Within.Without
Press Release
Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Rämistrasse
28 October – 23 December 2022
Opening Reception: Thursday 27 October 2022, 6 pm – 8 pm
Featuring Peter Bauhuis, Helen Carnac, Alexander deVol, David Gates, Akiko Hirai, Harry Morgan, Julia Obermaier, Derek Wilson.
Hauser & Wirth is delighted to announce the first exhibition in Zurich of Make Hauser & Wirth. Originating in Somerset, England, Make launched in 2018 to showcase exceptional contemporary craft by leading artist-makers from around the world.
On view at the gallery’s space on Rämistrasse, ‘Within.Without’ presents multidisciplinary works by eight established artist-makers, spanning disciplines from wood, ceramic and gemstone to metal, glass and concrete. Curated by Jacqueline Moore, Senior Director of Make Hauser & Wirth, the exhibition honours both traditional techniques and new and evolving notions of material investigation, highlighting the creative excellence and vision of the makers’ individual practices and in turn, suggesting the true breadth of contemporary craft. Informed by a dedication to knowledge, process and experimentation, the objects on view reveal an intuitive response to interior and exterior form and material properties.
The exhibition will include works by David Gates, Helen Carnac, Derek Wilson and Alexander deVol. ‘Within. Without’ also features LOEWE Foundation Craft Prize finalists, Akiko Hirai (2019), Harry Morgan (2019), Peter Bauhuis (2021) and Julia Obermaier (2022). Among the compositions and multiple assemblages on display will be Hirai’s texturally rich ceramic moon jars imbued with an animate energy; the hand carved forms of deVol that reveal the inherent properties of wood; altered vessels by Wilson exploring the fluid potential of geometry, and the jewellery of Obermaier which connects a sense of interiority with the outer world.
Jacqueline Moore, Senior Director of Make Hauser & Wirth, says: ‘We are thrilled to bring Make Hauser & Wirth to Zurich for the first time since its inception in Somerset in 2018. Over the past four years, we have held 22 exhibitions in locations across the UK, Europe and US which have celebrated some of the best independent designer-makers working today. We’re thrilled to introduce such an outstanding selection of artist-makers for Make’s first presentation in Switzerland, the birthplace of Hauser & Wirth and home to a great tradition of makers and craftsmen.’
About Make
Make Hauser & Wirth is a dedicated space for contemporary making and the crafted object, committed to showcasing some of the world’s best emerging and established artist-makers. Make is a natural extension of the wider Hauser & Wirth gallery ethos, embracing art, craft, gardens, food and architecture. Since launching in 2018 in Somerset, UK, Make has presented work by over eighty artist-makers and provided valuable insights into material-led processes and the rich narratives of their practices. In summer 2022, Make opened its second outpost in Southampton NY.
Works exhibited by Make embrace material truth, provenance, sustainability and the value of emotional engagement with the handmade. In addition to a varied exhibition program, Make has hosted practical workshops, discussions and studio visits to expand learning and engagement with makers and global craft organizations.
About the Makers
Akiko Hirai, Moon Jar Large ‘Earth’, 2022. Courtesy Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Dave Watts
L-R: Harry Morgan, Untitled, 2021; Harry Morgan, Untitled ll, 2021; Harry Morgan, Untitled l, 2021; Harry Morgan, Untitled l, 2021. Courtesy Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Dave Watts
Peter Bauhuis
Peter Bauhuis is fascinated by the possibilities presented by the process of casting and melting metals. Playfully engaging with controlled chance, his vessels are characterised by the unexpected effects created by fusing different alloys and playing with oxidation. Apparent mistakes, such as fine lines or cracks and visible traces left by the casting process, are not removed but integrated into the form of the objects. The result is a remarkable lightness and a reinvention of forms that are seemingly very simple. Embracing these different approaches, his technique of simultaneous metal pouring allows him to arrive at a complex oeuvre that expresses an intrinsic curiosity. Bauhuis explores the ways in which our relationship to perception, meaning and function is with subtle humour.
Helen Carnac
At the core of Helen Carnac’s work sits unfired enamel disrupted by incisions and drawn lines into the surface and areas scraped away to reveal the steel below. The vitreous enamel, when fired, is fused to the surface of the steel and becomes a new surface. The expressions are largely abstract, yet nevertheless always imbued with something lively and vibrating. Carnac herself considers the bowl form as a three- dimensional surface on which to ‘draw.’ Exploring the explicit connections between material, process and maker, the combination of vitreous enamel and steel – a process and material most usually found in an industrial context – is the focus of Carnac’s practice.
