Photo Credit Eleanor Bruce, Bruce Fine Papers
Layered Legacies is a room installation of hand block printed wallpaper. Its design is based on Kambo’s research into honouring the human touch present in the marks, carvings and designs found in the historic collections and crafted decorative interiors at Harewood House.
Rather than mere decoration, Kambo’s wallpaper is conceived as a portal mapping craft artistry through the centuries. It presents a constellation of visual motifs drawn from her research into the global exchange of ideas and styles across Harewood’s collections. The floral and landscape motifs are inspired by the work of Armenian ceramicist David Ohannessian who in the early 1920s founded an important ceramics workshop and school in Jerusalem. The theme of cyclic human movement and creativity references the infinite decorative loops in the design of Robert Adam’s plaster ceilings. The fret lattice motif honours the anonymous artisan skills that created the hand-painted 18th century Chinese wallpaper. The urn and palmette motifs found across Harewood’s collections derive from the visual language of ancient Egypt.
The wallpaper was printed by Bruce Fine Papers using traditional hand block craft techniques.
Photo Credits Eleanor Bruce, Bruce Fine Papers
The third Harewood Biennial Create / Elevate celebrates the power of craft to surprise, inspire and bring people together to imagine new worlds. Presented within Harewood House and across its landscapes and gardens, it brings together the work of 16 British and international artists, designers and craft collectives including four major new commissions.
Showcasing a range of arts and crafts techniques, the exhibition shows how artists use craft for cross-generational knowledge sharing which is generous and the foundation of most things we know, use and value. It offers fresh perspectives on Harewood’s collections while exploring timely themes including local and global ecologies.
The contemporary exhibits provide new ways to engage with the centuries of craft artistry embedded within the interiors of Harewood House. Create/Elevate shows how artists and makers work collectively to affect societal change and promote social equity. Exhibits encourage fresh ways for audiences to engage the spaces and gardens of Harewood House, including actively, playfully and multi-sensorially.
Exhibiting artists, makers and collectives: Arabeschi di Latte, BEIT Collective with Hamza Mekdad, Botanique Studios, Britto Arts Trust, Rebecca Chesney, Emefa Cole, Common Threads, Jakup Ferri, Rosa Harradine, Jan Hendzel, Mani Kambo, Hew Locke, Kusheda Mensah, Temitayo Ogunbiyi, Lucia Pizzani and Xanthe Somers.
Curated by Ligaya Salazar and Darren Pih.
Photo Credit Eleanor Bruce, Bruce Fine Papers
Photo Credit Eleanor Bruce, Bruce Fine Papers
Photo Credit Eleanor Bruce, Bruce Fine Papers
About Bruce Fine Papers
Established in 1994 by Alex Bruce, Bruce Fine Papers has remained a family run company now employing two generations who work together to hand produce this traditional craft product.
Naomi and Alex are the current team behind the company, working together in both business and marriage with their children Ellie and Jake on the production and design team. A small team of 8, Bruce Fine Papers is a bespoke company keeping the traditional craft of Hand Block Printing alive here in the UK.