In the Garden: Curator's Selection
You have just one week left to shop In the Garden, our affordable fundraising art sale! To celebrate, we’ve invited three guest curators to select their favourite limited edition artworks, ceramics, prints, sculptures and more. Our last postage day is the 19 December, or you can pick up in person until the 21 December before Christmas. Objects will be available for sale online until 4 January.
Marcelle Joseph
Marcelle Joseph is an independent curator based in London. Her curatorial work focuses on gender and the performative construction of identity with an emphasis on material-led artistic practices. Marcelle also collects artworks by female-identifying artists under the collecting partnership, GIRLPOWER Collection, as well as more generally as part of the Marcelle Joseph Collection.
1) Melanie Jackson: The Howlers - "Beasties from medieval times - what’s not to like! And in ceramic - my current favourite collecting addiction!"
2) Olivia Mundy: Table Lamp - "The perfect bedside table lamp to keep you cozy while you enjoy your latest book this winter! And I love how the forms and colours of the ceramic base and the light bulb mimic each other in a humorous way."
3) Moe Redish: Garden Furniture, Chair - "Design at its best, appropriating one functional object to make another!"
Alice Vincent
Alice Vincent is a writer. Her books include Rootbound, Rewilding a Life and the forthcoming Why Women Grow. A columnist for Gardens Illustrated, Alice writes for The New Statesman, Vogue, The Guardian, The Telegraph and other titles, and is the features editor of Penguin.co.uk.
1) Mimi Lanfranchi: Umbels - "I'm a sucker for an umbel in most capacities but what I loved about these good-in-any-situation cards were the envelopes, which are stitched together and exciting from the minute they land on the doorstep."
2) Camille Biddell: Terracotta watering roses - "I really enjoy how these seem to have a secret superpower: is it a vase? No! It's a watering can! They have a gorgeous tactility, and are perfect for nurturing seeds come the spring."
3) William Leach: Parapet window boxes - "You'd be amazed at how difficult it is to find beautiful windowboxes. I'd fill these with red pelargoniums. I love the scalloped edge!"
Portrait Photography by Giles Smith
Vanessa Murrell
Vanessa Murrell is a curator, educator and writer. She founded contemporary art platform DATEAGLE ART (@dateagleart) in 2017, where she has interviewed 200+ UK-based emerging artists. She is the co-founder of YE Collective (@yecollective), a curatorial collective co-creating cultural actions amplifying solidarity against any abuse of power in the Postdigital Age.
1) Benjamin Arthur Brown: lemon flavoured snowman on a garden chair - “he portrays a human-like snowman perched on a lawn chair. Although the sculpture makes use of childlike gestures and sweet colors, its three stacked heads are changing moods from happy to sad, and it is seated instead of standing - implying it has either aged or is too young to stand. It is as if the white plastic chair (the kind we sit on in beach cafes and friends' gardens) is extending the snowman's many faces and completing its body, so it becomes a character of its own!”
2) Melania Toma: Larva I & II - "reassembles wool and silk into a tactile work in which its title refers to the stage of transformation of many animals after birth and before adulthood. This metamorphosis is accentuated by its fullness of color and intensity, especially within her contrast of blue, red, and yellow primary colors with black and white yarns. I am drawn to this piece because of its raw material.”
3) Camilla Bliss: Serpent Candelabra - “draws inspiration from the dual-headed serpent symbolizing rebirth as it sheds its old skin. It also signifies the dualities between earth and underworld embodied in each head. In addition, it may be interpreted either as a typographic code for 'w' or as a sign of union between two creatures lighting fire together. In addition to the beautiful curves of the glazed ceramic piece, I really like the fact that it is as much a work of art as it is a candle holder with flickering light!”
Portrait photography by Brynley Odu Davies