#hatched2017 #magaesberg #conversation #northwallartscentre #iwf #oxfordinternationalwomenfestival #janewafer JANE WAFER ‘VESSEL One’, ’THERE IS NO BEGINNING, THERE IS NO End’, ’ALUMOSOMA’, ’FERROSOMA’,’HYPERBOLE’# Jane Wafer is an Oxford-based artist specialising in sculpture and installation. Her recent sculptures challenge and subvert ‘soft’ techniques such as knitting and crocheting, which are often undervalued as women’s work or dismissed as hobbyist crafts. She uses hard, industrial materials like steel and aluminium wire and frequently employs mathematics to determine their form, for example, using the Fibonacci sequence to dictate the number of rows and stitches used. This has produced a variety of organic, delicate sculptures, more hole than substance, and echoing natural structures as diverse as flowers, horns and sea creatures. The artist has recently moved towards more vessel-like forms, constructing them using a variation of random weaving, a basket-making technique. She lived in Swaziland for several years where, as in many developing countries, women’s crafts were a source of income as well as providing goods for use in the home. Her latest wire vessels have taken on the scale and form of the large, round pots made by Swazi women for brewing beer. However, the artist’s vessels are clearly leaky and non-functional, divorced from their origins. Jane Wafer graduated from Oxford Brookes University in 2009 with a first class degree in Fine Art. She also holds a doctorate in biology, reflecting a life-long interest in the natural sciences that continues to influence her artistic practice. The artist has exhibited in outdoor and gallery venues in the UK, and in 2010 was invited to stage a show in Italy. In 2014, she was given a month-long residency at the RHS Gardens, Wisley. Last year her work could be seen in Metallic at Burghley Sculpture Garden, Stamford. ‘Vessel One’, iron, 60cm diameter, 2016, NFS ‘There is no beginning, there is no end’, stainless steel, 45 x 35 x 30 cm (l x w x h), 2016, £300 ‘Alumosoma’, aluminium, 44 x 40 x 25 cm (l x w x h), 2014, NFS ‘Ferrosoma', stainless steel, 80 x 15 cm (extended length x diameter at the wides