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Beneath the Skin: Revealing the research that underpins the object

Recent years have seen increasing debate concerning the articulation and transmission of practice-led research in the crafts. Research for this exhibition explored ways that knowledge embodied in craft objects can be elicited, recorded, and made accessible. Examining how the exhibition as a research tool can be explored from a curatorial perspective, Hanson drew upon her own practice-led research and curatorial experiences, using the theoretical premise that craft practice is embedded with continuously evolving layers of meaning (Bentz and Shapiro 1998). Through observation and critical dialogues, using semi-structured interviews as a qualitative research method, the curator, as instrument of articulation, developed deep empathy with participants. (Documentation evidenced in the catalogue ISBN 978-1-84387-334-1 and online including a reflective essay http://www.beneath-the-skin.co.uk.)

Presenting the work of eight (metalwork and jewellery) academic researchers, 'Beneath the Skin' showed tangible, textual, and non-textual materials alongside finished objects. Displays were composed so that intellectual, visual, and material associations could be made between objects and fragments encountered. Visualising and articulating the complex, multi-faceted, non-linear journeys exposed shared issues and revealed the depth of material narrative. The exhibition funded by ACE opened at the SIA Gallery, UK (2011) as part of the Galvanize festival touring to Galerie Marzee, Netherlands (2012).

It was reviewed by Pamela Buxton, CRAFTS (Issue 229, 2011), and Dauvit Alexander, ACJ (Issue 31, 2011). A symposium (2011) debated issues connected to exhibitions as research, the challenges of articulating creative enquiries outside of traditional modes of documentation and the problem of creating physical repositories for archiving objects beyond digitisation. KeyPiece, a related experimental research exhibition, workshop/seminar (2009) was presented in a paper at the International Committee for Design History and Design Studies Conference, Brussels (2010) was critiqued by international writer/curator Gaspar (Journal of Craft Research, Volume 4, No 2, 2013) and documented online (http://www3.shu.ac.uk/keypiece/).