Touchy Subject: Harry Chadwick & Bonnie Mustoe-Whitehill

5 Oct-23 Dec 2022

Overview

This exhibition showcases the work of two recent graduates from the BA (Hons) Craft and Material Practices course at Arts University Plymouth. Utilising the interplay of sight and touch, one of the artist’s works are visually tactile, inviting the impulse to touch, while the other is literally tactile, allowing physical interaction with the objects. Through these works we can explore different ways of seeing visually and haptically.

Harry Chadwick’s ‘Pop Futurism’ sculptures draw inspiration from Futurism and Pop Art, and reference his former career as an engineer, welder and fabricator. The familiar silhouettes of tools that Harry would use in the workshop are cut from steel and powder coated with bright colours. Contained within these tough outer shells is sheet glass, each layer resonating upwards from an invisible action. The artist’s choice of such familiar objects tempts handling whilst the fragility of the glass dictates that we should not touch, and must instead suspend disbelief to imagine the impact and meeting of materials when the tools are put to use.

Since graduating, Harry has taken part in several high profile exhibitions, and received the Glass Sellers Student Award at the 2022 British Glass Biennale.

Bonnie Mustoe-Whitehill is a research led, mixed media artist, and creator of ‘Please Touch’. Bonnie’s work, which plays on the museological phrase, ‘please do not touch’, embraces playfulness in order to reveal the visuotactile qualities of art objects. She has developed a series of intriguing tactile objects with surprising material qualities and in creating these pieces is able to engage audiences in mindful exploration and the psychology of touch, with the hope that these interactions will lead to reduced feelings of stress and anxiety. You are invited to handle the works respectfully, satisfying any innate impulses to touch the work.

Bonnie continues to explore under-utilised materials such as foam glass, and has recently exhibited at the OXO tower in collaboration with artist Beatrice Mayfield.

Arts University Plymouth is the newest partner to participate in the Platform Graduate Award initiative led by CVAN South East.