This exhibition captures important milestones in the evolution of Design-Nation’s portfolio of leading contemporary designer-makers from across the UK. A showcase of diverse material-led practices, Our Journey emphasises excellence and beauty of design and craftsmanship, and highlights the sector’s increasingly committed focus on innovative ways to address sustainability and embrace ethical making.
Our Journey features 25 individual designer-makers from the Design-Nation portfolio, working in ceramics, digital technologies, glass, leather, metal, repurposed materials, textile and wood. Exhibits include 2D artworks, decorative vessels, jewellery, lighting, mosaics, quilting, throws and sculptures.
In creating Catch, for ‘Our Journey’ Jacky Oliver aims to provoke dialogue about the increase in over-fishing. She has created linear wire structures that echo some of the four million fishing vessels that fish the seas with increasing efficiency, putting pressure on fish stocks and ecosystems of our oceans.
Through extensive research Jacky has gathered statistics about the impact of this intensive fishing industry on the environment. Using a range of techniques, she has etched and pierced through metal panels, which are supported on delicate wire networks. Jacky’s installation is suspended to allow the viewers’ presence to influence the movement of the piece. Shadows cast by the pieces are as important as the fabricated pieces themselves: the ephemeral nature of the images Jacky has made simultaneously simplify the vessel forms and also echo the possibility that without care, the awe-inspiring life currently found within the oceans will not be there forever.
