Fusion: The Creativity of Communication

Fusion, The Creativity of Communication, is a catalogue of the exhibition of the same title which will tour venues in the United Kingdom and Europe during 2002-2004. Collaborations between 21 members of the Designer Jewellers Group and 22 textile artists from six countries have resulted in works which present a multi-medium exhibition spanning the realms of both functional and decorative objects, from exquisite miniature textiles that masquerade as jewellery, to jewellery that turns in textile, from work using traditional materials to UV reflective sculptures. Fusion aims to promote a better understanding and appreciation of cross-discipline interactions, stimulating further cultural and communicational dialogues. Fusion explores the creativity of communication through twenty-two sets of collaborations between designer jewellers and textile artists. With one third of the textile artists from the Continent or North America, many perspectives are addressed with a rich diversity of results. The Fusion concept was initiated within the Designer Jewellers Group itself. Textile artists were invited to apply to the project or were approached directly. Selection of textile artists was by designer jewellers, followed by meetings and agreements of the collaborators. By pairing artists from different disciplines, Fusion aims to open new creative arenas. Visual artists seldom link collaboratively to create work. Exhibitions combining artists each using a different medium, or approaching their work from different directions, usually focus on a theme or link up in some other collective way. Yet their work remains distinctively their own, primarily conceived and created individually. Perhaps this is explained by the nature of the work involved, where one normally operates from a solitary base and exhibits publicly in the context of 'one-man' or group exhibitions. The impetus of the Fusion collaborations, on the contrary, was for each one of the pair to act empathetically with the other. Statements from participants reveal both the great effort necessary to communicate in this manner, and the change in thinking about one's own work which was required for this. Once this was achieved, the path became clearer, and new possibilities were continually opened for extending the scope of the work. When the work was completed for Fusion it became apparent that approaches to this brief had fallen into three general categories: with one, work had been conceived, planned, and executed on a totally collaborative basis, the process of which had so enmeshed the collaborators that the final work bore, at best, small traces of distinctive past work of the creators; with another, the work had developed from a deep understanding of the ideas and spirit of the partner's work which understanding had been formative of the new work, and this involved exchanging work for the partner to complete; with the third approach, the collaborators chose to work to a theme and through this theme cross-referenced each other's work. Fusion, then, offered the opportunity for an immanent collaboration, one which would immediately generate and characterise the works themselves. The results are all the more interesting because 'the process' of communication becomes a prime issue alongside practical and aesthetic issues such as design and technique. Many of the creative partnerships generated by the exhibition are continuing beyond it. Fusion, in short, is a multi-medium exhibition which addresses many perspectives relating to creative communication. A rich diversity - from exquisite miniature textiles that masquerade as jewellery, to jewellery that turned into textile - spans the functional and the decorative. By touring this exhibition, we hope to promote a better understanding and appreciation of cross-medium interactions, and to stimulate further dialogues.

Table of Contents:
Introduction, Foreword by Professor Sir Christopher Frayling of Royal College of Art, Exhibition work, Information on Collaborators