and the informality of the custom persists. Neither Adi Toch nor Simone ten Hompel, for example, writes formulae down: this is an intuitive and oral tradition which sits well with certain makers’ approach to their work. Adi says, ‘I enjoy the serendipity of the patinas and the colour. I don’t want to reproduce the same effect again and again. I try different things each time and I want different results; I enjoy spontaneity and 7 risk.’ Many of the chemical techniques, including those compiled by Rowe and Hughes in their comprehensive catalogue, are hazardous in terms of handling and the gases produced; the resources required are scarce and expensive; and the waste materials are highly toxic. Concerns about sustainability and environmental responsibility, and tightening health and safety precautions, have compromised or even removed opportunities for learning and practising chemical colouring techniques in most educational institutions. We might ask whether the boom in colouration techniques of the 1980s and 1990s represents a peak of freedoms in studio
and academic practice: was it the catalyst for an enduring movement in colour in metal, or was its real impact short-lived? Who are the key exponents of a reduced range of environmentally acceptable and reliable practices? Many of the practitioners here strongly advocate safer methods of achieving colour – through heat and relatively benign domestically available chemicals. Risks taken by pioneers inevitably pave the way for new techniques and a changed aesthetic, to be readily adopted into the range of possibilities by the next generation of practitioners. We can see here pioneers of a new aesthetic in metalwork: those pursuing experimental surface treatments at the same time as new forms, seeking that fine balance between form, colour and texture. And then there are those deploying patinated surfaces in conceptual pieces as a nod to history (Max Warren), natural processes (Stuart Cairns) or other more personal and political narratives (Roxanne Simone). Notions of value in metal artworks are largely relaxed, and the combination of the overtly precious with the colourmanipulated is charged and vibrant.
5 Sugru is a patented multipurpose brand of silicone rubber invented by Jane Ní Dhulchaointigh from Kilkenny. 6 The 2016 London Goldsmiths’ Fair hosted an exhibition, Silver: The Dark Side, curated by Brian Kennedy, and in the same year the Holburne Museum, Bath, presented Silver Light and Shade, curated by Catrin Jones and Vanessa Brett. Both exhibitions examined the potential of British silver to take on different colour via patination and heat treatment, but this is the first exhibition since 1993 to profile the use of base metals with precious and focus primarily on the use of colour. It also takes a more international view. 7 Interview with Adi Toch and Simone ten Hompel, 2016.
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