Commission -
Orleans House Gallery
Three of the collection of paddle forms, made for the Orleans House Commission, were purchased by the Contemporary Art Society as part of their specialist metalwork collection and are now held and displayed at Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery.
Paddle Forms. Orleans House Gallery Commission. Richmond upon Thames
A group of wall mounted, three dimensional works commissioned for the exhibition ‘A Different Approach’, at Orleans House Gallery in 1997. Orleans house is a small museum in the borough of Richmond, London.It houses, amongst other items, the collection of artefacts once belonging to the explorer Richard Burton along with imagery and objects associated with the local area and population.
The project brief was to develop a body of work inspired by and relating to the museums collections. The exhiition allowed for the public to engage in the collections in a different way and to see them in a different light.
The forms were inspired by and developed from studying the shape and form of a collection of Bedouin spears and artefacts held at the house and once owned by the explorer, Richard Burton.The gallery’s collection of paintings and prints relating to the river Thames, and the Richmond area were also used as a starting point for the work.
The large blue paddle forms were cut from 3mm mild steel, scored and folded or formed to give the fluid and gently shifting lines. The colour was achieved through heat oxidation. The pieces explore craft making and the application of discipline specific skills across different scales, and craft practices as well as the aesthetic and themes of the power and potency of objects , narratives, utility, function and redundancy.
Scored, folded, welded, heat oxidised and coloured steel. H.115cm. W. 80cm. D. 8cm.