Home Ground exhibition - craft from our own backyard

Exhibition runs Saturday 20 September – Sunday 9 November

Devon Guild of Craftsmen, Bovey Tracey, Devon, TQ13 9AF

The exhibition takes its direction from Common Ground, a Dorset charity who explored the relationship between nature and culture through areas such as music, sculpture, poetry and film. The Devon Guild is breaking new ground by using the media of craft to celebrate the charity’s idea of ‘local distinctiveness’ or ‘the unique characteristics such as customs, myths or plants’ - of a neighbourhood or small community.

Home Ground showcases the work of twelve contemporary makers who value their ‘sense of place’ and use locally distinct or recycled materials found close to home - such as metal, textiles, willow, leather or wood.
Anna Bowen carves around fossil markings found in Dorset stone. Michelle Greenwood-Brown is allowed to pick through mountains of broken tiles found at the British Ceramic tile factory (Bovey Tracey). Lise Bech cultivates willow from her home in the uplands of Scotland. The local landscape provides a rich source of heather, moss and fibreplants which she weaves into her sculptures. There is even a hand-stitched football made from the skin of a roadkill deer (John Haggar).
For these makers, the ecology of natural materials is a vital part of their creative lives. Visitors to the show will discover more about the rich resources found in their own backyard, and that as well as buying local, you can ‘make local’ too!
Overall, we find beautiful and unusual works which reflect and sustain the makers’ locality, nature and culture - in an exhibition which endorses a real ‘home-grown’ way of making.
Exhibition is free and open daily 10am-5.30pm

Riverside Mill, home of Devon Guild of Craftsmen, is a hub for contemporary crafts culture in South West England. with galleries, shop and café, based in Bovey Tracey, Devon.

01626 832223 www.crafts.org.uk