Simon Bayliss 4 DARN
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Another fantastic DARN collaboration hot off the press! Amelia is the queen of bringing people together and working her magic on projects that intertwine accessory and clothing design, photography and illustration. This time, she has worked with friend and local artist Simon Bayliss who is based at Porthmeor Studios, over-looking the surf in St Ives, Cornwall. Inspired by Barbara Hepworth, this scarf was released shortly after the Tate + DARN silk scarf collaboration which share ties with looking to the local landscape and art history of the town for creative influence.
Photography by Amelia Pemberton. The image of Simon recreating an image of Barbara H is particularly amusing.
‘Puckered lips, pressed leaves, the frisson of a wave against rocks, echoed forms found in modernist abstract painting, and feathered lines of clay slip, like cake icing). I was asking myself `What would Babs Hepworth wear?’’
In your own words, tell us what you create and why…
I mostly make ceramics on the wheel – rustic slipware pottery, with painterly surfaces containing playful references to place (Cornwall and the South West), queer identity, and art history.
My background is in painting and contemporary art, and this informs how I think about surface design and the conceptual elements of the work and their display.
I make pots because I want to make useful objects and advocate a position of social responsibility. The process also fulfils different parts of my creative brain – the architectural, dexterous, academic, and irrational.
What is your connection to Cornwall, and St Ives in particular?
After growing up in East Devon, I have mostly been in Cornwall since graduating from BA Fine Art at Falmouth College of Art in 2006. Following this, I worked for various surf schools as an instructor, both in Cornwall and the west coast of Ireland. St Ives has been home for the past eight years and much of my research looks at the art and pottery history of St Ives, and offshoots from there. Some of my mum’s family are from Cornwall – my great aunt was a Cornish historian and archaeologist, and bard of Gorsedh Kernow.
Read the rest of the interview here.
The Simon Bayliss 4 DARN silk scarf is available in two sizes which can be purchased from the DARN webstore.
