The exhibition, supported by the Henry Moore Foundation and running until 26 November 2011, constitutes a major installation of new ceramic pieces resulting from an 18 month period of research as part of the Stanley Picker Fellowship programme here at Kingston University.
Westwood initiated this new body of work following a residency at The British School at Rome researching the origins of money and currency. A further period of research at the European Ceramics Work Centre (EKWC) in Holland resulted in the development of ambitious large-scale ceramic pieces, with much of the work for the final exhibition produced within the specialist ceramic workshop facilities at the Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture. The resulting installation of multiple elements locates itself somewhere between the factory-floor aspirations of mechanisation and the conspicuous-consumption of the executive environment.
These Hands Are Models is accompanied by a download-publication, available free from this site, as well as an artist-edition, both designed with Fraser Muggeridge Studio and including a newly commissioned text by Steven Claydon. The publications will be launched on Friday 14 October 2011 coinciding with Frieze Art Fair.
Westwood is due to continue his involvement with the research culture here at Kingston University, commencing an AHRC-funded PhD with the Fine Art School’s Centre for Useless Splendour.