University of the Arts London

UAL Showcase Collections

Material Encounters

A human hand touches a white ceramic vase. 

A ceramics project that addresses the experience of detachment from the material environment in an overwhelmingly digital world. “A really successful expression of the vessel form, using 3D printing. I found these forms very sensitive, particularly the white one.  Despite being digitally created, there is a corporal surface to them. I understand that while printing the objects in the studio, the artist maneuvered the ceramic. I think that intervention – a combination of human hand and machine – is interesting, especially as we work with some artists who have been pioneers in digital crafting. There is always a human element to digital fabrication.” – Freya McLeavy, Senior Director at Sarah Myerscough Gallery

RE-CONNECT embracing tactility in a digital age

Two stools with wooden seats and metal legs.

A collection of wooden stools and bowls made using recycled materials with natural imperfections as an analogy for the process of healing.“Though our remit is much broader now, at Sarah Myerscough we made our name initially specialising in wood sculpture craft and design so my heart was drawn to this piece exploring the imperfections of timber. What I love about the material here is that it&#39;s had an entire life before it&#39;s even reached the artist’s hands. The work grapples with the question of how we express that life – successes and traumas and I like how the artist considers this through healing and the scabbing of the wood.  &quot;This idea of the imperfect perfect is a real zeitgeist theme – the concepts of Kintsugi [traditional Japanese technique of repairing ceramics with lacquer and a metal powder usually made from gold or silver] and Wabi Sabi [Japanese philosophy of accepting and celebrating the aesthetica of imperfections] are really relevant today. I’m glad they are because I think there is a real beauty in vulnerability.” – Freya McLeavy, Senior Director at Sarah Myerscough Gallery

IM-PERFECT

wheel thrown vessels most with a wide belly and an open mouthed neck, the surfaces are dirty browns and greens with hints of brighter reds yellows

Ceramics made using hand sourced materials to create a more responsible practice.“A beautifully executed collection of vessels, with really interesting glazes. Gemma Smale’s use of ‘waste’ products such as crushed egg shells combined with clay, ash and a white slip to develop a glaze is fabulous. Inventive, with a strong aesthetic.” – Freya McLeavy, Senior Director at Sarah Myerscough Gallery

Origins

These are 3d printed cobalt blue and pink stained parian porcelain 

A human printer orchestrating the use of the following machinery: 3d ceramic printer, computer, handheld extruder, mixer, and human hand. “These pieces are cute and full of character, each one with its own personality, which I adore. There is also a lovely fabrication process, combining 3D ceramic printing with hand manipulation. I’d love to understand that process in even more detail. This project feeds into my personal interest in craft that explores digital techniques. Expressive, playful forms successfully executed. Brilliant.” – Freya McLeavy, Senior Director at Sarah Myerscough Gallery

NNN: Human Printer

Furniture collection exploring the intersection of traditional Chinese culture and contemporary design.“A beautifully made chair. The construction looks immaculate. That high level of craftsmanship is extremely important. Our gallery is very much material and process led so the craftsmanship of artworks we represent needs to be exquisite and that can manifest in lots of different expressions. I’m impressed to see this quality in a student’s work.” – Freya McLeavy, Senior Director at Sarah Myerscough Gallery

Niàn Chair  廿椅

These artworks delve into the portrayal of women by focusing on the female gaze. “I love the play of materials in Woman as a Vase, using latex and disrupting things like the male gaze or presumptions about the female form, reconstructing the female face. I really liked the conceptual project behind this. And the resulting works are visually powerful pieces – they&#39;re hard to forget! It&#39;s great when you see that combination of conceptual project and strong visual outcome. This is something the artist has achieved to excellent effect.” – Freya McLeavy, Senior Director at Sarah Myerscough Gallery

Woman as a Vase

A rectangular lamp made from warmly illuminated tiles (some are not translucent and blocking the light) standing against a concrete background.

A 100% recycled material made from discarded broken fired ceramic and waste coal ash that has been diverted from landfill.With ReCinder, Rosy Naper has not only found a way of reusing waste products but developed a whole new material. ReCinder is ambitious and to see that ambition at student level is inspiring. The project is clear with a focused outcome too. I’m excited to see how this material will be used and keen to follow the project and see where it goes in future. Craft has sometimes been misunderstood as quite traditional or staid but in fact it’s an exciting space when people know what to do with it as Rose clearly does.”  – Freya McLeavy, Senior Director at Sarah Myerscough Gallery

ReCinder

A tapestry artwork composed of several hand-woven fabrics.The grid drawn by batik turns from regular to out of control.

Textile design focused on artisans who experienced the Russian-Ukrainian War, incorporating colours and shapes extracted from bombed residential buildings in Ukraine.“A sensitive textile work where the visual outcome is as strong as the subject. I find the background is very compelling – using traditional dyeing techniques and introducing that into contemporary work, asking how do you innovate and make craft relevant in a contemporary moment? The method of taking the colours and shapes extracted from bombed residential buildings into the work is very powerful but even when you don’t know that is what you are looking at, you can feel that profundity within it visually. When someone is making, they can’t help but put something of themself into what they’re making and that emotion is within the textile itself.”  – Freya McLeavy, Senior Director at Sarah Myerscough Gallery

anqi li

A close up of white fabric with subtle, neutral-coloured patterns woven through.

