Robert Cooper & Ruth Franklin

Re Imagining Tools

23rd January - 6th March 2022

Ruth Franklin
Working with the theme of Tools originated many years ago, when I reflected on my families’ professions, on my MA Printmaking Course, in 1995. My Grandfather the Tailor, fled Poland in the early 20th century, to continue his trade in the East End of London. My Father began as a clothing manufacturer, to then move to hairdressing, and then wigmaker. And now I look to my own creative profession.

Inspired by 3-dimensional tool forms that link to these professions, I have been making recognizable, as well as invented tool shapes. Materials that I use vary from piece to piece, from cloth that I dye, as well as paper that I sew together, to an amalgamation of shop tools and found materials, and paper collage. And with the sewn pieces, I am reminded of the professions and lives that my family lived.

Robert Cooper
In this work I am going back to work I did in the eighties. I created structures from corroded metal found by the river Thames, the Crafts Council bought them for their collection and they fell apart, rust being unstable. In seeking to recreate the ideas in clay, I am working with tools for transformation, I don’t understand the machinery, but I feel the need for an outcome of change which these pieces outline.

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Robert Cooper and Ruth Franklin have been great friends and teaching colleagues for as long as they can remember. They shared a studio in Camberwell and they set up and ran an Art and Ceramic workshop in Villa Pia, Italy 2018. Alongside their creative practices, they both taught for many years at Camberwell College of Art and they continue to teach ceramic projects together at The City Lit, London.

“Being on the same wavelength in so many ways, including our love of strange objects, ourfriendship, as well as the ongoing creative support we give each-other, continues to be a great joy”.