David Clarke

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Spoons

Think you know what spoons are?
They live in the kitchen, right? Tools for measuring ingredients, on the table for your personal use (dessert, tea, soup) or social spoons used to serve others (tablespoon and ladle).

Through a series of investigations intended to mess with the regulations and introduce other forms, my spoons indicate another use or possibility, with new playful functions.

Image of a collection of metal spoons that look like soap bubbles have been blown through the bowls of the spoons

Blow Spoons
Material   Pewter, Silver Plate
Dimensions   10 x 10 x 15cm
Year   2017
Location   Multiple Private Collections. And The National Gallery Victoria. Australia
A few available

BLOW
SPOONS

Merely playing with existing forms and taking elements away can offer up another expression; it takes you to another place. Removing the belly of the spoon’s bowl leaves you with a hoop. A hoop on a handle, and your blowing big, fat soapy bubbles. Marvellous magic bubbles.

Image of a series of very deep spoons that suggest a jug, vase or vessel

Deepest Deeperer Spoons

More playtime, mixing it up and messing around.
I like to ask those essential questions:
How deep can a spoon be?
If it’s too deep, is it still a spoon?
If it’s not a spoon, then what the hell is it?

Deepest Deeperer Spoons
Material   Silver Plate, Pewter
Dimensions   27 x 15 x 36cm
Year   2010
Location   Private Collections UK and USA

MORE OR LESS

Here is the first collection of spoons I ever made. In 2008, there was a global financial crash and I wanted to offer a smaller object, something present in every culture. A thing that few are afraid of as a spoon is the least aggressive of all cutlery. This was the beginning of my adventure into the world of spoons!

 

More Or Less
Material   Sterling Silver, Silver Plate, Pewter
Dimensions   60 x 40 x 5cm
Year   2009
Location   Private Collection UK

Image of the first series of spoons playing with form and function
Image of a series of extended and exaggerated metal spoons, playig with a tool that is used for measuring ingredients in the kitchen

FEED ME!

Whenever we are dealing with food, it is undoubtedly a political subject because some have food and others don’t. Here I wanted to introduce the feeling of excess, greed and bloat.

 

FEED ME!
Material   Sterling Silver, Pewter
Dimensions   10 x 12 x 15cm
Year   2010
Location   Private Collections Germany and USA

TEAR CATCHER

“…The tear catcher has allegedly been used in funerary ceremonies, processions, relationship contexts, and others, though there is no evidence that either Egyptian, Greeks, Romans or Victorians used them to catch tears.”
(Wikipedia)

I love a good myth.

 

Tear Catcher
Material  Sterling Silver, Pewter
Dimensions   15 x 5 x 5cm
Year   2014
Location   Private Collection Sweden

An image of a metal tear catcher made from an adapted spoon. In a resting position.
Image of a series of spoons that have been altered to indicate different use and function, laid out on a table.

More More More
Material   Pewter, Silver Plate
Dimensions   30 x 7 x 5cm
Year   2014
Location   Public Collections Brighton Museum and Museum of Northern Ireland

Image showing the collection of spoons

MORE MORE MORE

Here I’m working at speed with the notion of cut/copy/paste. The spoons are collaged together to resemble forms of this familiar object that we handle daily. However, there are a few tricks to trip you up along the way.

DEEP SPOON

The very first spoon where the majority of the spoons bowl is removed and then, extended with a tube form. It threw up so many exciting questions about function. This became a best seller.

 

Deep Spoon
Material Pewter, Silver Plate
Dimensions 15 x 15 x 5cm
Year 2009
Location Numerous Private Collection

Other collections

Casting Corny-copia Dip 'n Drip Mud Art Pots Shiny Silver Things Spoons Well. Really?