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Vivienne Westwood talk at London Design Festival

“Everything we do is subsidising rich people”   Dame Vivienne Westwood net worth $50 million. I recently attended a London Design Festival talk by Vivienne Westwood titled ‘Sustainability Revolution: The Role of Activism in Designing a Sustainable Future’ and I want to talk about it. The title of the talk was merely an aspiration written by someone hopeful at the festival and it is a topic that would best suit Westwood to talk about, as someone who is known for her activist ethos and punk mentality. But obviously and admirably she does what she wants, and she decided to not talk about about activism or her role in designing for a sustainable future at all.  I went because I was interested in how her brand has evolved and the importance of sustainability in her work. I wanted to know how she can position herself a as a designer and head of a luxury fashion empire, (an industry that in the UK has the forth largest environmental impact after housing, transport a

02: Collect 2019: Softness is Craft

In our second episode, Softness is Craft, we review our trip to Collect 2019. The art fair is run by the Craft Council and takes place annually at the Saatchi Gallery. It showcases makers of all disciplines bound by the word "craft".

Collect comprises of individual galleries showcasing artists in a setting that sits in a strange space between gallery and shop, (I guess you could argue any exhibition is a shop to the super rich) these areas are small and sometimes ill curated, busy and other times beautifully considered and well executed, our favourite being Craft Scotland, with special mention to Petronilla Silver. Upstairs was Collect Open a showcase of individual makers in a more spacious curated area - we enjoyed the innovative hanging methods and framing of textiles pieces by Jan Bowman and Katherine Swailes.

In this episode we discuss the role of Collect as a exhibition and shop, what role this plays on the pieces and the audiences that engage with them. How this adds or takes away from the event as it is hosting under the guise of making money. The title of the show is ‘collect’, it presents collections of objects that buyers in turn, collect. Capitalism and Craft. We also discuss textiles within a gallery setting, their context and curation and the politics of TOUCH. Our favourite topics.

Some great quotes we overheard which perfectly sum up Collect:

"everybody is using porcelain nowadays"

"we haven't bought anything for the house in a couple of years so i'm looking forward to seeing what is here"

Access the episode:





 Notes and references in the episode:

6:34 -  Jan Bowman, Murmurations, a large scale installation made up of four separate pieces. Inspired by witnessing Starling Murmurations. 




10:05 - Martha Rieger 



17:02 - 50 Goldborne, works by Belkis Balpinar


Red Sun 
(Image taken from Artists website)



Dilation, 2014 
Weaving 





20:56 - Gallerie Chevalier, works by Francoise Paressant,



Le Voyage en Alsace (2014)
Hight warp tapestry, hand woven by the artist
Warp in cotton, weft in polyane






27:55 - Craft Scotland - our favourite stand

29:51 - works by Ruth Leslie




33:02 - The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo series, "Sometimes things that are expensive are worse"



35:13 - Gallerie Chevalier calling all their works, fiber art

36:14 -  Gallerie Chevalier works by Mathieu Ducourmau, Smiley, 2017 which we call the"fibourous emoji"



39:33 - Petronilla Silver, works by Ismini Samanidou




40:45 - Petronilla Silver,  works by Nicola Tassie, beautifully hung and beautiful shadows




As always thank you for listening!



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