Stay ConnectedIn Material Matters, host Grant Gibson talks to a designer, maker, artist, architect, engineer, or scientist about a material or technique with which they’re intrinsically linked and discovers how it changed their lives and careers.
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Material Matters is produced and published by Delizia Media Ltd.
Copyright: © 2021 Material Matters with Grant Gibson
Kate MccGwire is an award-winning sculptor whose installations have been shown around the world, including Harewood House in Yorkshire, The Harley Gallery at Welbeck, Messums Wiltshire, Boca Raton Museum of Art, Florida and Galerie Haas AG in Zürich.
In 2018 she won The Royal Academy of Arts, Jack Goldhill Award for Sculpture.
In this episode the Royal College of Art graduate talks about her fascination with feathers. Not only that but during the interview we also unpick her profound interest in mythology, water and the human body, discovering how they have become threads through her sometimes dark but always extraordinary pieces.
During a remarkably frank interview the artist discusses how she only realised she was dyslexic in her late-thirties; what it was like growing up in Norfolk; her decision to drop out of interior design and become a fine artist; her close relationship with the pigeon keepers that provide her raw material; and why her pieces have nothing to do with taxidermy…
You can discover more about Kate and her work here: katemccgwire.com
Peter Ting is a ceramic designer, art director and the co-founder of gallery Ting-Ying. In this episode he talks about his life-long relationship with Blanc de Chine, to coincide with a new installation on the material that opened at London’s V&A Museum in 2019.
And it transpires he has quite a bit more to say too.
We discuss growing up in Hong Kong and moving to an English public school at the age of 16; how he discovered clay in the first instance and why he decided to work in Stoke-on-Trent. Not only that but he explains the craft behind manufacturing and how you can ‘hear’ if a factory is working efficiently.
Arguably most importantly, he discusses identity and an epiphany he had at a crossroads in Shanghai that led him to re-discover his Chinese heritage. Also did you know that his father used to be Bruce Lee’s dentist?
You can discover more about Peter and his work here: peterting.com and Ting-Ying can be found here: ting-ying.com
For this episode Material Matters travelled to Paris to chat to up-and-coming designer Marlene Huissoud about her relationship with propolis (or bee glue) – a substance made up of wax and resin that bees collect from vegetation and use to seal the honey frames inside their hive.
Working the material a little like glass, the Central Saint Martin’s graduate has created a series of cooly dark, vaguely threatening, vessels as well as a number of other objects.
During our chat we discuss what it was like growing up with her beekeeper father in the Alps; coming to study in England; why she decided recently to leave London for the French capital (in a word, Brexit); the reasons behind her decision to train as a nurse; creating pieces from her kitchen; and what she’s up to at during the 2019 London Design Festival.
You can find more information on Marlene and her work here: marlene-huissoud.com
Tom Dixon is one of the biggest names in design with ‘hubs’ in New York, Hong Kong SAR, China, London, Los Angeles and Tokyo.
In this episode we sat down in his King’s Cross complex to discuss his days welding scrap metal into pieces of baroque furniture but we got into quite a lot more besides. There’s his appearance on Top of the Pops, for example. And the time when some furniture he’d produced for shoe designer Patrick Cox fell apart at a dinner party. We hear what London used to be like in the ’80s and why he might have been the bass player for Pink Floyd.
He also talks about his decision to join Habitat, setting up with his eponymous brand, and the importance of food to his practice… as well as answering the biggest question of all: what exactly is the scent of Tom Dixon? You’ll have to listen to find out…
To learn more about Tom go to: www.tomdixon.net
Adam Nathaniel Furman is an artist and designer based in London. His work has been exhibited in Paris, New York, Milan, Rome, Eindhoven, Minneapolis, Portland, Kortrijk, Tel Aviv, Veszprem, Mumbai, Vienna and Glasgow as well as his home city, and is held in the collections of the Design Museum, Sir John Soane’s Museum, the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Abet Museum, and the Architectural Association.
He has also played a fundamental role in the recent re-appraisal of post-modernist architecture and has become an advocate of the need for colour in our built environment. Importantly too, over the years he has built a huge following on social media through his witty, trenchant and occasionally downright controversial posts.
This episode took the ‘critics’ slot’ in series two and covered issues such as: the Notre Dame blaze and the importance of heritage; queer aesthetics in architecture; reviving post-modernism’s reputation; the problem with unpaid internships... and his profound love of Nando’s.
