Beyond a Glance no.13

2023
Speculum metal alloy (white bronze)
34 x 17 x 2 cm | 13.3 x 6.6 x 0.7 in.

Adi Toch is a metalsmith and artist living and working in London. She lectures at the Royal College of Art in the UK and has taught and exhibited worldwide. Her work is part of major private and public collections, including Victoria & Albert Museum, UK; The Crafts Council, UK; The Goldsmiths’ Company, UK; the Museum of London, UK; Fitzwilliam Museum, UK; Birmingham Museum, UK; National Museum of Scotland, UK; National Museum of Cardiff, UK; Ulster Museum, UK; and The Jewish Museum in New York, USA. In 2017, Adi was a finalist in the first Loewe Craft Prize and has won prestigious awards such as the Gold Award from The Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Council, UK and The European Prize for Applied Arts in 2018. In 2021, she received a significant commission from the Victoria & Albert Museum’s Gilbert Trust to respond to the restitution of a historic gold ewer from The Gilbert Collection to Turkey. Her artwork Place to Place is on permanent display at The Gilbert Galleries, Victoria & Albert Museum, UK.

Toch explores vessel forms through her expertise in metalwork, beginning with flat sheets and fabricating delicate hollow objects using a variety of tools and hammers. Her pieces undergo a labour-intensive process of hand texturing and patination, resulting in intricate surface marks that often resemble calligraphy. The interiors of her vessels are treated in different ways, creating diverse sensory engagements with the material. Some are polished to a highly reflective surface that invites contemplation, while others contain precious gemstones that roll gently inside when handled, creating soft, musical sounds. Adi’s poetic series Shrouded showcases her exceptional technique as she shapes metal vessels by hand before burying them in the earth, relinquishing control to nature’s subterranean forces. Over several months, mud, water, and minerals create shifting patinas on the surfaces, echoing themes of endurance, evolution, and emergence.