Alison Counsell is a designer-maker based in Sheffield. She is a Senior Lecturer in Metalwork & Jewellery at Sheffield Hallam University. Her work Wapenmap: Damflask, Dale Dike & Strines (2004) explores the connections between Sheffield’s industrial heritage and the city’s current topography. The stainless steel sculpture is based on Ordnance Survey maps produced from flat sheets of metal photo-etched with detailed geographical features. Lines are cut through the metal and tabs are pulled apart to raise the contours, creating the raised landscape which features four local water reservoirs. The reservoirs referenced in Counsell’s stainless steel piece were constructed in the mid-19th century to provide water for the people of Sheffield. At this point in the city’s history the population was expanding rapidly due to the development of the steel and cutlery industries.
Museum Sheffield’s collection represents artists from Sheffield and their longstanding tradition to work with stainless steel. Its designated Metalwork Collection currently holds over 700 steel pieces, the majority being traditional examples of cutlery and flatware. Counsell’s Wapenmap, Damflask, Dale Dike & Strines forms an engaging contemporary counterpoint to these more functional items, showing how this versatile material is being explored in new and diverse ways by the city’s artists. The acquisition also includes related design drawings and research support material that will form an intrinsic part of the displays, celebrating the legacy of the discovery of stainless steel in Sheffield.
