In the Garden Room Gallery at Dartington Space
Susan Deakin and Kari Furre:
intimate sculpture, fish skin bowls, prints and drawings
August 3 – October 15 2016
Susan Deakin’s drawings and prints reflect a long connection with the countryside of the South Hams, home for most of her life. Attention to the ‘local’ has been fundamental for this artist. Close observation and a deep appreciation of what goes on in her garden and allotment result not only in plentiful, varied food, but also a nurturing of the spirit and the soil.
In the cultivation of food plants, she finds aesthetic delights that move her to forge links between the roles of gardener and artist.
Her work uses many media, sometimes using plants themselves, to present a small part of the natural world for the consideration of the viewer.
Kari Furre responds to the world by making sculpture and by swimming all year out of doors. These activities are linked particularly though her choice of fish skin as working material.
Locally sourced skins are transformed into pliable, sweet-smelling leathers by tanning, using homely substances such as oil, egg and willow bark. Kari studied these techniques in Sweden and Iceland where there is a tradition of tanning skins on a domestic scale.
In this exhibition whole skins are presented, inviting us to re-value a material that is usually discarded as waste product. These membranes and translucent fish-leather bowls, so redolent of the sea, suggest a second, more enduring life for the fishes.
Kari has a long, distinguished history of making, mastering many processes and materials; this exhibition offers a small taste.