a craftspace blog

04 Sep In:Site 2017 – Day 1 Monday 4th September

Posted at 10:14h in 2017, Festival by

It was a brilliant busy first day in Birmingham Cathedral Square.

As it was the last day of the summer holiday there was a steady stream of children excited to take part in the activities – which kept all the artists on their toes!

Chloe Greeves

Chloe graduated from University of Brighton with BA 3D Design and Craft. Chloe had brought with her a new camera obscura that she designed and made especially for In:Site festival. The camera obscura captured a fragmented kaleidoscope-like image of the square and many people (children and adults alike!) were delighted to see the surroundings in this way with several never having seen one before.

Chloe also brought a selection of her smaller objects, beautifully designed and great to hold up to gain a different view of the surroundings.

Interested to learn more about Chloe’s camera obscuras and her design process? Take a look at her website! 

  • Through the triangles you perceive your surroundings in a different way.
  • Three children are holding up triangles with a special view through the glass.
  • The In:Site sign on a banner with a lady walking past as seen through a camera obscura.
  • The triangle shows the inner cathedral upside down.

Courtenay Waring-Thomas

We had two University of Brighton graduates with us today! Courtenay also graduated from the 3D Design and Craft course this year.

Courtenay creates concrete urns containing bespoke materials that have an emotional value. Today at In:Site Courtenay was creating concrete vessels with the public – inspired by the heritage and trades of Birmingham.

There was an exciting variety of different materials that the public could add to their concrete vessels including colourful plastic fragments, inspired by the colours of the Edward Burne-Jones stained glass windows and even rice, as a homage to Birmingham’s famous Balti triangle!

Courtenay also created a selection of works containing coal, metal chains and spices with a focus on the heritage trades of Birmingham. These will be on display in the Cathedral for the remainder of In:Site week.

To find out more about Courtenay’s works please visit her website.

  • The mother presses the clay against the inner wall of the vessel to get the shape of the bowl.
  • There are many different decorative elements in the middle of the table for the bowl.
  • creating bowls from clay with special decorations like rice or plastic.
  • The delicate completed pieces were shown in a display case in the Cathedral.

Kristen Kong

Kristen graduated from the MA Textiles course from the Royal College of Art. Her practice focuses on using plastic manufacturing waste, colourfully dying them and stitching together to create exciting new sculptures.

At In:Site Kristen brought along many used contact lens cases to create an art work. She wanted to create a Birmingham time capsule, inviting the public to add their feelings and words through small paintings which were then enclosed in the individual contact lens cases with the central negative space revealing a silhouette of the Cathedral.

For more information on Kristen’s work visit her website. 

  • The finished painted pieces lie on a lid on the table.
  • Empty used contact lens cases, some with small drawn pictures inside.
  • The artist is very proud of the frame made from used contact lens cases

Sarah Christie and Jaguar Land Rover

We were thrilled to invite In:Site 2016 artist Sarah Christie back to Birmingham Cathedral Square for a week long residency – this time in collaboration with the clay modellers from Jaguar Land Rover.

Take a look at this blog post to find out more about how they got on during the week at In:Site 2017.

A passerby is working on the shape of the jaguer
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