Speaker: David Hawkins (Zoom only)
Although for most of its history, blacksmithing has been predominantly a practical art, there is a rich tradition of work with clear cultural and visual intent: artist blacksmithing. This talk briefly reviews the origins and development of the craft, and in particular the role of artist blacksmiths from the 17th Century to the present. Derby’s Robert Bakewell became known for the ‘English Style’ during the 18th Century, combining traditional influences and practices with styles and ideas from the baroque, and his work maintained a strong influence over practice until the 1980s. New international influences, collaborations, and modes of education, have revived and expanded blacksmithing practice in the last 45 years, to produce a new generation of innovative artist blacksmiths, whose practice is very much of the 21st Century, but mindful of the work of exemplary practitioners such as Bakewell. Examples of blacksmithing, along with insights into techniques and practices, are used to illustrate this short history of artist blacksmithing
Dr. David Hawkins has worked in various academic roles across design and ergonomics related subjects, including Executive Dean, Professor of Design and Head of School, at universities in the UK, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia and Egypt. His family have been blacksmiths in Mid and North Devon for more than 250 years, so he learnt to work in the forge from an early age and has significant practical experience of designing and making ironwork alongside other projects.