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THE CRAFTS COUNCIL GETS FLOORED It would be true to say that Tony Dixon of carpet manufacturers V'Soske Joyce had no idea of what he was letting himself in for when he agreed to lecture at the Crafts Council's Focus on Floors workshop in March 1995. This seminar was held to examine trends past present and future - in design concepts for floors and the industry potential as a whole. Dixon was speaking on the important role of the artist in relation to the more functional aspects of manufacturing. The idea for the Focus on Floors exhibition came after one particular workshop. The Crafts Council had discussed the possibility of offering display space to those interested in interior projects, but why not commission a variety of artists to design carpets for exhibition with the Crafts Council at Showcase '96? Tony Dixon immediately rose to the challenge, pledging the sponsorship, service and expertise of his worldrenowned business in the hand making of six (and later twelve) full-scale designs. Dixon remembers: 'V'Soske Joyce has a tradition of working with Europe's leading artists. About 40% of our business is specialist work involving the designs of Phillip Starck, Ettorio Sottsas and Irish names such as Patrick Scott, Patricia Jorgensen and Mary Fitzgerald. Their input is so important to the personality of V'Soske Joyce,
but it is imperative to keep the flow of new talent constant, I thought the Focus on Floors project would be an especially good opportunity to encourage new artists into our field'. Dixon has had positive past experiences with exhibiting such specialist work; 'In 1990 we toured a show entitled 'Visions' from Brussels to Paris, London and Dublin. It was a showcase of the best in European artistic talent and provided marvellous business for all involved in the project... just as Focus on Floors will create opportunities for the participating designers. We've already had commissions for Patricia Murphy's work in addition to orders for her exhibited piece'. With industry support pledged, Craft's Council representative Kaethe BurtO'Dea got to work with an international panel of judges to choose designs from portfolios submitted by artists of diverse backgrounds and disciplines - tilers, potters, tapestry designers, illustrators, jewellers, weavers and paper sculptors. Only one of the selected crafts people had designed carpets before and a majority hadn't even worked with textiles. The designers behind Focus on Floors include the best of Ireland's contemporary crafts people: tapestry weaver Gillian Freedman; gold and silversmith Alan Ardiff; textile
Gillian Freedman Squares on a Light Coloured Ground