To describe it as wide-ranging would not be doing it justice. To find out much more about Adam and his brilliantly colourful work here: adamnathanielfurman.com
Mourne Textiles is a rather brilliant hand-woven textile company based in Northern Ireland. It was founded by Gerd Hay-Edie after the Second World War and quickly went on to create pieces for the likes of Robin Day, Terence Conran, Liberty of London and fashion designer Sybil Connolly, becoming a staple of British modernism.
After some difficult years, it has re-emerged from the doldrums and appears to be in fine fettle under the aegis of Gerd’s grandson Mario Sierra.
In this episode Mario discusses how he grew up surrounded by hand-weaving in Northern Ireland; living through The Troubles; the legacy of his extraordinary grandmother; the joy of lumpy yarn; and how his family firm has re-emerged with the help of companies like fashion designer Margaret Howell and furniture manufacturer Pinch. Oh, and we have a quick natter about Brexit as well but don’t let that put you off.
You can find out more about Mourne and Mario here: mournetextiles.com
Sculptor Laura Ellen Bacon weaves extraordinary structures out of willow. Her work has been shown in venues such as the Saatchi Gallery, Chatsworth, New Art Centre, Somerset House, Sudeley Castle (for Sotheby’s) and Blackwell – The Arts and Crafts House in Cumbria.
Meanwhile, in 2017 she was a finalist of the Woman’s Hour Craft Prize at the V&A and was selected for Jerwood Contemporary Makers in 2010.
In this episode she talks about growing up on a fruit farm in Derbyshire; her childhood obsession with building a two-storey tree house; her fear of failure; her interest in form rather than material; and why she has never woven a basket. We also discover how her work has inspired a new piece of orchestral music, written by Helen Grime and performed at the Barbican by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle.
You can find out more about Laura’s work here: lauraellenbacon.com
Simone ten Hompel started her career as an apprentice blacksmith but has gone on to become one of the most influential metal artists in the world. Over the years she has had a major retrospective at the Ruthin Craft Centre and shown her work at fairs such as Collect at the Saatchi Gallery and What is Luxury? at London’s V&A.
In an extraordinary interview she discusses: her ‘alternative’ East London studio; getting her first tool box at the age of six; her childhood in West Germany; her ability to ‘read’ the colour grey; the ‘taste’ of metal; her fascination with spoons; and why she isn’t all that keen on technology.
Perhaps most importantly though we talk about her dyslexia – how she learned to cope at a school that didn’t really understand and why it has allowed her to see the world in a slightly different way. It’s wonderful, important stuff I reckon.
To learn more about Simone’s work go to: tenhompel.com or you can check out her gallery here: galleryso.com
James Shaw is an up-and-coming designer who has made a name for himself through his use of that most controversial of materials – plastic.
Using a gun-like mini-extruder, he produces sausages of the material that he subsequently manipulates to create a huge variety of products – from candlesticks to tables. His work is an attempt to change its perception, to persuade people to treasure plastic, rather than using it once before burying it in the ground,
During this episode we investigate our age of over-consumption and discuss the role of the designer as provocateur and activist. Not content with that, we also talk about how David Attenborough affected his career; why we should get rid of those green tops on our milk bottles; and discover the reasons behind him growing ‘plywood’ in a petri dish.
It’s fascinating, provocative stuff. You can learn more about James and his work here: jamesmichaelshaw.co.uk
Kate Malone is one of Britain’s most important ceramicists, with pieces in the collections of Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Manchester Art Gallery and the V&A, to name just a few.
She works in many different areas, from nature-inspired gallery pieces to batch production mugs via public art and architectural commissions – as she puts it rather wonderfully, her projects range in value from £25 to £1.5 million.
In a discussion that can only be described as wide-ranging, we talk about her fascination with the natural world; how a near-deadly bout of meningitis changed her life for the better; her time as a TV judge on The Great Pottery Throwdown(clue: she was the one that didn’t burst into tears continually); and why exactly people used to mistake her for Simply Red’s Mick Hucknall.
The thread through it all is her love of clay and the joy she evidently finds in communicating with it. You can find out more about Kate here: katemaloneceramics.com or go to her galleryist’s site here: adriansassoon.com.
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