London Art Fair 2013

A trip to London Art Fair (in the snow) yielded some interesting results: two artists working with Willow Pattern. I have flagged up both of them before, but never seen them at the Art Fair.

First up: Robert Dawson, showing on the Axisweb stand in the 'Art Projects' area. I first came across Dawson's work in July 2010 when he was showing at Jerwood Space, although he has been working with the Willow Pattern since at least 1996. I didn't see this piece then; in Spin, Dawson alludes to the spinning used to make a plate – but the only spinning here was done on his computer, then transfer printed onto bone china. Lovely.

c Robert Dawson Spin (detail) 2010.

Spin as it was shown in the Axisweb.org space

Second up: Paul Scott – who I discovered around the same time as Robert Dawson and who was part of the offering at Brighton gallery ink-d, who specialise in mostly urban/street art and were positioned on the mezzanine floor.

Hard to ignore on ink-d's stand was "artivist" (art activist) Carrie Reichardt aka The Baroness with her large politically slanted mosaics.

In the prestigious section on the ground floor near the entrance was Millennium Gallery showing German artist Caro Suerkemper who was working in porcelain and blue and white with an erotic narrative.

Meanwhile, back up in the Art Project space, Woolff Gallery were showing this by Keith Haynes. Not blue and white of course, but I mention it because I was cutting out vinyl records in 1997.

Robert Dawson

Robert Dawson Willow Pattern with Uncertainty, print on bone china, dia. 27 cm, 2003

Robert Dawson is currently showing this piece at Jerwood Contemporary Makers, Jerwood Space, London

"This exhibition at the Jerwood Space in south London, the third in a series, shows us work by applied artists that has stolen a march on all those stuck-up fine artists out there. It is a collection of unique, hand-made objects crafted in a variety of materials, including felt, glass, clay, wood, plastic and woven basketware.

"These are works that often begin in the idea of usefulness, and then do a unique sideways drift into something slightly odder...Look at Robert Dawson's Willow Pattern with Uncertainty, for example, a bone-china dinner plate overprinted with that oh-so-familiar willow pattern. Except that this is not quite true. It is over-printed only in part. As your eye moves across the plate, the patterning begins to fog, fade, mist over. You are denied that customary pleasure..."

Review by Michael Glover, The Independent, 29 June 2010


More work by Robert Dawson pertaining to Willow Pattern, taken from his website www.aestheticsabotage.com:

Robert Dawson Can you walk from the garden, does your heart understand, 

print on bone china, each plate dia 27cm, 1996

Robert Dawson Old New Borrowed Blue, 

print on ceramic tiles, 3.6x7.35m, 2008, Churchill Hospital, Oxford

Robert Dawson In Perspective Willow 1, 

print on bone china, dia.27cm, limited edition, 1996