JEFFREY CLANCY

As a practicing metalsmith I am part of a venerable lineage of smiths who have demonstrated stunning skill and innovative design in the manufacture of treasured utilitarian, ceremonial and decorative metalwares. This is paramount for my work and identity. I am interested in questions about preservation, authenticity, originality and the acquisition of craft skill. The austerity of utilitarian wares produced by the Roycrofters and the unapologetically indulgent works of Faberge demonstrate the diversity that the skilled and tooled hand can bring to a material like metal; this is both curious and inspiring to me. My work departs from the diverse curiosity that serves as both the physical subject and context. I mine the field's history, examine and dissect it with uneasy reverence and then re-present it into new objects, images and, always, new questions. I am continually reconfiguring the boundaries of my inquiry in the object and the social and economic hierarchies they fortify and..