Lost & Found

Welcome to Lost & Found, a physical and intellectual intervention by London-based silversmiths Adi Toch and David Clarke, hosted at Goldsmiths’ Hall during Goldsmiths’ Fair 2024.

Toch and Clarke have shared studio space in Hackney for more than 12 years; yet, surprisingly, they have rarely shown their work together, and never in close dialogue – until now. In February 2024, at the twentieth anniversary of Collect Art Fair, Toch and Clarke exhibited their work in counterpoint for the first time. They have expanded this collaboration into a thought-provoking intervention within Goldsmiths’ Hall. As recently inducted Freemen of the Goldsmiths’ Company, there was nowhere better to ignite a conversation about connections, overlaps and associations.

Unquestionably, it is metal that brings them both together, but they are more deeply linked by their shared practice of investigating and testing their materials, moving away from technical mastery and towards enhancing metal with references to the earth, life and the emotional. They acknowledge and respond to history brazenly as well as with quiet subtlety. Both work with the clear intention to move forward the discipline of silversmithing, to question the knowns, and offer different values. Hierarchies, alchemy and aesthetics are all under Toch and Clarke’s spotlight; then they each define different triggers that fuel curiosity.

Conceptually, Lost & Found relates as much to an approach, a process of making, as it does to the multiple layers of meaning in the objects themselves. Toch and Clarke invite visitors to start their interaction with the intervention at the very beginning: the provenance of the materials; then the meaning given to the work by the makers; and through to the impact these pieces have on an individual viewer. Looking carefully, you’ll find discarded objects that are receiving a new life, mirrored surfaces that offer new perspectives, and surprising materiality that suggests new narratives.

These spontaneous collections, pairings and families of objects have all been assembled to trigger the mind. While queuing at the ticket desk, you can’t miss a line of anthropomorphic objects as they creep, stagger, or gently lean. When you find the secluded archway, you can sit quietly, spending time with pieces that suggest moments in our lives we would rather not contemplate. Further on, you’ll find objects constantly in flux, from a mass of collected slag (waste matter from the process of refining) to a hand-polished slab of obsidian, each deeply rooted in its relationship to the Earth. It leaves you to consider when a “piece” truly starts and/or finishes.

Jointly, the artists have set themselves several challenges by locating their work within what could be considered the architectural ‘treasure box’ of Goldsmiths’ Hall: the central staircase. Firstly, they have physically intervened with and interrupted the building’s classical formality by confidently juxtaposing contemporary work against a cacophony of decorative marble within a non-standard display space. They have chosen to engage head-on with the imposing stature of this building to offer the viewer a unique experience designed to ignite new conversations between themselves as artists and the audience. Secondly, they have embraced the creative challenge posed by Lost & Found to select radically diverse works, displaying them in close proximity and allowing them to naturally spark off each other. These sparks encourage repeat viewing and closer examination.

Toch and Clarke have created their own curious world at Goldsmiths’ Hall, where their work ignites new conversations, triggers the imagination, and delights those looking for fresh storylines. You may have serious questions, potentially heated debates, and, hopefully, something to smile at in these troubling times. Be prepared to look and look again, check you have missed nothing, and explore more to find what you have yet to discover. Welcome to Lost & Found.

Adi Toch & David Clarke are internationally renowned silversmiths with different backgrounds and educations. Both are represented in diverse public collections and their work is held in numerous private collections globally. Clarke & Toch regularly exhibit in the UK and abroad, spanning the fields of craft, design and art. They have also been finalists in The Loewe Craft Prize. A mutually important part of their practices is teaching; both have taught in the UK, Europe and further afield.