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Collect 2022

Maker

Daniel Freyne

  • Story

  • Q & A

  • Works

Location:  

Edinburgh (city)

Disciplines:  

Metal Working

Materials:  

Metal

Artist and blacksmith, Daniel Freyne has an in-depth knowledge of iron and forge work. His practice can be viewed as homage to the foundations of blacksmithing, yet a distinct break away from the romanticised notion of what a smith is and is not. His new body of work, Anchor, is an investigation into notions of strength.

 

It examines a period of vulnerability, when life was uncertain; a seeming incompleteness that eventually led to a breaking point.

 

Daniel has previously exhibited at Make Hauser & Wirth (Somerset) and Crafted Collectables with Sarah Myerscough Gallery. He holds a BFA in Metal Art, University of Gothenburg.  

  • Story

  • Q & A

  • Works

In conversation

1. Tell us about your practice?

I was drawn to blacksmithing from the first encounter, I attended an open day at Oatridge Agriculture College and was allowed to play with fire and an anvil.  

After this, I worked my summer holidays at a local forge in Edinburgh, then I undertook an apprenticeship, then I was a journeyman throughout Europe, and finally a BFA in Metal Art at Gothenburg. I’m currently undertaking an MFA at the same university.  

2. Tell us about your materials and techniques?

I use forging techniques to create my work, techniques that I was taught, and that I developed during my traditional apprenticeship. However, within my practice I now seek to push these techniques, or what I like to call ‘traditional values’.  

My aim is to take my material, iron and steel, to its limits. I welcome ‘flaws’ and articulate them within my conceptual ideas.  

3. What inspired the work you are presenting with Craft Scotland at Collect 2022?

Anchor is a result of difficult times during the pandemic, something that most of us can relate to. I aim to highlight a tension or a moment before a collapse. I use my material steel, a typically perceived strong and unyielding material, to show that everything has a breaking point.

4. What is your favourite detail from this body of work?

My favourite detail of my new body of work is an accumulation of things; the cracks and fissures that run throughout the piece, and the weight and mass.  

For me, the cracks represent this ‘breaking point’ that I’m trying to communicate conceptually, and the weight further drives this idea that steel is strong and unyielding. 

5. What do you hope the viewer will take away from this work?

Overall, I would like the viewer to have a new understanding of what the possibilities are with my chosen material, steel.  

Work

  • Story

  • Q & A

  • Works

Photography by the artist

Daniel Freyne

Anchor 1

Steel (crushed). Right piece in image.

22 × 18 × 12 cm

2021

£3200

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Photography by the artist

Daniel Freyne

Anchor 2

Steel (crushed). Left piece in image.

22 × 18 × 12 cm

2021

£3200

Enquire | Buy

Photography by the artist

Daniel Freyne

Anchor 3

Steel (crushed).

20 × 16 × 12 cm

2021

£2950

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