Affinities explores how the artists Helen Carnac and David Gates have rooted their work in their local environment and the points of connection, correspondence, and analogy that have emerged by working alongside each other over the last twenty years. First shown at Make Hauser and Wirth in Bruton, Somerset in 2023, this second iteration of Affinities sees the artists further investigate how their practice is embedded in routines of daily life, rural environments and seasonal change, by exploring papers within the Crafts Study Centre's archives. Helen and David have selected documents and artefacts which connect to their own work and concerns. These include lists of wild plants from the garden diaries of the printmaker Robin Tanner; images of the Quantock Weavers; and working samples and notes made by the weaver Ethel Mairet.

Helen and David relocated their home and working lives from London, where they had been based for more than thirty years, to West Somerset in the winter of 2020. Moving to Somerset led to an assessment of how their practices are situated, allowing for new alignments and affinities to emerge. Their method of walking, observing, and photographing has remained the same, but the industrial vistas of the Thames Estuary have been supplanted by the agricultural. Both are drawn to human interventions in the landscape – agricultural structures and infrastructure, and the folds and textures of worked land.

The response to this information differs: Helen focuses on the micro-detail of surface patination – for example, rust, corrosion, plant life and lichen – translating and transposing this into vitreous enamel fused to steel and copper forms. By contrast, David draws from elements of architectural forms and structures such as silos, farm buildings, and pylons, constructing complex furniture objects.

Both individually and together Helen and David are artists at the forefront of their respective disciplinary areas. They are committed to in-depth research and share an intellectual curiosity. For this exhibition their attention is focused on the collapsed space between the domestic and the professional that is common to studio practice but is often overlooked. Devotion to craft often demands establishing affinities with the other stuff of life, particularly in rural contexts. For David and Helen this involves repairing the farmhouse in which they live, maintenance, tending to gardens and vegetable beds, and creating new habitats to support biodiversity.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a publication that will be produced during the exhibition’s run.

Installation photography by David Gates.