Artist Unknown - Jan Hendzel Studio

‘Artist Unknown 2024’

For 2024’s Harewood Biennial: Create/elevate. Our installation ‘Artist Unknown’ seeks to open a dialogue between two boldly crafted new wooden pieces and existing objects from Harewood’s collection.

We produced a grand monolithic console table and a meticulously hand-carved large-scale wall mirror, each have been crafted in a combination of British Grown Douglas fir and Olive ash. Both pieces represent the studios distinct design language of sculptural simplicity, tactile materiality and technical intricacy.

The work speaks to the future of craft through a dedication to using British timber and preserving of local materials, and looks to history by using joinery methods, carving techniques and finishes inspired by past master artisans both in the UK and West Africa.

They will sit with existing objects from Harewood’s collection made by unknown Indigenous artists from Mali, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire and Sierra Leone, as well as original furniture made by anonymous craftspeople in Thomas Chippendale’s London workshop.

The African sculptures in this installation are from the Harewood collection with interpretation texts by Lara Rose, PhD candidate, Leeds Beckett University.

Harewood Biennial 2024: Create/Elevate is curated by Darren Pih and Ligaya Salazar. This is the third edition of the biennial presented by Harewood House Trust. Create/Elevate is supported by Arts Council England, British Council, and The Henry Moore Foundation.

Harewood House images: Drew Forsyth

The large-scale mirror and console table embody our sculptural and playful approach to making. The work speaks to the future of craft through a dedication to using British timber and preserving of local materials, and looks to history by using joinery methods, carving techniques and finishes inspired by past master artisans both in the UK and West Africa.

The pieces have been created taking form from megalithic stones referred to as Menhirs – long stones placed upright in the ground often decorated with engravings or anthropomorphic features. Utilising these forms represents our desire to look inwards, sometimes towards ancient practices, to inspire a future vision.

We have chosen British Grown Ash and Douglas Fir and worked them in such a fashion as to refocus and maximise the value of these underutilised British timbers. These species were selected as a stark contrast to that of Thomas Chippendale who used and celebrated exotic timbers for their inherent value status and coveted aesthetic. The choice to use exotic timbers holds an implicit exploitative value that we have refuted through our choice of an often maligned softwood and a hardwood that is synonymous with British craft, but has a highly uncertain future due to dieback.

Underpinning Hendzel’s project is an acknowledgement of the complicated histories of wealth, trade and power of Harewood House, manifested in the physical embodiment of the building, collections and the exhibited works.

We have featured Douglas Fir as a central component in both pieces, cutting and rotating sections of wood to exclusively show the incredible patterns created by the lighter summer growth and darker winter growth present in the end-grain. This labour-intensive, but visually arresting feature speaks to the luxury and ornate qualities often found in the work of Chippendale and of the Georgian period more generally

Mixing the hand of the maker and the capabilities of CNC machining, we have explored how textures offer the viewer various points of dialogue, intrigue and depth. The large ash mirror has a hand carved texture using a v point gouge, which has been channelled out across the undulating surface, catching light and casting shadows through its intricate maze of valleys and overhangs. We have taken the common language of adding texture to a decorative surface and applied it to our methods and styles of working; whether that be Neolithic stone carving, the ornate work of Grinling Gibbons or the varied and foundational carving of previously enslaved lands.

Now in its third edition, The Harewood Biennial celebrates craft and elevates artisanal heritage connecting across generations and continents. Create/Elevate presents significant, and large scale works from 16 international contemporary artists, designers and craft collectives throughout Harewood House and Gardens in Leeds, Yorkshire.