The distinct design sensibility is imbued with symbolism, uncompromisingly contemporary and intended to connect the wearers’ story with the artistic integrity of each piece to become a potent treasure; glamour with gravitas.
This work reflects an interest in divergent forces including chaos and calm, the body and its adornment and the relationships between form and meaning.
Gary Wright and Sheila Teague met and studied at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and work collectively as Wright & Teague.
Wright & Teague formed 1984.
Public collections: Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Recent commissions World Gold Council for Gold: Power and Allure at Goldsmiths Hall, London Gemfields. World launch of ethical rubies.
Involvement with the CinBA project has enhanced our conviction that man has always been driven by creativity whether artistic, scientific or ritualistic as a way of both explaining cosmology and bringing beauty to everyday life. The desire to work beyond the purely practical and functional is an essential part of our psyche, it is what makes us human.
As a response a journey, an Odyssey has been imagined across a Bronze Age world from Britain through Europe to the Middle East.
Beginning with only a gold sycamore staff as a connection with home our traveler creates a memento of each unfamiliar culture visited. Channeling the emotive power of smell to evoke memories of places, people and experiences, aluminium vessels contain an iconic and indigenous fragrance from significant points on the journey.
Within each vessel wax is impregnated with the individual fragrances, a natural carrier of the scent following the tradition of enfleurage, the extraction of fragrance through layering leaves, flowers or seeds with wax.
Gold is chosen for the initial piece, the staff, a precious material signifying strength and protection.
The use of aluminium, a metal only developed in the 20th century represents the excitement and unfamiliarity of exploring new cultures and territory and the traveler’s response to these experiences. Engraved motifs define the location and significance of origin.
This body of work is a metaphor for memory, both that embedded in objects and in the mind; our most precious asset. It is a diary of the journey, becoming an amulet .It relates time and place, pre-history with the present to show mans’ continuing search for connection with the wider world