Textile design project exploring local raw materials and their cultural and intrinsic meaning within society.“I am interested in material innovation and research, so I love that Wiebke Busch has created dyes made from local plants and algae. This project encourages us to ask, how do we look around us and use what&#39;s out there to develop new possibilities and new processes? The use of plants also spoke to me in its elemental approach. This work has a beautiful, soft, aesthetic that makes me want to reach out to touch and explore these textiles in greater detail because they are so subtle. I also love the images documenting Wiebke’s research, which are beautiful.” – Freya McLeavy, Senior Director at Sarah Myerscough Gallery

In:Visible Nature

A collaboration with Murano’s glass community, the collection aims to celebrate the impurities in re-melted glass waste.“I wouldn&#39;t mind getting one of these side tables for myself! The colour is absolutely exquisite. Glass is not a specialisation of mine so this project taught me something new. I didn’t reaslise that ‘Cotisso’, the waste product associated with Murano glass, is very expensive to dispose of due to the toxic chemicals used in aspects of its production. This is an excellent example of an artist investigating how we can reuse waste materials that we haven&#39;t been able to historically. Students, artists, emerging artists should be at the forefront of sustainability, pioneering research into how we can move forward positively.  “Also, the aesthetic visual result is really, really strong here. You just want to reach into the image and touch it. It feels malleable, like a kind of glass pool. A wonderful little coffee table, elevated by that research process, bringing the heritage of Murano glass right up into the contemporary moment.” – Freya McLeavy, Senior Director at Sarah Myerscough Gallery

SOLVE ET COAGULA

A sequence of vases transforming into bags, exploring the shared attributes of craftsmanship and societal appreciation found in Korean vases and contemporary luxury bags,“What an inventive project. I appreciated the different processes that Jane Yoo used here, from woodturning to leather stitching. The project plays with this idea of Korean vases, which have huge importance within their cultural context, and combining that with contemporary luxury bags. The bags look beautifully made, too. Brilliant.” – Freya McLeavy, Senior Director at Sarah Myerscough Gallery

Transcending Forms

Parallel Bamboo Floor Lamp & Parallel Bamboo Chair

Parallel Forest brings traditional and ancient bamboo weaving into the modern interior space.“I really liked the way that Parallel Forest considers how we take a traditional path to making and innovate to make it relevant to a contemporary moment. Bamboo weaving is an incredible practice, with many applications, and bamboo can be grown quickly (although there are potential biodiversity issues if you have huge monocrop fields of bamboo). Within the collection, I find the chair most inventive! A really fun, contemporary form created using a very traditional making method.” – Freya McLeavy, Senior Director at Sarah Myerscough Gallery

Parallel Forest

Two green luxury leather bags lay on a grassy lawn.

A collection of bags that translates playful ideas into sophisticated contemporary designs. “Fantastic handbags; really dramatic. I would love some more background information about the project but for me, these just stand out in terms of invention of form, and they are beautifully made. I love leather work so I was drawn to the way Sohin Oh takes what could be quite a prosaic item – the handbag – and turns it into a sculpture. I love the idea of wearing sculptural pieces and this caught my eye for that reason.” – Freya McLeavy, Senior Director at Sarah Myerscough Gallery

SOJINOH

A seated person in a white dress wears a sculptural chain-like jewellery piece.

Sculptural chains created from waste individuals generate become a chronicle of their lives.“I was drawn to Fragments initially as I love wearable sculptural pieces but then Jingwen Zhou’s idea that waste can be a diary resonated with me.  How do you take waste, something that feels negative, and find a positive use for it? Here, we see that waste can be an archive or a record of our lives that the artist then reshapes into the form of a necklace –a great design and something I could see myself wearing!” – Freya McLeavy, Senior Director at Sarah Myerscough Gallery

Fragments

A series of objects that appear to be made of jade.

The collection focuses on the reinterpretation of jade&#39;s cultural connotation and aims to reflect the dynamic power relations in contemporary society. “A collection of startling, arresting objects. Something about the fantastic photography gives them quite a filmic feel. The images capture a real sense of their atmosphere, which is impressive as they’re not easy pieces. The use of material is clever because it does look so much like jade. The work explores the codes that emerge when materials transition across cultures and temporalities. Jade has traditionally been seen as something that represents power and it&#39;s losing that. It’s interesting to study the cultural connotations and context of materials. I thought this project does that really successfully.” – Freya McLeavy, Senior Director at Sarah Myerscough Gallery

Jade Green, Stamp Red

a repetitive practice and improvisational exploration of two-dimensional line drawing on the paper.

A series of organic shaped and distinctive artefacts created in combination with line drawing.“In Drawing Lustres, I found the relationship between drawing and object very compelling; the end results from drawing with glass are beautiful and delicate pieces. I was impressed by the inventive process employed to produce a unique craft language. Love this one!” – Freya McLeavy, Senior Director at Sarah Myerscough Gallery

Drawing Lustres

Two images side-by-side showing a set of white pots, first with red twine going around them and then without but showing indentations left by the twine.

Ceramics inspired by the experience of city life. Each vessel has been bounded with yarn when soft, deforming, bending and pushing the porcelain to achieve an elegant resolution. “Conceptually, this is a lovely project in its representation of the bonds between us and how we experience the city. This is expressed through the red thread – which links the pots together and shapes them, leaving behind an indentation.” – Freya McLeavy, Senior Director at Sarah Myerscough Gallery

Yarn_

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