Enjoy these highlights from Collect

Chloë Ashby shares the stories of some of the most exciting objects on display at the fair 

It’s perhaps unsurprising that a sense of place and cultural identity defines many of the craft and design objects created over the past five years. In times of uncertainty, there’s comfort to be found in familiar surroundings, from the home to nature. It’s a theme that quickly becomes apparent at Collect 2022, the leading international fair for contemporary craft and design, which returns this week to Somerset House in London as a hybrid fair following its digital-only event last February. The 18th edition brings together 40 international galleries and an unprecedented number of new artists, who are reimagining old art forms and pushing the boundaries with their materials and techniques. As ever, Collect is as much a celebration of the artists as their work – and so, without further ado, here are five to look out for.

ARKO, Sarah Myerscough Gallery

‘When I think about my roots and ancestry, rice always comes to mind,’ says the Japanese artist ARKO. ‘Rice is a staple food in Japan that we have been eating since ancient times; it is a cultural artefact, as well as a food.’ After becoming interested in the role that rice plays within society, she started creating sculptures with rice straw, a by-product traditionally used to make everyday items such as coats, shoes, carrier bags and tools. Today, other than being used to fashion festoons for Shinto New Year ceremonies, it’s overlooked, despite the vast amounts of rice still being produced for consumption. With her handsewn creations, ARKO hopes to change that; she aims to shine a light on the history and culture tied up with this ancient material. A crop of her straw sculptures is mounted on the walls of Sarah Myerscough Gallery, glowing golden yellow against white. 

Björk Haraldsdóttir, Cavaliero Finn 

Björk Haraldsdóttir takes inspiration from both natural and man-made forms. The Icelandic architect-turned-artist approaches her ceramic sculptures as she would larger structures, meticulously planning and sketching before breaking ground. She hand-builds with slabs of rolled-out clay, which she dries before cutting and joining; after adding a couple of layers of black or white slip, she scores into the surface and scrapes away patches to reveal a dynamic geometric pattern. Along with architecture, Haraldsdóttir is inspired by Icelandic folklore – in particular the elves, or so-called hidden people, who are thought to reside in the hills and come out just occasionally to dance. Positioned on and below a mantlepiece in Cavaliero Finn’s room at Collect, her figure-like forms stand tall but not entirely straight, their textured surfaces gently curved like cloth, or even stooped shoulders. 

photo Anna Autio

Marianne Huotari, Officine Saffi 

It’s not often that you’re invited to touch an artwork, but then, not all artworks are calling out to be touched. Marianne Huotari’s ceramic wall hangings are handsewn with wire and small pieces of clay painted in shades of mint, rose, orange, blue and violet. For the self-taught Helsinki-based artist, these rug-like works are a means of slowing down, the craftsmanship required to make them repetitive and time-consuming, a balm in today’s busy world. There’s something earthy about their appearance, with bits of sea blue and forest green; clusters of pale pink resemble coral, while some fragments take the shape of delicate shells and veined petals. Stand in front of them for long enough and, like leaves in the wind, the individual forms and patterns begin to ripple and flow. They may be about taking things slow, but Huotari’s ceramic pieces hum with energy.

Steffen Dam, Joanna Bird Contemporary Collections 

You’d be forgiven for thinking that Steffen Dam’s Cabinet of Curiosities contained real, or at least fossilised, sea creatures. Stored in glass tubes of varying heights are jellyfish-like forms with thread-thin tentacles and other seemingly fluid natural objects. ‘Many people see glass as hard, brittle, shiny stuff,’ says Dam, who originally trained as a toolmaker. ‘I don’t see it that way at all. To me it’s a liquid.’ The Danish artist spent 10 years practising the established techniques of glassmaking before discovering the beauty that can be found in unwanted fissures and cracks. Here, air bubbles create the impression that the glass creatures before us, magnified in their cylinders, are rising to the surface. Beautifully precise, this imaginative work – which takes its cue from the cabinet of curiosities, or Wunderkammer, that first appeared in Renaissance Europe – is at once ethereal and firmly rooted in our world.

Alice Kettle, Flower Queen, 2021

Alice Kettle, Candida Stevens Gallery

The light filtering through Somerset House’s large, arched windows catches on the flickers of metallic thread used by Alice Kettle in her contemporary tapestries and lends them a special sheen. The British textile artist translates the experience of being in the world into art and is often inspired by time and place – in this case, Somerset House from the mid-16th century to the beginning of the 18th century. At Collect, four portraits show the queens who resided in the palatial building, along with flowers and greenery – a nod to the garden that Kettle planted and watched grow while working from home in 2020. Composed of thick and thin coloured threads, which the artist has stitched onto linen, these vibrant works are at once bold and intricate, fragile and dense. They may recall colossal medieval tapestries, and the new-age embroideries of Kiki Smith, but Kettle’s visual narratives are entirely original.

SEE

Collect 2022 at Somerset house until 27 February

craftscouncil.org.uk