David Clarke Public Lecture: Inappropriately Appropriate


David Clarke, One Day My Plinth Will Come, balls, 2012, cast white metal, lead

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RMIT University

Building 80, Level 4, Room 11
427-433 Swanston St
Melbourne 3000

3 September
5.30-6.30pm

UK silversmith David Clarke will talk about his experiences and share the questioning that he places within his practice and beyond. He will reflect on the traditions of silversmithing and consider the importance of making and the obsession with skills and tools, revealing the essential act for his practice of experimentation and play. He will also explore why he positions himself the way he does within the world of metal. This lecture will offer by example a playful manner of making that allows precious metals to be destroyed and redundant objects to be reinvigorated, thus showing where rules can be twisted or broken.

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Artist David Clarke

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About the Artist

David Clarke is one of the strongest metalsmiths currently working and easily the most prominent avant garde figure in the medium in the UK. Through his own studio work, he has mounted a vibrant challenge to settled assumptions about his medium. While he is capable of good craftsmanship, the value of his work is primarily expressive, conceptual and poetic. And because of his rather devilish turn of mind - he has a wicked sense of humor and satire, and an ability to poke holes in inflated values - he has had a dramatic effect in exhibition contexts here. He is like a jester in the court of contemporary craft.
- Glenn Adamson, Director of the Museum of Arts & Design, NYC