Donna Walker makes aMEND

aMEND features furniture and lighting by Donna Walker

The exhibition aMEND – a new collection by artist and designer Donna Walker – will open on Thursday 1st September at The Residence in Victoria Park Village.

Also due to feature in the Iconic Design Trail 2011, aMEND comes to The Residence after Walker won the People’s Choice Award at The Residence’s Hackney Wood event last year.

The Residence is the current project of critically acclaimed artist and curator Ingrid Z, who also co-founded the Hackney Wicked Festival in 2008. The Hackney Wood Art Prize and Auction marked the fifth anniversary of the gallery’s opening. In the manner of a traditional fifth year wedding anniversary gift, all art entries had to be made out of wood.

Donna Walker’s winning piece Leigh – a boat rudder fashioned into a bench – is very representative of her style and philosophy. Her interest, she explains, is in the “history and memory which is embedded in objects.”

“People control their memories through objects. You make conscious choices about whether to discard or hide objects or to put them out on display. These choices are a reflection of the memories – good and bad – associated with objects.

“With the modern day mass production of affordable furniture, people are too quick to throw things away. What I’ve tried to do is give traditional craftsmanship a new lease of life.”

In this way, her work is both an exploration of subjective memory and also a drive towards sustainability; everything in the exhibition is designed for functional use and is available for sale.

aMEND consists of a selection of furniture, dating back from the 1920s through to the noughties; all of which has been stripped back to reveal the original design and craftsmanship. With frequent use of bold colours, Walker reworks pieces in new and imaginative ways, whilst still trying to retain a sense of each item’s original function and identity.

The entire body of work has been arranged as an installation piece, representing a room in someone’s home. Those entering the space are able to project their own emotional responses onto the pieces and their arrangement. As a converted period house, Walker feels that The Residence offers the perfect setting for an exhibition of this kind.

aMEND
1 September – 2 October
The Residence
229 Victoria Park Road
E9 7HD