About my work
I make abstract but relatable metal sculptures based on composite geometric forms. Rather than being conclusions in themselves, my sculptures are punctuation marks in an on-going dialogue between thinking, writing and making. They are mechanisms of exploration, each of which gives me a more rounded understanding of, and insight into the topics I explore. I make to understand, but by a different route. I make to discover some of what I think, and this knowledge then gets mixed into the knowledge that I get from other sources to create - quite literally, perhaps - a body of knowledge. My work is made from sheet metal, sometimes coloured and sometimes raw. Seams – the meeting-places that lie within a form - are an intentional part of my work. My work is crisp and calm, and the spaces within my pieces are as important as the forms themselves.
About me
Juliette trained at The Cass School of Art gaining BA (Hons, First Class) and a research MA (Distinction). Degrees in English Literature, Social Policy and in Philosophy complement her metalwork.
She has exhibited nationally and internationally including Design Miami, ArtGeneve, Tresor Contemporary, Scottish Gallery (solo exhibition 2019), London Art Fair, British Art Fair and Collect, where she won the prize for Collect Open in 2018. She has work in the Victoria and Albert Museum, Goldsmiths’ Company Collection, and the Irish State collection, as well as numerous private collections, as she has received funding from the Arts Council England Grants for the Arts Programme.
Juliette has extensive speaking experience, both live and on podcasts, including talks at the V&A, Collect, London Art Fair, Tresor, the London Design Festival, and Grant Gibsons’ podcast Material Matters. She has featured in, amongst others, CRAFTS Magazine, the Evening Standard and the FT’s How to Spend It.
She collaborated with Simone ten Hompel as Mixed Metals, a platform for research into making, is a member of the Royal Society of Sculptors, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She produced her first publication, Material Perspectives, in 2018, and is represented by Cavaliero Finn.
Selected Awards
Juliette has received numerous awards for her work including Arts Council England Grants for the Arts (2017), Award for Collect Open (2019), several awards from the Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Council, and was identified as by the Design Council as ‘One to Watch’ in their awards for the future of British Design in 2015.
As well as numerous private collections, her work can be found in the V&A, the Irish State Collection and the collection of the Goldsmiths’ Company.
I make to understand how the world fits together and particularly how our internal experiences interact with the physical world. How we entwine aspects of our experience - like thoughts and emotions - with the material world is the stuff of our lives. When I stub my toe, it makes me lose my temper; when I sit at my desk and see the apple tree in flower, it makes me smile; when I can share food and conversation with friends, it gives me a sense of fulfilment and warmth; and the fact that I can use my hands to write or make allows me to communicate what I think to you. The relationship between these different aspects of our experience therefore bears a closer look. And here we encounter a problem, because how these things actually relate to one another remains mysterious. Whether we draw on science, philosophy, or theology, we still do not have a compelling explanation for this fundamental interaction at the heart of the human experience, and this gap in our understanding fascinates me.
My path to making was not a conventional one, and I became an artist through a combination of accident, curiosity and stubbornness. I went through a traditional academic route, with a strong focus on language and music. Initially training as a singer, I worked for almost a decade in healthcare, but was hungry for something else and an evening course introduced me to working with metal. My initial training taught me how to work material, but in the research MA that I undertook at The Cass School of Art, I learned to bridge the analytical and creative, or writing and talking - with making. Making has given me access to a rich seam of physical knowledge that I could have only got through working with material. What I discover about the interaction between the creative impulse, intellectual frameworks of understanding, and the practical application of working with a material has made me an artist, and is the basis for - and subject of my practice.
Press
Juliette has been featured in FT How to Spend It, Telegraph, Evening Standard, Country Living, CRAFTS, Craft and Design Magazine and Interiors Monthly.
Online she has been featured in Wallpaper*, Dezeen, Design Week, Confessions of a Design Geek, Timeout Online and Wall Street International.
