For her new commission, Chain, Lucie Gledhill is continuing her work in chain making, exploring the relationship between different materials. Wood, iron and silver. These materials all have a different function in the making process, with the wood as master for an iron cast and iron as former for a hollow silver link. Each material requires distinct techniques in order to successfully manipulate them into shape; from methodical hand-carving processes, to casting, hammering and soldering. Scale has been informed by the wood, using trunk sections, branch sections and twig sections to produce individual chain links in a variety of sizes. Displayed in an extended row, which alludes to the formation of a chain, her work ‘links’ the handmade, the low-tech, and the technical with the hierarchy of materials.
