It makes sense! interactive exhibtion at Devon Guild

'Engaging the Senses' is an exhibition of contemporary craftwork exploring sensory experiences. Runs from Saturday 5 May – Sunday 17 June at the Devon Guild of Craftsmen
Riverside Mill, Bovey Tracey, TQ13 9AF

How many of us wish we could reach out and feel the beautiful objects displayed in a gallery? Usually we are forbidden to touch but the new show at the Devon Guild presents us with multi-sensory creations that can be touched, smelt, watched and heard!

The work on show is made in a variety of materials, shapes and colours by nine selected makers and artists. The exhibition brief asked them to explore sensory experience: sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch - and how we use our senses when viewing work in a gallery setting.

Visitors can feel the contrasting textures of Natasha Lewer’s flocked ceramics and listen to local metalworker Katie Lake’s flexible sound sculptures. Katie also worked with pupils from the West of England School and College for young people with little or no sight and the work of one of her pupils is included in the show.

Hereford-based potter Jon Williams wants us to handle and inhale his scented clay vessels, filled with mysterious perfumes and Ruth Spaak’s colourful pieces made from recycled plastic fibres can be held and explored. Her creative projects with visually impaired people resulted in interactive work that goes beyond the conventional art gallery experience. Other objects in the gallery ask questions about the senses we use to connect with the world around us.

The exhibits also emphasise accessibility by using touchable, non-precious materials found in nature, such as Lise Bech’s forms woven from home-grown willow or Devon-based AbeySmallcombe’s tactile sculpture made from cob, a mixture of earth and chopped straw.

Others explore mixed sensory perception. Marcia Smilack’s photographs of colour, pattern, and light express her perception of sounds as shapes, or words as colours. Timothy Layden’s ‘synaesthesia’ art shows us how he sees the normally invisible shape of sounds. Michelle Griffith’s layers of hand-stitched cotton and silk externalise the emotional constraints of her depression.

The exhibition is co-curated by Emma Mahanay and Saffron Wynne, who comments ‘we want everyone to interact with the exhibits so they have a memorable experience of our gallery. We hope to give a unique insight into human sensory experience, when it is expressed creatively.’

The exhibition is free and open daily 10am-5.30pm. Visitors can use additional guides to help access the exhibition including web-audio and large print (http://www.crafts.org.uk/current-exhibition.aspx) Individual or group tours can be booked in advance on 01626 832223.

Exhibitors:
AbeySmallcombe, Lise Bech, Michelle Griffiths, Katie Lake, Timothy B Layden, Natasha Lewer, Ruth Spaak, Marcia Smilack, Jon Williams

The Devon Guild of Craftsmen is an educational charity and membership organisation representing craftspeople from the South West and showcasing the work of national and international makers. www.crafts.org.uk

Synaesthesia is a condition in which one sense (e.g. hearing) is simultaneously perceived as if by one or more additional senses, such as sight. Another form joins objects such as letters, shapes, numbers or people’s names with a sensory perception such as smell, colour or flavour. The word comes from greek syn (together) and aisthesis (perception) literally meaning ‘joined perception’.

Image 'Tres Elementios', sound painting by Tim Layden

For more information visit http://www.crafts.org.uk/