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Kelham Island Museum

More about this work

What is the Matter?

Funded by Arts Council England

http://materialvoice.com/what-is-the-matter/

Material Voice is a collective of seven women artists – Heliya Badakhshan, Gillian Brent, Mandy Gamsu, Seiko Kinoshita, Kate Langrish-Smith, Clee Claire Lee and Sarah Villeneau.

Sculptural works by women artists from the Material Voice collective amongst the displays at Kelham Island Museum.

Material Voice have responded to artefacts and stories from the Museum’s displays and collections by making sculptural works that give new perspectives and interpretations.

‘Lathe I’
‘Lathe II’
‘Lathe III’ 2019

Paper, Valchromat, PVA glue

Drawn to the unexpected beauty of industrial machinery, Seiko reworked the design of lathe machine components, remaking their forms out of fragile materials.

By removing their practical purpose, she brings focus to the objects’ purely aesthetic qualities. Using intricate hand craft skills, including paper cutting, Seiko duplicates the shapes of these pieces of industrial design. By encouraging visitors to study the incidental patterns created by necessity, she asks us to appreciate the hidden elegance and technique captured in these forms.

She has inverted both material and colour, replacing the industrial grey of durable steel with vibrantly colourful fine paper. Intimate and handheld in size, the sculptures contrast with the large-scale machine.