In dialogue at Make Hauser & Wirth Somerset

Join Jacqueline Moore, Director of Make Hauser & Wirth Somerset, together with David Gates and the contributing makers in ‘David Gates: in dialogue’ for an introduction to the exhibition and the artists’ work and practices. The cabinet of curiosities has inspired Gates’ most recent work and the collecting cabinet as an interface between furniture, people, architecture and material culture is the primary motif in the exhibition. In keeping with this theme, Jacqueline Moore together with David Gates have invited a selection of international artist-makers to submit works for display around the cabinets. This is a unique opportunity to meet David Gates, Helen Carnac, Harry Morgan, Rosa Nguyen, Ismini Samanidou, Mark Reddy, Mr. Smith, Katie Spragg and Andrea Walsh. You will also have the opportunity to interrogate all the works on display. These include cast glass and fine bone china objects by Andrea Walsh, be-jewelled thimble pieces by Romilly Saumarez Smith and concrete and glass sculptures by Harry Morgan. David Gates combines studio-furniture making with formal research, creating three-dimensional pieces inspired by cabinet furniture. He studied Furniture and Product Design at Ravensbourne College of Art and Design, UK. He holds a PhD from King‘s College London having researched the use of language as an aspect of practice amongst professional craftspeople. Gates has exhibited internationally and his work features in a number of public collections. Helen Carnac is a maker, curator and thinker who considers drawing, mark-making, material and process and an emphasis on deliberation and reflection central to her practice. She has exhibited and lectured internationally. For ‘in dialogue: David Gates’, Carnac has contributed enamel vessels and jewellery. Mark Reddy takes the modest form of the spoon and imbues it with symbolic expression. Reflecting on the idea of the collecting cabinet, with its drawers, shelves, voids, niches and secret spaces, Reddy has produced a series of assemblages skilfully created from green wood cut and foraged locally. Mr. Smith is a letterpress typographer. From his workshop in Bruton, Somerset, he designs, sets and prints type using traditional technology with a contemporary approach. For the exhibition, Mr Smith has produced a hand-made book that takes as its inspiration the most useful tool in the workshop; a Type Scale. Rosa Nguyen creates installations, objects and displays that incorporate ceramic and glass, inspired by botany and Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arranging. For the exhibition, Nguyen explores natural elements and organic forms with a fusion of western and oriental sensibilities. Her work is represented in commercial galleries, museums, retail outlets as well as private commissions. Katie Spragg is a ceramicist whose work for this exhibition responds to her local landscape of East Sussex. Her sculptures explore how nature grows and thrives at the edges of urban, agricultural or industrial land. Spragg’s work is held in many museum and gallery collections and she has a forthcoming exhibition at the Garden Museum, London. ‘David Gates: in dialogue’ is an exploration of containment, materiality, and the desire to collect, assemble, order and display. The exhibition runs until 12 October 2019 at Make Hauser & Wirth Somerset. This is a free event, but booking is recommended. Please note this event will take place at Make Hauser & Wirth Somerset, 13 High Street, Bruton, Somerset, BA10 0AB.