Precious Metal and Japanese Cool
Three ring sets from Wendy Ramshaw. 18ct yellow gold, different precious stones. White delrin stand inlaid with dark mauve, white, or dark blue bands.
The refurbished Quest Gallery in Bath was recently the venue for an exhibition of jewellery, slip-cast porcelain and cloisonné ware by Wendy Ramshaw, Shigekazu Nagae and Naoki Takeyama respectively. Ramshaw, wife of David Watkins (Professor of Metalwork and Jewellery at the Royal College of Art in London, 1984 – 2006), is well-known for the ring sets which she has been creating for many years and of which a generous selection was included in this show. Graham Hughes in his book “David Watkins Wendy Ramshaw – A Life’s Partnership” quotes Maria Vaisey on these pieces: “The ring-sets which have featured throughout her career, work as sculptures in two distinct but complementary ways. When not being worn, they repose on the most remarkable series of what looks to be miniature towers and spires, often made of transparent Plexiglas or various banded and coloured metals.”
WENDY RAMSHAW
But it was equally fascinating to see two larger sculptures – “Tools of Navigation I and II” – fashioned from brass and nickel alloy whose format proclaims their kinship to the ring sets. The ‘rocket-ship’ outlines are interrupted by equally hard-edge appurtenances which include a small optical glass sculpture. The title and the crisp exactitude of their making reveal the passion for precision instruments long held by this daughter and grand-daughter of Master Mariners…
There were two cases containing example’s of Ramshaw’s recent necklaces and brooches – “Drawings in Gold” – satisfyingly accompanied by ten of her original pencil drawings and eight large, signed, computer-produced prints of scaled-up studies for these pieces which, with notable precision of making, interpret the lines of the drawings in slender gold threads. The “openness” of these forms not only makes differently-shaped frames of the fabric on which they are worn, but also creates a sense of fragility which in turn sets up a tension with the perceived hardness of the metal.
Time Traveller 90 Ring set [6 parts]. Silver with gold details Nickel stand.
Ring set [3 parts] 18ct yellow, geometric shape, silver with black and gold dust enamel bands. Ring set [3 parts] 18ct yellow, diamond with gold band, silver with dark enamel bands. Ring set [3 parts] 18ct yellow, tear drop garnet, silver with white-blue speckle enamel bands. Clear acrylic stands.
Ring 18ct yellow, oval top, moonstone. Ring 18ct yellow, oval top, onyx. Ring 18ct yellow, square top, emerald.
SHIGEKAZU NAGAE
Whilst trying to put into words my thoughts about the slip-cast porcelain objects by Shigekazu Nagae, I was listening to the great American interpreter of Bach’s music, Rosalyn Tureck, playing that composer’s Goldberg Variations. These proved to be an unexpected but wholly appropriate and indeed instructive accompaniment. Without in any way wishing to belabour a comparison between two such very different art forms, one sensed that these orderly numbered pieces – Nagae’s “Forms in Succession” 1 to 10, and Bach’s Variations 1-30 – share the exploring of a modality, and, as Tureck says, a “searching out of the potentialities …of fundamental material.”
Possibly because of its association with mass-production, slip-casting has not always received the recognition which it deserves when in the hands of craft-artists, but one has only to think of makers such as Herbert Kittel (Germany), Simone van Bakel (Holland) and Sasha Wardell (UK) to become aware of what can be achieved with this process. Those who find problems appreciating the virtues of slip-casting could helpfully spend some time with the examples in this exhibition which share a fluid geometry of shapes whose provenance is the rectangle and the triangle.
These are forms which benefit from being displayed so that the viewer can walk around them, seeing not only how each side varies from the other, but also observing how these small sculptures differently frame the space which can be seen within and through them. The outer form protectively surrounds an inner one to which it is almost imperceptibly joined – it is the glaze which serves as an adhesive – and with their lines echoing each other the result is that the viewing eye is caught up in a double-rhythm of movement created by these thin sheets of clay. As their maker writes on the website of the gallery with which he shows in Japan: “Through kiln firing, the various curves and surfaces coalesce and unite in succession, thereby changing forms.. Such is my intent.”
Forms in Succession, Shigekazu Nagae. Slip-Cast Porcelain Object with Glaze.
Forms in Succession. Slip-Cast Porcelain Object with Glaze from Shigekazu Nagae.
Forms in Succession. Slip-Cast Porcelain Object with Glaze.
NAOKI TAKEYAMA
The beauty of immaculately achieved technique was also evident in the five creations in cloisonné enamelled metalwork, each formed from a single sheet of copper, by Naoki Takeyama. There was a wonderful sense of rhythmic movement in the rippling outlines which brought to mind the sculptural pleating found in the work of the fashion designer Issey Miyake. ’Reverie’ and ‘Reverie in Turquoise’ are decorated with slender, horizontal bands of silver, and the remaining trio with dots.
The hand-pinched pleating causes these patterns to tease the viewing eye as if the surface were emitting vibrations, bringing to mind the 1960s Op Art canvases of Victor Vasarély and Bridget Riley. Takeyama applies coat after coat of enamel and close inspection reveals shades and tones within what might appear a single ‘flat’ colour. There is an interesting interplay between the poised presence of these works and the light-heartedness evoked by the fluted lines of the rims and bases which recall the curling flourishes often encountered in the designs and drawings of Zandra Rhodes, most notably in her “Painted Ladies”.
Despite its ancient and distinguished history, cloisonné is often relegated to a minor position within the crafts domain. This is possibly the case because it is all too often encountered in the form of not always noteworthy jewellery. The work of this young Japanese craftsman, however, is well able to rectify such misapprehensions, and is, like that of his countryman, Shigekazu Nagae, already included in the permanent collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. IAN WILSON
Tamayura (Ephemeral) from Naoki Takeyama.
Kogare (Devotion in Indigo).
Yumegatari (Reverie).
www.questgallery.co.uk, http://toku-art.seesaa.net
