Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen said craft arises from repetition of a known skill-set but ultimately hinges on the maker embodying a “sincere constructive spirit”. Those three words are at the forefront of setting out to make Surrounding Objects. It is that quality or state of mind of being honest with oneself, ideas and materials that imbues made objects with meaning.

We recognise common building materials. For example; the board, the brick, sheet of plywood amongst others carries with it a historical significance and a preset of standards and dimensions. There is a cultural familiarity to these raw materials and a general understanding as to their purpose and capabilities. Reworking these basic singular building blocks suggests another scale, finer, more detailed versions of the old adage; to get the most out of something. What can you make with one board or one sheet of plywood?  Can the waste material have just as much meaning as the final assembled work?

Surrounding Objects explores these artistic treatments and tool actions and introduces a further preciousness that all raw materials have embodied within them, however common or ubiquitous.