Ypres2016—'Transition'

Banner Image of Ypres2016—'Transition'

Coinciding with Ypres 2016, the international blacksmithing event, held in Ypres, Belgium, as part of the World War One centenary commemorations. The BABA Exhibition Team was pleased to present 'Transition' - a major international, contemporary, forged metal design touring exhibition.

At Ypres, the exhibition was held at Kazematten, a large contemporary gallery space located just a few yards from the Menin Gate.

Led by Del Done, Course Leader for the BA in Artist Blacksmithing at Hereford College of Arts, the organising team felt that for the purposes of the exhibition, the notion of transition should take in the war's wider impact to encompass not only the military but also the human, social, political, technological, and physical transitions it brought about in the post-war world. As a result, the thirty-five pieces chosen by the international selection panel offered a diverse, thought-provoking and stimulating range of technical and creative responses to this deliberately wide brief.

The selected works were designed by blacksmiths from a fantastically wide range of nations and included pieces by some of the craft's most highly respected exponents. Del, Ambrose Burne and their crew of Hereford students did a first-rate job of putting together a professional and beautifully presented display of work

Many professionals, as well as students and apprentices, in the field of contemporary artistic blacksmithing, metal design, and metal art, applied in response to an open brief based around themes of Transition surrounding the events of World War I. This brief was purposely written to encourage a breadth of potential creative responses and outcomes.

The applicants considered many variations on the theme, including:

  • The role of the blacksmith in transition from war to peace.
  • Materials in transition – the re-use and re-purposing of World War I objects.
  • Landscape in transition – pre- and post-war.
  • Human transition – physical/mental and social.
  • Community transition – global impact both within the war zones and in communities of origin.
  • Transition through material and process.

A final selection of just thirty-five works was chosen by a panel of judges, comprising:
Professor Heiner Zimmermann. An ambassador of his craft, counted among renowned designers and artists worldwide.

Delyth Done. Delyth leads a team of lecturing staff at Hereford College of Arts. She is the Course Leader for the BA (Hons) in Artist Blacksmithing.

Elspeth Bennie. Elspeth Bennie is a sculpture graduate of the Glasgow School of Art and Saint Martin's in London. Her practice encompasses work ranging from the day-to-day staples of the working blacksmith to collaborative public art projects.

Jokum Lind Jensen. In 2010, Jokum undertook the BA and then the MA degree courses at Steneby in Sweden. Jokum works with a wide range of restoration, contemporary artist blacksmithing and public art projects.

Chris Porcarelli. Between his BA and MA degrees, Chris worked in many studios across western US and Europe. In 2012 he earned an MFA in Arts and Craft with a specialization in metal and public space, from Gothenburg University.

Many of the selected artists had strong emotive and cultural connections to World War I. The evocative works and the diverse artist-makers represented within the exhibition had a truly global breadth, with practitioners originating from the UK, Australia, Poland, Italy, Norway, USA, Russia, Japan, Sweden, Estonia, Germany, Belgium and Canada.

Following “Ypres 2016”, 'Transition' toured various locations within Europe, with the final destination being London in 2018, to coincide with the Armistice centenary celebrations.