First look: ‘Ash Rise’ – 20 Scottish designers discover the flexibility of the blighted native hardwood

A home made kayak, a hooded chair and a guitar in ash and concrete are among the many modern design objects created utilizing Scottish ash wooden for an exhibition that opens this weekend at Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh. The Scottish Furnishings Makers Affiliation (SFMA) invited 20 designers and makers to rework the native hardwood into modern works of furnishings, artwork and design to focus on the damaging impression of a fungal illness referred to as ash dieback in Scotland.

‘Ash Rise’: 20 designers remodel native hardwood into works of furnishings, artwork and design

‘Ash Rise’ is a collaboration between SFMA, Scottish Forestry and the Affiliation of Scottish Hardwood Sawmillers that goals to have a good time Scottish creativity whereas elevating consciousness of the environmental and financial impacts of ash dieback, which is devastating the panorama and the biodiversity of Britain’s woodlands. The touring exhibition, which opens on 13 September 2024 earlier than transferring on to venues in Dumfries and Inverness in 2025, consists of works by ten members of the SFMA, together with ten different creatives chosen by an professional judging panel following an open name competitors.

Every of the entrants responded to a quick asking for ‘modern, adventurous and modern designs’ that ‘illustrate the flexibility and great thing about ash’. Alongside the ten furnishings designs, the jury picked proposals from makers whose work ranges from sculpture to boat constructing and artworks in paper.

Talking about the important thing aims behind the exhibition, furnishings maker and ‘Ash Rise’ challenge coordinator Tom Addy stated: ‘Ash Rise is a fruits of a three-year challenge that began with the thought of highlighting how valuable this useful resource is in Scotland, whereas additionally showcasing the abilities and creativity of the furnishings making and design neighborhood.’ He added that the organisers are excited to current outcomes starting from ‘fashionable interpretations of conventional Scottish furnishings and technically bold items, to designs that use all elements of the tree, alongside artworks highlighting the worth, life and significance of Scottish ash’.

Ash has been used for hundreds of years within the manufacturing of instruments, weapons and agricultural implements, in addition to extra lately for sporting gear comparable to tennis rackets, hockey stick and cricket bats. When dried, the wooden is mild, versatile, sturdy and resists splintering, making it preferrred for furnishings manufacturing. The ‘Ash Rise’ reveals had been created utilizing timber from diseased ash bushes felled at Killearn Farm in Stirlingshire in 2021. The bushes had been then milled and seasoned earlier than the wooden was made out there to the makers to be used of their initiatives.

Among the many SFMA members whose work will likely be exhibited is Perthshire-based Angus Ross, whose ‘Clova Chair’ makes use of steam bending to attain a pared-back, fashionable tackle the traditional carver chair. Different furnishings designs embody Kevin Gauld’s hooded ‘Skila Chair’ based mostly on a vernacular seat from Orkney, and a credenza by Nikkita Wolfe Murray that includes steam-bent tendrils that distinction with the construction’s straight traces.

One of many extra uncommon reveals is the ‘Concentric Concord Guitar’ created by Fife-based workshop Taran Guitars in collaboration with concrete designer Nicholas Denney. The electrical guitar combines ash components with concrete that includes pure dyes sourced from the ash wooden and its bark. Designer Alexander Johnston produced a wall piece for the exhibition comprising cleaved wholesome and diseased ash that highlights the wooden’s magnificence and the devastation it faces. Helena Robson of HEFT Studio seemed to the previous when creating a collection of 5 agricultural instruments together with threshing flail and a grain shovel, whereas artist Naomi Mcintosh crafted a suspended sculpture produced from bent ash strips which are layered to kind a sphere.

Alongside the touring exhibition, a feature-length documentary was produced that kinds an necessary a part of the ‘Ash Rise’ outreach programme, enabling a wider viewers to be taught concerning the challenge and the problems it’s highlighting. The movie traces the lifetime of a tree, specializing in its place within the setting and the challenges confronting it. It additionally paperwork the processes concerned in tree felling and milling, earlier than venturing into makers’ studios to witness how these expert artisans are in a position to create sustainable, modern furnishings utilizing this threatened native useful resource.