Covid Commissions:

Fern Toynton & Lara Chapman

What do you do ‘in case of fire’?

Fire extinguishers are common objects in day-to-day life, yet we rarely pay attention to them.

The exhibition, IN CASE OF FIRE asks: what happens when a fire extinguisher is the starting

point for a creative project?

IN CASE OF FIRE presents 29 works by 32 creatives working in different disciplines. The

participants made work in response to two fire extinguishers from the Historic Ryde Society’s

collection. From flower arrangements to illustrations; architectural models to fashion garments;

DJ mixes to tea towels, the works explore rich and varied stories around the culture, history and

materiality of fire.

This project has brought people and ideas together and fostered a sense of community during

these strange and isolating times. Throughout the month-long project, the participants zoomed,

called, emailed and texted, sharing feedback, thoughts, references and observations with each

other to grow the projects into the ones you can view on the exhibition’s website. Together, the

works show that behind objects we are surrounded with on a day-to-day basis, there is the

potential for wonderful things – inspiration can come from anywhere and anything

The exhibition will launch on the 14th of December online at www.in-case-of-fire-exhibition.com.

You can also see a physical exhibition of work in the window of Packs department store, Cross Street, Ryde, Isle of Wight.

Exhibition Participants:

Allegra Willder Barbara Ryan Charlotte Ager Ellie Carless Emma Chapman

Esteban Gomez-Rosselli FakePlasticNation Fleur Langlois Georgia Risley Grace Kim

Grace Edith Radford Isle of Wight Heritage Service Jo Widney Lee Marable Maxime Weiss

Mo Ayub Molly Syrett/Popmo Crowns Molly Mason Myles Peters Paige Harris

Pete Ho Ching Fung Rachel Mortlock Roosa Melentjeff Samuel Alexander Shiu Ling Natalie Yung

Vijay Tailor WD-DP You Get the Gist

Credits:

This project/exhibition was initiated and curated by You Get the Gist, a design research studio

founded by Fern Toynton and Lara Chapman for the Ryde Arts Covid Commissions.

Thank you to Ryde Historical Society for the loan of their fire extinguishers and their wealth of

information about their collection which can be seen in their museum at the Victoria Arcade.

Graphic design and web development: Jo Widney

How did you come to work together/why did you want to work together on this commission?

You Get The Gist was dreamt up over cups of tea and cardboard models in 2015 during a uni project. Five years later, during lockdown, we established our design/research studio. We love satisfying designs, colourful stuff and thoughtful people (and lots of other things but you get the gist). This commission gives us the opportunity to develop our practice and also work with other creatives. 

Give a brief description of what you’re intending to do in relation to the brief

Our project will be based on a smaller project called the ‘Weekly Smoko’ that we did during lockdown. In the weekly smoko, for 5 weeks, we invited friends and designers to respond to museum objects through making, expanding their stories and interpretations. For the COVID commission, we are planning to do a larger version of the project, choosing an object from the Isle of Wight and asking a diverse range of creatives to respond to it – e.g. designer, artists, chefs, dancers, DJs etc. The project aims to break down the restrictive bubbles of creative disciplines – i.e. architectural briefs for architects, graphic design briefs for graphic designers etc. and allow interesting and unexpected responses that tell a large and varied story about an object. Our project will culminate with an exhibition on the Isle of Wight of the work produced. 

Why does this enable a period of experimentation for your individual or collective practice?

This project will be an exciting time of experimentation for You Get the Gist, learning to work together to combine our ideas and collaborative making and curatorial practices in one project. In addition, working in conjunction with Ryde Arts on an exhibition will give us the opportunity to work with a larger group of people and bring together many disciplines. This will in no doubt be experimental due to the sheer number of responses and the nature of the work. We believe educating around existing objects and using them as starting points holds huge potentials – objects as tools for education and as methods for creating new and surprising work. We very rarely question or closely consider the objects around us despite their importance in shaping culture and identities. 

Websites: ferntoyntondesign.com lara-chapman.com Instagram: @ferntoynton @laralilychapman