Craft /2024 Robert Foster Metal Prize exhibition, Craft + Design Canberra, December 14, 2024. Reviewed by MEREDITH HINCHLIFFE.

The Robert Foster Metal Prize honours the legacy of Robert Foster and the significant contribution he made to Australia in design.

The prize encourages and rewards excellence in imagination, excellent making skills, good design and innovation. Fifteen finalists from around the country are exhibiting, including craftspeople who might be considered emerging, as well as highly-acclaimed artists. Many have exhibited overseas and have won awards.

Marian Hosking has interpreted the Australian landscape for more than 40 years through silver including jewellery and vessels. She uses fine saw-piercing and riveting, as well as casting. She makes jewellery that references specific botanical specimens and birds in an illustrative manner. She is showing three vessels in this exhibition, under the rubric of Shifting Light: Tall Square, Birds, and Tall Round. All sit on blocks of timber and are lit so that light comes through. They are pierced, with branches and leaves applied to the surfaces. They are delicate and refined.

Sean Booth is a Xennial maker – one born between Generation X and Millennials — and believes he has a foot in the camps of the traditional handmade world and the other, “modern computer derived and controlled production that is accurate and defined”. He is exhibiting Trochoi, a tall bright blue anodised aluminium vase with bright silver CNC machined surface texture applied to one section. The form is a slightly altered cylinder, with the textured surface added to it and reminds me of Foster’s work, both in the bright blue colour and the surface decoration.

Beth Sanderson is unashamedly based in the domestic space of the kitchen. She became interested in this familiar space during the Melbourne lockdowns of covid. She uses steel, copper, vitreous enamels and stainless steel and we see 21 common-place kitchen utensils – a peeler, slotted spoon, a small rolling pin, biscuit cutters, measuring spoons and other objects. They are whimsical, fun and playful. They also add a bit of colour to the generally soft sheen of silver of many of the works.

A fabricated sterling silver Sake Set is the winning work, by Canberra  craftsperson, Larah Nott. The cups and the decanter are simple and elegant in form. The formed lips would help to pour in the case of the decanter, and in the case of the cups, be comfortable to drink from. The three pieces sit on a titanium tray, which has been cut with a water jet, and also fabricated and tig welded. The raised, simple border of the tray is reflected in the soft glow of the silver vessels. I have no doubt that the tray would be comfortable to use, and not add to the weight of the vessels when they are full. There is a dynamism between the smooth polished silver and the burnished surface of the titanium.

This is an outstanding exhibition and one of which Craft + Design Canberra should be extremely pleased. It shows a high level of talent among the exhibitors. A wide range of metal objects are displayed. Several pieces pay homage to Foster’s own work – perhaps not surprising given the impact Foster had on metal crafts in this country.