shoreditch

TOOLED UP: APFEL, 33 FEET by John Hooper

Original Art & Graft post here

33 feet 

The old tape measure we were given measures only feet and inches – these imperial measurements are out of date and something increasingly difficult to visualise. By unravelling the 33 foot tape in the studio we could see the distance which is hidden in the roll. 

The print is a collection of all 396 inches on the tape on one sheet of paper. Keeping the scale but with lines removed – it is both an exact representation of the distance and an abstraction of the collected length. The rhythm of the black and red and the character of the numerals are hints to understanding what it is.


A Practice for Everyday Life (APFEL) founded by Kirsty Carter and Emma Thomas in 2003, is a design studio whose work spans graphic design, art direction, visual identities, book design, exhibition, print and digital design. Their thoughtful design sensibility, has earned the studio a reputation for crafting intelligent and innovative work for clients which include the Tate London, Victoria & Albert Museum, Konig Books, The Architects’ Journal, The Hepworth Wakefield, and Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris.

Tooled up photographs for Art & Graft by John Hooper

I haven’t been away for three months just busy with on going projects and experimenting with more video and sound. They are all about to come to fruition. First up my friends at Art & Graft are … well I will let them explain below. I have been photographing the wonderful objects that have been produced. image

Tooled Up

THURSDAY 12TH SEPTEMBER - SATURDAY 20TH SEPTEMBER

As part of Shoreditch Design Triangle and London Design Festival, we are pleased to present Tooled Up, a group exhibition celebrating creativity, craft, inspiration and skill.

We’ve invited some of the most exciting artists, illustrators and designers working today, to take a recognisable tool of craft and apply their skill and ingenuity to transform it into a unique form. 

Whether it is using the nature of the item to inspire a print, reutilising a screwdriver to retrieve the last bit of paint from a tube or adding new forms onto the existing structure; the resulting prints, films and sculptures transcend the original tool to become exquisite objects in their own right. 

In turn, providing insight into the conceptual and practical methods of each of the contributors. As Joel Hopkinson notes the tools “hold the promise of things to come, the material realisation of the imagination; as if all the dumb inert matter in the world can be transformed with the elegant sweep of the expert.”

The exhibition is open Mon - Fri: 11:00 - 18:30 and Sat 12:00 - 18:00, with a late night opening on Tues 16th until 21:00. 

Contributors 

APFEL
BMCH
Craig & Karl
Daniel Eatock
Deanne Cheuk
Emily Forgot
Hisham Akira Bharoocha
Hvass&Hannibal
Jody Barton
Joel Hopkinson
Kustaa Saksi
Marcus Reed
Merijn Hos
MVM
Neasden Control Centre
Peepshow Collective
Santuu Mustonen
Saskia Pomeroy

Image: Untitled by Merijn Hos. Photography John Hooper.