Causing Chaos

Yesterday I went to the Causing Chaos symposium in St Andrews. The day began with a look round the Causing Chaos exhibition at St Andrews museum. The exhibition was a rare chance to see some great artists, among them Shari Pierce. I had to do a bit of research on Shari for a second year project, I hadn’t heard of her before that, and liked her work and the politics behind it straight away. I’d always though of Shari as a jeweller, however, yesterday she said she wasn’t a jeweller but an artist who utilised jewellery in her work, interestingly she also said her jewellery was made to be worn, I’d always viewed it as sculpture even though you can see work being worn on her web site.

In the grounds of the Museum there was a pewter casting workshop by Roddy Mathieson also known as Alchemy. Although I didn’t do a cast I went and watched as a lot of others did, it was very interesting and I still learned a few things.

Here are a few images showing the bellows used to keep the kiln hot enough to melt the pewter, a look into the kiln as pewter is added to the crucible, the crucible coming out of the kiln and pewter being poured into the moulds.

In the afternoon we went to a lecture theatre to listen to a couple of presentations by Richard Slee and Jane Simpson. Both talks were really interesting, giving a great insight into the artists work and inspirations. After that there was a panel discussion featuring the exhibition Curator and some of the artists, including Richard Slee, Jane Simpson and Shari Pierce.

Over all this was a very enjoyable day, well done to Fife Contemporary Art & Craft for organising it.  The exhibition is on until October 31st, go along for a look.