Here we are, making work for Heat Exchange 2! In the two years that has passed since the last edition not much has changed.. Oh who am I kidding? This iteration of the exhibition finds me living in the USA, surrounded by the welcoming and very vibrant metals community in Seattle, Washington.
Owing to my personal cross-continental exchange, I have had the pleasure of catching a couple of other Heat Exchange participants already this year. I visited Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond in February where I caught up with the dynamic Susie Ganch. We were concentrating on her Radical Jewelry Makeover project at the time but we managed to share a few thoughts on enamel while she gave me a walking tour of her city.
Susie Ganch in the metals studio at VCU in Richmond, Virginia. 2014
Next up, I was at SNAG where Robert Ebendorf was honoured as this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award Winner. I’d like to say I managed to snap a selfie while the two of us shared a few words, but with SNAG conferences being what they are, after his award ceremony I did not spot him for the rest of the weekend! So, please excuse the grainy photos of Robert, but as you can appreciate the auditorium was full for his award ceremony.
Photo montage of Robert Ebendorf receiving his award at SNAG 2014
So that just leaves me. Here’s me in my basement studio in Seattle, about to face a moment of truth…
Melissa is a jewellery artist from Australia living in Seattle in the US. Her works can be found in the National Gallery of Australia as well as the Cheongju City Collection in South Korea. Her enamel works typically display subtle enamel incursions amidst precise laser cut stainless steel layers.
Postcards recreated from an original Postcard and photographs from my Great Uncle Maurice Dawson sent before his unit was sent to the front
To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the First World War I have been busy making some new work for an exhibition in Bristol curated by Elizabeth Turrell.
‘Back from the Front’ will have two components, showing simultaneously:
‘Brothers in Art’: a show of paintings by two major British artists from the First World War, Paul Nash and John Nash, both of whom served at the front and who were later commissioned as Official War Artists.
‘Shock and Awe’: Exhibited in the RWA’s extensive Sharples, Winterstoke and Stancomb-Wills galleries, ‘Shock and Awe’ is an exhibition of work by artists who have been exposed to the front-line experience of war and by those who have responded to recent conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Balkans
Alongside other invited international artists exhibiting at the RWA Elizabeth Turrell has curated a show of a small group of enamel artists from the US, UK and Europe with whom she has previously worked with on ‘anti-war medals’
The artists for this exhibition: Michael Brennan-Wood, Kathleen Browne, Stephen Bottomley, Helen Carnac, Robert Ebendorf, Kirsten Haydon, Elizabeth Turrell, Jessica Turrell, Tamar de Vries Winter, Rolf Lindner, Jonathan Ward, Bettina Dittlmann, George Coutouvidis and Susan Cross
display of cards in progressDetail of the built house of cards, in preparation for delivery and set up at the RWA in mid July
This work developed from working directly from family photographs, in particular a recently discovered 1915 postcard sent from the Hertfordshire training camp where his Great Uncle Maurice Dawson, then aged 17, was trained as a young newly enlisted soldier. There he sent a ‘postcard photograph’ picturing him with at army camp to his mother. The card was sent to warn home that he had heard his unit was due to be transported to the next day by train and then on to military action.This project explores memory through the photography available at that time as souvenir postcards that captured one of very many individual stories and a poignant and tender moment between a mother and child. The construction represents the real vulnerability and danger facing families caught up in the Great War.
‘Back from the Front’
Royal West of England Academy, Queen’s Road, Bristol, UK
18th July (PV), Public Exhibition 19th July – until the end September 2014
Stephen Bottomley trained at the Royal College of Art (1999-2001) having also studied at West Surrey College of Art and Design and the University of Brighton, with a key period working within Rhode Island School of Designs’ metal programme (USA 1998).
Stephen established his first studio in 1990 in Brighton with a Prince’s Trust Grant, exhibiting his work regularly in exhibitions and at outlets like Electrum Gallery and Dazzle. He started regular associate lecturing work around the South East coast in 1992. After twelve years lecturing and leading several courses at Hasting College of Art, with the University of Brighton, he relocated to Sheffield in 2004.
Between 2004-2007 Stephen divides his time between his jewellery studio and his close involvement with both academic life and the jewellery industry, being both course leader for Metalwork and Jewellery at Sheffield Hallam University and also the fourth Chairman of the ‘Association for Contemporary Jewellery’ (ACJ). Between 2007 and afour year project researching the patterns and textiles at the Fortuny Museum, Venice and a solo shows in Venice and back at Hove Museum and Art gallery in 2008, he relocated to Scotland taking the post of Head of Jewellery and Silversmithing at Edinburgh College of Art (eca). In 2011 eca become part of the world class University of Edinburgh.
Jewellery is represented by the Crafts Council and held in collections by the British Museum, Royal College of Art and the South East Arts Crafts.
