, process and referencing their wider work and creative technique.
Reminiscent of the classic folk art crafted signs you would find above shops to identify their wares, the saw has humorous connotations as well as literal - a tool, an instrument and also the illusion of caricature teeth that wouldn't go amiss on a friendly crocodile or tiger. "
Contributors:
APFEL
BMCH
Craig & Karl
Daniel Eatock
Deanne Cheuk
Emily Forgot
Hisham Akira Bharoocha
Hvass&Hannibal
Jody Barton
Joel Hopkinson
Kustaa Saksi
Marcus Reed
Merijn Hos
MVM
Neasden Control Centre
Peepshow Collective
Santuu Mustonen
Saskia Pomeroy