Perspective Illusions: Cube III

Perspective Illusions: Cube III

Perspective Illusions: Cube III

By: Kate Harrison, 1998
Medium: cast bronze
Size: 65 x 61mm
Cast by: the artist
Edition: 16

Category:

Kate Harrison was born in the Potteries in Staffordshire in 1949. She studied at Newcastle School of Art and Burslem School of Art before being accepted at Loughborough College of Art to study ceramics. At the end of her first year she changed discipline and completed her degree in metals in the Silversmithing and Jewellery Department. Whilst there she also studied in the Sculpture School. She graduated in 1970 and has combined a career of maker and teacher ever since. She taught BA (Hons) students at Sheffield Hallam University, Staffordshire University, and De Montfort University. In 1978 she returned to Loughborough College of Art as a lecturer, becoming senior tutor in charge of silversmithing and jewellery in 1986, a position she still retains. She has been employed as an external advisor at London Guildhall University, the University of Central England, and Falmouth School of Arts. She has also served as external examinar at the University of Ulster in Belfast and the University of Newcastle in Northumbria, and is at present external examiner for Sheffield Hallam University for a new MA metalwork and jewellery course. She established the art medal at Loughborough eleven years ago (see “The Medal”, 26 (1995), pp. 110-13), and celebrated the first decade of student successes last year by organising a one-day conference entitled ‘The Art Medal: a diverse medium for expression’, intended to further the art form in education and to encourage more young artists to involve themselves in medal-making. She has produced her own medals and has exhibited as a staff member in the BAMS Student Medal Project. Her medal Perspective Illusions: Cube III was selected for exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1998 and for FIDEM at the Hague. Recently she was commissioned to produce a medal to celebrate Loughborough College of Art becoming part of Loughborough University. Of her medal for BAMS, Perspective Illusions: Cube III, the artist says, ‘Each medal is a voyage of discovery. I begin by imposing my ideas of rigid structure but there is a point where the medal “takes over” and suggests its own composition and surface quality. At this stage I lost myself, forget time, and learn. This medal is part of a series of explorations into the illusion of three-dimensional structures in shallow relief. I particularly like the way that light plays across the surface and I have used patination to accent shadow and depth. I enjoy working in this intimate art form, for it allows one to explore structures by touch. Because of this I utilise various surface finishes, contrasting highly polished edges with textured facets. The view of the side of the medal is as important as the obverse and reverse; the weight is also important, and I enjoy the irregularities of the casting process that gives each medal its own finger-point’