Collect 2021 preview: 8 makers turning unexpected materials into works of art

An artist’s practice is often fuelled by experimentation, be it with a new colour palette, medium or scale. But some like to push their own boundaries even further, bringing with them a plethora of unusual materials, from animal bones to kitchen roll. Amid the ceramics, glass and textiles set to be on show at this year’s Collect art fair, here’s our pick of some of the more unexpected materials and processes.

Jongjin Park (J Lohmann Gallery): kitchen paper roll, porcelain

Using so-called ‘crude’ materials such as kitchen paper and painting them with pigmented porcelain slip, Jongjin Park elevates the most humble of household items into something that appears fragile through its delicate layers. His millefeuille sculptures can use up to 1,000 paper sheets in one work.

Emma Witter (Ting-Ying Gallery): animal bones, shells

London-based maker Emma Witter takes a rather macabre material, and from it creates something so beautiful and ornate that you forget what you’re looking at. She begins her process by boiling the bones, before bleaching, drying, salting, sealing and sorting them – only then does she start glueing them to build her sculptures. At Collect, she will also exhibit an installation created during her residency with the Sarabande Foundation, The Living Dead (2020), using shells salvaged from Fortnum & Mason restaurant 45 Jermyn St.

Marcin Rusak (Sarah Myerscough Gallery): shellac, flowers, beeswax

Marcin Rusak’s process when creating his sculptural furniture sees him fossilise flowers in a natural shellac material, resulting in a painterly effect. The flowers come from excess accumulated by florists, and Rusak uses buds, stems and petals alike to create a surface detail reminiscent of veins found in marble, or details seen in wood. For Collect, the artist has developed a series of perishable vases made from flowers, beeswax and shellac, which will naturally decompose and disappear over time.

Julien Vermuelen (Maison Parisienne): feathers

Having started out in fashion, Vermuelen is now a plumassier, or in other words, a feather artisan. It is a rare craft practiced only by a few in his home country of France, and he fuses this traditional technique with contemporary forms, shapes and colours, so much so that the feather becomes almost unrecognisable.

Adam Buick (Ruthin Craft Centre): sea washed stoneware

With a starting point of a traditional Korean moon jar, Adam Buick takes his ceramics in a completely surprising direction with what he does with them after they take form, such as setting a fleet of them to sea with GPS trackers inside or leaving an unfired piece on top of a mountain to disintegrate. ‘Recently I have been taking jars into the sea before firing,’ says Buick of the work he will display at Collect. ‘My hope was that the salt in the water would give extra depth to the colour of the jar. Salt has been used for centuries as a glazing technique and although the process is very different I thought it interesting to use the natural salinity of sea water in this way.’

Imhathai Suwatthanasilp (ATTA ‘N’ ATTA Art Space): human hair, bra underwires

Imhathai Suwatthanasilp draws on themes of domestic life and feminine identity, through her works that make use of human hair. At a first glance, the pieces appear to be laced in thread, but the process actually involves covering a glass or ceramic structure in strands of hair, which are sometimes brightly coloured, to further add to its ambiguity as a material. During Collect she will exhibit Dreamcatcher (Bra Frame) Nos. 1-5, which incorporates shells and underwire-bra frames.

Andrea Salvatori (MADEINBRITALY): 3D printed ceramics, found objects

Italian artist Andrea Salvatori builds his work around found objects, which in the past have included Murano glass vases, Meissen porcelain miniatures or Ginori period ceramics sourced in flea markets around Europe. From them, he creates witty sculptures, that often encompass an unexpected element. In this series of vases that will be exhibited at Collect, Italian artist Andrea Salvatori disrupts the methodical process of 3D printing with spherical ceramic insertions.

Chris Day (Vessel Gallery): glass, ceramics, metal, found objects

For artist Chris Day, it’s less about unusual materials, but more about the way he combines them. Rather than going down either the glass, ceramic or metal route, he opted to work with all three. Using the techniques involved with each, he creates highly personal sculptural installations that centre on his British-Jamaican heritage, postcoloniality, the legacies of enslavement in the UK and global struggles faced by Black people.

Collect 2021 will take place online on Artsy.net from 26 February, with works on view and commissions available until 24 March. Follow the pre-fair action online and on Instagram at @collectartfair and #collect2021.