Thoughts Between the Land and Sea Raising the Doggerland - - Jonathan Boyd at Gallery S O
Thoughts Between the Land and Sea
Raising the Doggerland
- Jonathan Boyd
6 – 29 September 2019
Gallery S O, London
Gallery S O is delighted to present a solo exhibition of recent work by Jonathan Boyd
together with the launch of his new book, Thoughts Between the Land and Sea: Raising the Doggerland.
Over the past ten years Jonathan Boyd’s work has sought to explore and understand the
actions of language, narrative and communication through the form of objects and jewellery.
Through his creation of three-dimensional text forms, he has used words as elastic carriers of
meaning where signifying texts are in constant dialogue.
In the exhibition Thoughts Between the Land and Sea: Raising the Doggerland, Jonathan
reflects on how our cultural identities are inflected and manipulated by language (both textual and visual). In this exhibition Jonathan uses the idea of a newly raised Doggerland (a now submerged land bridge between Britain and Northern Europe) as a viewpoint from which to look back on the UK. From this vantage, the exhibition sees the former island in dismay, cultural identities polarised, leaders unelected, a public overloaded by information and mindsets blinkered. A global world, an isolated island. Visually, two significant metaphors are developed for exploring this
concept: the sea as a reflection on the unknown, mortality and the future; the land as a metaphor for what is known and the heavy weight of contemporary material culture and language.
Jonathan employs an array of materials and processes creating these works, with each new
piece advancing the technological possibilities of the jewellery form. Hand fabrication and
digital process go hand-in-hand reflecting hypermodern times. Works from this exhibition
experiment with the use of digital image and film within jewellery, complex casting
techniques and industrial and printing techniques.
Jonathan Boyd lives and works in Glasgow and in London, dividing his time between his role as Senior Tutor at the Royal College of Art in London and his studio in Glasgow’s Barrowland’s Market. Jonathan is a graduate of The Royal College of Art and The Glasgow School of Art, where he was a lecturer for eight years. Jonathan has designed several major design projects including designing the 2014 Commonwealth Games Medals and recently the new RCA Chancellors Circle for RCA chancellor Jonny Ive. Jonathan has exhibited his work internationally and has work held in private and public collections around the world. This exhibition coincides with the release of Jonathan’s first self-published book:
Jewellery Manifest: Jewellery, Objects, Language and Other Thoughts. Within this publication
Jonathan uses image, essay and montage to deconstruct the past ten years of his practice, jewellery as well as the paperback format.
6 – 29 September 2019
Gallery S O, 92 Brick Lane, London E1 6RL
Open: Wed – Sat 12 – 6 Sun 12 – 5
