SILO
Thursday 20th February - Saturday 4th July 2020
show info icon SHOW INFOhide info icon HIDE INFO

FOLD is pleased to present SILO a solo show by Will Cruickshank.

For his first solo show with the gallery Cruickshank presents a selection of floor and wall based objects, produced in his Epping studio, where he has been developing work for the past four years. A particular focus will be works from the period 2018 – 2019 when Cruickshank received Arts Council funding for his studio research.

SILO – the title of the exhibition – refers to the artist’s unique studio, which consists of three disused grain silos, on a farm in the middle of the Essex countryside. Truly distinctive in both location and design, they have been imaginatively repurposed by Cruickshank to create a workshop, a split-level studio and a viewing gallery.

Beginning with the spaces empty of work, Cruickshank developed his material and process based practice. His starting point was a crude form of wood turning, rotating a log on a cement mixer and carving it with a chainsaw. This device slowly grew and evolved to add thread and yarn and that led in turn to other machines for winding, weaving, and water carving. All are crafted from timber and found objects such as bicycle wheels, buckets and pans, and powered by old potters wheels and cement mixers.

Following and responding to the possibilities and idiosyncrasies of his materials and machines – Cruickshank’s approach to making sculpture is process and technique based. One thing leads to another… allowing an organic way of working with plenty of opportunity for creative flexibility. The constant refinement and development of his methods and machines, with a ‘whatever comes to hand’ approach, bring to mind a novice with all the wrong equipment. Though this would do an injustice to the final objects, which are truly beautifully produced and professionally finished.

‘Cruickshank’s method of meandering enquiry and his continuous reaching out towards different materials and processes sets him apart in some ways from other craft based makers or artists. Most of us find our tools and techniques and stay relatively close to their limitations, challenged by their restrictions. He is the opposite; utterly unconcerned by traditional boundaries between materials or processes and brave enough to adapt and invent the machinery he needs as he goes.’ Ptolemy Mann, Selvedge Magazine, April 2019.

Will Cruickshank, b.1974, London, UK. Based in London, works in Essex.
Awarded Arts Council England funding from 2018 – 2019 for his studio based material and process research.
Solo exhibitions: ‘Low Tide’, Coleman Project Space, London, 2019 and ‘Push and Pull’, Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth, 2018. Group exhibitions: ‘Parade’, Broadway Gallery, Letchworth, 2019; Gallery X, Royal Academy, London, 2019; ‘Entre Amis Deux’ French Riviera, London, 2019; ’Object Meditation’, After Nyne Gallery, London, 2019; ‘Open Construction’, Eastbury Manor, Barking, 2019; ‘Uptwist Downtwist’, Ty Pawb, Wrexham, Wales, 2019; ‘Harder Edge’, Saatchi Gallery, London, 2018; ‘Between Things’, The Minories Galleries, Colchester, Essex, 2017.