News and events

Designers of the future

Published 8 July 2010

Exhibiting in one of the world' s greatest museums is a lifelong dream for any artist but it has already come true for three 22-year-old students.

Hayley Zierold, Alice Walton and Katie Spragg are due to graduate from the University of Brighton with first-class honours degrees and their work is now on display at London's Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) as part of a four-way collaboration project involving the Royal College of Art (RCA) and the Royal Institute of British Architects.

The collaboration enables students and academics to study and work with each other, and Culture Minister Ed Vaizey is encouraging other universities and museums to follow suit to extend learning and research opportunities throughout the country.

He spoke at a V&A conference (1 July) organised by the University of Brighton's Faculty of Arts which led the formation of the collaboration, called the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning through Design (CETLD).

CETLD is presenting the students' 'Designers of the Future' exhibition which runs at the V&A until 25 July. More than 30 art and design students are taking part from Brighton and the Royal College of Art.

Hayley Zierold, Alice Walton and Katie Spragg

Hayley Zierold, Alice Walton and Katie Spragg, three of the Brighton exhibitors, all gained BA(Hons) in 3D Materials Practice.

Alice, from Sudbury in Suffolk, said: "I'm so excited to be exhibiting in one of the greatest of all museums and to work with the people who put this exhibition together."

Alice, who has moved into her own ceramics studio in Brighton with other designers and is about to start a four-week residency in the ceramics department at the V&A, has developed her own process which embraces the way clay naturally sags in the kiln,

By combining elements of control with the unpredictable nature of the clay she creates pieces which each have individual character.

She said: "With the bowing and movement created in each strand during the firing process it leaves the audience imagining what creature might have escaped.

"As a result of experimentation my interest turned to the technical challenges and process of constructing cage-like canopies.

"The elaborate and lengthy process required to make each cage is contrasted with the freeness and unpredictable nature of the kiln firings, giving each piece a character of its own. By using the effects of firing it allows each strand to have a life of its own, and gives the appearance that something may have escaped."

Hayley, from Steyning, West Sussex, said she was overwhelmed by the chance to exhibit her jewellery at the V&A: "It only truly sunk in when I saw my work in situ it is such an honour."

Hayley has an internship for jeweller Lucy Hutchings in London and plans to apply for an MA in goldsmithing, silversmithing and jewellery at the RCA.

She said of her jewellery: "I am captivated by the subtle, intricate, sometimes imperceptible details of the organic world. Fascinated by the principles of taxonomy and by the human tendency to control the uncontrollable through scientific systems of identification and classification, each piece within the collection carefully captures its specimen and utilizes the wearer as a tableau."

Katie, from Buckingham, Bucks, is also a ceramicist and has started a residency at the V&A in its new ceramics galleries.

She said: "The V&A is a continuing source of inspiration and a chance to exhibit there is amazing. A dream of mine is to work there so this is an incredibly valuable opportunity for me."

Her pieces 'Poisonous Curiosity' tell tales from a folding fan that recounts the story of a young woman poisoned by her own ball gown, to a ceramic poison bottle that alludes to the trend of the beauty-conscious Victorians, taking small dose of arsenic 'to promote a blooming complexion'.

She said: "My work celebrates the way a dark and macabre subject can become curiously enjoyable by the surprising elements of a story. Inviting discovery, the pieces are intended to be picked up and explored."

For further information go to the CETLD website.