More about Strictly Wedgwoodn’t Vase, 2017
'The Vase is based on and inspired by one of the Wedgwood Vases held in the Bowes Museum collection. It is part of a group commissioned in about 1920 by the Mond family to fill the niches in the Georgian gallery at Winnington Hall, Cheshire, then the home of ICI.
The factory responded by creating adaptations of its 18th century designs in black basalt, but in a scale far larger than any known before. Many of the vases were gifted to the Bowes Museum and other museums in Britain by ICI in 1999. Typical of the neo-classical style that was very fashionable at the time, two of the vases depict scenes from mythology. Wedgwood’s designs were inspired by Greek ceramics and sculpture, but not all the scenes depicted gods, goddesses or battle scenes. Many of the pots in the British Museum that I have studied illustrate scenes from daily life, for instance a shoemaker in his workshop, or performing musicians and dancers.
My interpretation brings these vases firmly into the 21st century, utilising new design and manufacturing technology and replacing the scenes with images derived from popular culture, in this case, the Strictly Come Dancing television programme.
The vase was created using Rhino 3D CAD [computer aided design] software, slowly building up the individual sections. Once I was satisfied with the design on screen, the virtual design was made real through Additive Manufacturing and the vase was manufactured using the latest Selective Laser Sintering technology. It was then hand finished.
The use of these new tools allows me create objects that were previously impossible to manufacture and enables me to inhabit an exciting grey area somewhere between craft, design, art and technology.'
- Michael Eden, 2017
