LONDON.- ‘The Shape of Here’ features four UK based artist-makers exploring new and evolving notions of place through distinct material techniques. Across various perspectives and disciplines—from clay to metal and wood—their experimental investigations result in personal responses to space and landscape. In dialogue with one another, the works presented reflect upon a nature that is constantly changing to evoke a re-evaluation of our relationship to the environment.

Relocating from London several years ago, Helen Carnac and David Gates have established their studios and workshops in rural West Somerset. This move has seen an ongoing recontextualisation of their practices, particularly through the gathering of source material and visual imagery while walking the surrounding countryside, exploring human interventions in the landscape. Carnac focuses on the micro detail of surface patination, such as rust, corrosion and lichen. Gates’ work has an affinity with agricultural and industrial a rchitecture a nd infrastructure, focusing on the form and structure of silos, barns, pylons and sheds. Tightly made traditional joinery and cabinet making are combined with split and cleaved pieces, wood that carries the marks of its working, whether sawn, split, planed or scraped.

Working with the medium of ceramics, Ken Eastman can be both builder and painter, handling shape and structure, as well as exploring tone and color. The new works in this exhibition are the sum of small decisions, choices and actions built up so that each piece comes into focus slowly. This enables Eastman to concentrate on how each element meets and relates to its neighbors and what it contributes to the whole. In this way, his works are not inspired by a physical, tangible place but his desire to make things he has never seen before, taking viewers to an imagined place.

Inspired by the River Deben, the work of Suffolk-based ceramic sculptor Annie Turner draws upon the place where her family have lived and worked. Her hand-built nets, ladders and boxes create composite descriptions of the river’s architecture and man’s intervention over time. Her visual language is imbued with connections to place as well as personal memories; fossils collected since childhood form the color palette of her work, each hue linking back to the muddy foreshore on which it was discovered. Both fragile and strong, her work reflects the movement and restlessness of the natural landscape, changing seasons and the passage of time.

Ken Eastman

Eastman has exhibited widely including ‘PAD Paris,’ Modern Shapes Gallery, Belgium (2023); ‘Fundus,’ Kunstforum Solothurn, Switzerland (2023); ‘Atelier blanc,’ UNESCO, Beijing (2023); ‘Border Country,’ Lucy Lacoste Gallery, Concord MA (2021); and ‘Covering Ground,’ Galerie Marianne Heller, Germany (2020). His work is held in leading international public collections including The Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Japan; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston TX; The Powerhouse Museum Sydney, Australia; Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands; Landesmuseum, Stuttgart, Germany; Musee des Arts Decoratifs de Montreal, Canada; The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; Museu de Ceramica de Manises, Valencia, Spain; and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK. He has won numerous awards in the field of the ceramic arts and most recently was selected as a finalist for the Loewe Craft Prize in 2024.

Helen Carnac

Carnac has taught and developed courses in university settings for over 20 years. In 2009, she curated the highly regarded exhibition ‘Taking Time: Craft and the Slow Revolution’, which toured eight national venues and museums. Her work has recently been acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK, and is held in several collections including Enamel Art Foundation, US; Rotasa Foundation, US; Racine Art Museum, US; and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Canada. Her previous exhibitions include: ‘Objects of Contemplation,’ Make Hauser & Wirth, London, UK (2024); ‘Affinities,’ Make Hauser & Wirth Somerset, Bruton, UK (2023); ‘Holding Space: Contemporary Enamel Vessels,’ Springfield Museum MO (2023); ‘Like Paper,’ solo exhibition, Galerie Noel Guyomarc’h, Montreal, Canada (2022); ‘Impertinente,’ Musée des Beaux-Arts de Limoges, France (2022); ‘In Dialogue,’ Make Hauser and Wirth Somerset, Bruton, UK (2019); and Blaze - International Contemporary Enamel Art Exhibition, Taiwan (2018).

David Gates

Gates’ work is exhibited and collected internationally. He received a Gold Award at the Cheongju Biennale, Korea (2015) and was a winner of the Jerwood Contemporary Makers, UK (2010). His work is held by the Nasjonelmuseet, Oslo, Norway and the collection of the UK Crafts Council. Selected exhibitions include: ‘Objects of Contemplation,’ Make Hauser & Wirth, London, UK (2024); ‘Affinities,’ Make Hauser & Wirth Somerset, Bruton, UK (2023); ‘M2 Artists,’ ASC Gallery, London, UK (2022); ‘Taste Contemporary, Odd and Even: A Collection,’ Maison Louise Carre, Bazoches-sur Guvonne, France (2021); and the 10th Cheongju Craft Biennale, Crafts Council and British Council (2017). Published writings also include: ‘From in Our Houses to The Tool at Hand: Breaching Normal Procedural Conditions in Studio Furniture Making’ In Marchand, T.(Ed) 2016 ‘Craft as Problem Solving’ Pp 115-132 Ashgate; and ‘History in the Making; the use of talk in inter-disciplinary contemporary craft collaborative practice,’ In Sandino, L. & Partington, M. (eds) 2013; ‘Oral History in The Visual Arts,’ Pp 55-66. Bloomsbury.

Annie Turner

Annie Turner studied Three-Dimensional Design and Ceramics at Bristol Polytechnic, followed by an MA in Ceramics at the Royal College of Art, London, UK. Her work has been widely exhibited both in the UK and internationally, including ‘Crafting a Difference,’ Soshiro, London, UK (2021); ‘Fitzrovia Chapel,’ Cavaliero Finn, London, UK (2019); ‘Women Making and Design,’ The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (2019); Galerie Hélène Porée, Paris, France (2012); and the European Triennial for Ceramics and Glass, Belgium (2010). Her work can also be found in the permanent collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK; The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK; The National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, UK; Shiply Art Gallery, Gateshead, UK; The York Museum, Yorkshire, UK; and The Gardiner Museum, Toronto, Canada. In 2019, she was shortlisted for the Loewe Craft Prize and previously awarded the 2013 Emmanuel Cooper Craft Prize Award at Ceramic Art London, UK.