Chris Knight

Senior Lecturer in Jewellery and Metalwork

Summary

I joined the jewellery and metalwork team at Sheffield Hallam in 2003. Having graduated Sheffield City Polytechnic in 1987, I worked as a designer goldsmith in the USA for three years followed by a master’s degree at the Royal College of Art. Graduating in 1992, I established my first studio in London which I relocated to Sheffield in 1996. I have been teaching in higher education since 1993 and am currently a part–time Senior Lecturer at SHU, independent silversmith and Director of Si Applied Ltd.

About

The combination of research, teaching and professional practice affords me a challenging creative stimulus.

My work spans a range of interests, concepts and processes, producing objects placed in a range of real world contexts from the domestic to the public realm. I exhibit internationally, have been the recipient of several awards, have work published in numerous books and magazines and am represented in many public and private collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum, The Goldsmiths Company and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs.

I am a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths and the City of London, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Guardian of Sheffield Assay Office and a member and past chair of the Contemporary British Silversmiths Society.

As an active practitioner I am acutely aware of the need for addressing employability within the student experience. I advocate creative exploration through making and the realisation of objects within professional contexts. I have been involved in many initiatives for the development of young creative talent, including the Crafts Council Hothouse program, the Yorkshire Artspace Starter Studios, and Sheffield Assay Office sponsorship of our students.

Through the support of Sheffield Hallam University and my involvement with the creative and business community of Sheffield, I am engaged with external sponsorship and commissions for undergraduates, post graduates and graduates. I have also been council member and judge of the Goldsmiths Crafts and Design Council (2000-2009); a member of the Craft Blueprint Skills Advisory Panel (2006 – 2008) for the Creative and Cultural Skills Council.

My recent research has developed from an ongoing artistic enquiry into the relationship and understanding individuals have with decorative objects. It draws on my ideas and experience spanning 30 years that engage with concepts concerned with expectances for an acceptable aesthetic and the obvious functional language within the objects we surround ourselves.

This enquiry has been realised through three distinct, yet interrelating categories of objects; domestic silverware, ecclesiastical silverware and public art.

Recent work using integrally cast, graphic elements, in both functional and non-functional objects has created a platform for provocation and narrative commentary. This work encompasses many of the traditional research methods to be found in the making of craft objects with the critical and reflective position dependent upon the tacit knowledge developed over an extended period of time.

My research and practice has been disseminated further through master classes, guest lecturing and public speaking at other higher education institutions, museums, associations and conferences.