Alexander deVol
Alexander deVol examines the material properties of unseasoned, high-moisture wood from recently felled trees, taking care to preserve the features he feels are aesthetically synonymous with the material’s origin. His work focuses on co-operation with the material, allowing the characteristics and natural behaviour of green wood to influence his design during the crafting process. As his work seasons, the wood continues to be active, naturally altering in form and colour and rendering each piece truly unique. The outcome is an object sculpted in collaboration between maker and material.
David Gates
Questioning form and function, David Gates combines studio-furniture making with formal research, creating three-dimensional pieces inspired by cabinet furniture. Structurally and visually his work reflects a fascination with the vernacular asymmetric forms of industrial and agricultural architecture, while working with a rich repertoire of traditional techniques. For the exhibition, Gates draws on the rightness and expediency of agricultural constructions such as silos, sheds, gantries and barns, interrogating rural structural and sculptural qualities to provide the basis for his ongoing exploration of the collecting cabinet as a furniture type.
Akiko Hirai
For Akiko Hirai, the deliberate imperfections and impurities that emerge through the firing process reflect her interest in the human condition. Encrusted with an almost volcanic, geological aesthetic, the focus of Hirai’s work is revealed by the degree of intervention and disruption, exploring the animate in the inanimate, breathing life into a static form. She is observing the outer and inner self through the exterior and interior of the vessel, the surface tension and the asymmetry that has become synonymous with her forms.
Harry Morgan
Harry Morgan’s approach to making fluctuates between the use of intuition, geometry and material expression. Morgan’s sculptural forms in glass and concrete are characterised by the paradoxical marrying of these materials and his experimental approach to traditional processes. He challenges both the physical and cultural connotations of his chosen materials, reimagining the ancient craft of the Venetian glassblowing technique, ‘murrini.’
Julia Obermaier
Playing with notions of the second view, Julie Obermaier’s unconventional jewellery pieces bring to light the moments that would otherwise go unnoticed. Through a process of skilled delicacy, Obermaier approaches the limits and secrets of the stones to construct new spaces, hollowing insides with corners and nooks. Thin slices of coloured gemstone fragments have been layered and overlapped to create sections of contrasting opacity and then joined together using coloured resin. Enclosing a blank space, she intends for the free space generated to hold the wearers own personal feelings, perceptions and sensations. A means to protect the wearer’s inner space, like a second skin.
Derek Wilson
Ceramicist Derek Wilson focuses on using the potter’s wheel as a tool for making an eclectic range of functional and sculptural objects. Central to Wilson’s practice is a process of altering and assembling, which involves the reconstruction of archetypal vessels into complex abstract forms, drawing emphasis on the subtle tonalities in surface quality and the distribution of light and shadow. Questioning functionality, he uses the vessel as a means of artistic expression by exploring free and geometric abstraction, as well as the dialogue and points of convergence between the utilitarian and the sculptural.
About Jacqueline Moore
Jacqueline Moore joined Hauser & Wirth Somerset in July 2018 to establish the Make gallery in Bruton, Somerset, UK. She spent over twenty years as the director of a London photography agency, representing photographers across design, advertising and editorial, directing and producing global campaigns and curating photography exhibitions. Throughout this period, she was an ambassador and patron of The Photographers Gallery, London, UK. In 2014, she established the pop-up Moore Gallery to promote and support the work of artist-makers in London and Somerset, having been a passionate collector of the crafted object and contemporary craft for many years, with a special interest in British studio ceramics, wood sculpture and the evolution of material investigation in the applied arts.
About Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Rämistrasse
Hauser & Wirth Rämistrasse is located in Zurich’s historic central cultural district on the same street as Hauser & Wirth Publishers HQ. A home to our private sales activity, Hauser & Wirth Rämistrasse is surrounded by renowned establishments which have hosted an international community of artists and intellectuals for more than a century, including Zurich’s Schauspielhaus, Kunsthaus, Opera House, Kronenhalle and Café Odeon. The historic building is adjacent to a public courtyard garden and one of the most important baroque houses in Zurich, ‘Haus zum Garten’.
For additional information, please contact:
Maddy Martin, Hauser & Wirth, maddymartin@hauserwirth.com +44 7585 979564 (Europe)
Anna-Maria Pfab, Hauser & Wirth, annamariapfab@hauserwirth.com, +41 79 965 50 89 (Europe)
Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Rämistrasse
Rämistrasse 16, 8001
Zürich, Switzerland