Saffron Malcolm: Dolly

She collects things, makes things, takes things apart and occasionally gives them completely new jobs. A chocolate box might become a head. A piece of furniture might get covered in something it has no business being covered in. A discarded object might acquire a new friend and suddenly the two of them seem to make perfect sense.

She has made jewellery, ceramics, furniture, assemblages and small peculiar gifts for friends, working across whatever materials happen to interest her.

Some of her pieces begin with a found object or a gifted one, a ridiculous idea or a remake of something she covets. Others are made for a particular person or situation, almost like little spells: an object made to mark a change, a hope, a departure…

The work is intuitive and playful and there is usually a fair amount of trial and error involved. Sometimes the objects cooperate. Sometimes they don’t.

This exhibition brings together a small collection of things Saffron has made over the years, giving them the opportunity to meet each other properly for the first time. It is an attempt to step back, look at the strange little trail of things and see whether they have anything to say about where she might go next.

Meanwhile she’s making things…