Sculptures from Post-Anthropocene Islands

Year 2020
Project Link https://superflux.in/index.php/work/refuge-for-resurgence/#

When? Why?

During lockdown, 2020, I found myself living in Orkney and working for London-based design studio, Superflux. I'd been tasked to create a series of sculptural culterly items as part of their work for Venice Biennale Di Archittetura. The pieces below were crafted from materials found in Orkney's (limited) woodlands; on Orkney's beaches; and sourced from the homes of friends on the islands.

The Context: Refuge for Resurgence

"Refuge for Resurgence considers how all forms of life on earth might come together around a dinner table to celebrate their ecological interdependence in a post-Anthropocene world – a symbolic home where all species can prosper with resilience, adaptation, and hope. Occupying a space beneath the arches of the Arsenale, Refuge For Resurgence presents a magnificent 4m-long table, hand-made in Didcot from the wood of a wild Surrey oak. Placed around the table are fourteen wooden stools, and on it fourteen unique table settings, each carefully customised for the creature it is intended for." - Superflux

These works were created as part of Superflux's 2021 work Refuge for Resurgence. I've decided to show them in their own right but am hesitant to do so as they exist as part of this wider creative exploration and context. As such, I'd like to acknowledge the creative contributions of my collaborators who informed, inspired, reviewed my process, and produced incredibly beautiful work that sat alongside it: Jon Ardern, Anab Jain, Nicola Ferrao, Ed Lewis, Matthew Edgson, Cream Studios, Gareth Huw Lewis and more...

The Pieces

"Refuge for Resurgence is a multi-species banquet with a fox, rat, wasp, pigeon, cow, human adults and child, wild boar, snake, beaver, wolf, raven and mushroom. The scene lays bare a conversation between the paralysis of fear and the audacity of hope." - Superflux

Below, you'll find a series of my favourite pieces.

longhorned cow The scoop for serving water for a long-horned cow is large in scale and elegantly built from brass.

human child spoon For a human child, a silver spoon is whipped onto an avian bone.

slate blade For the wild boar, a flake of slate was combined with a branch covered in lichen: an indicatior species.

the starting materials

The Process

I began the development of each piece by carring out in depth research into what a serving implement for that particular species might look like. I researched foodstuffs, and explored working with materials that might represent or embody that particular species' presence at the table.

table sketch I was working in collaboration with my colleagues who were desigining different elements of the composition. I produced this early sketch to explore how everything might look together.

the starting materials Foraging for branches, staining, dying, weaving, gold leaf.

the starting materials 2

sketch of designs for long horned cow Each species had two to three implements. I underwent an extended period of design and sketching based on the materials I'd collected and tested for each species.