Conversations in Creativity: Jahday Ford
01 October 2024 by Ed
Our curated programme for Black History Month UK continues with the next in our series of Conversations in Creativity feature interviews with some of the individuals connected to our collaboration with The Black Artisans Exhibition and events at Haworth Art Gallery. Today we shine a light on Jahday Ford - a Glass Artist and Designer based in the Northwest,
Jahday Ford is a Glass Artist and Designer from Bermuda, currently based in Manchester, UK. He is a graduate from Manchester School of Art where he received a BA in Three-Dimensional Design, specializing in hot glass fabrication and mould design.
Using a combination of glass blowing and digitally programmed forms, Jahday explores ways of drastically changing the materiality of his objects, effectively bonding two diverse processes. He’s participated in a variety of exhibitions in the UK and internationally and in 2020 took part in the HOME Manchester Future 20 Collective Artist Residency and Exhibition. His projects Breathe and Deconstruct have been exhibited in Corning Museum of Glass, New Designers and Design Junction London, Manchester Craft & Design Centre and The National Centre for Craft & Design in Lincolnshire. His most recent work Axle and Biome has showcased at Collect 2022 Somerset House, Aberdeen Art Gallery, Newlyn Art Gallery Cornwall and Yorkshire Sculpture Park – a collaboration with Studio Morison on the installation Silence: Alone in a World of Wounds.
Watch the film below of Jahday's Meet the Maker session at Haworth Art Gallery, held in October 2024. And read the interview below to gain an insight into his boundless creativity and process.
Watch Jahday Ford in conversation with Haworth Art Gallery curator, Samantha De Simone.
"There are infinite possibilities to creation and imagination, and I’ve never been held back in the thought of challenging that."
What was your first memory of creativity?
My first creative memory had to be my abstract drawing when I began exploring forms of artistic expression on paper. My mum introduced me to the art form which allowed me to draw directly from my imagination free of any rules or limits on what I was feeling at the time.
What was your creative journey to get to where you are?
Once solidifying my artistic direction in university my most significant development kicked off during my residency at London Glass Blowing, Sunderland Glass, and Stourbridge Glass facilities. Here I was able to regularly speak to the material, experiment and try things I wasn’t comfortable with. I aspired to express my identity and culture through textures , organic forms and colour which provided a window to reconnect to back home in Bermuda. Challenging myself in this way began to grow my design ethos and style - discovering 3 dimensions of glass making in the digital world, my cultural entities and physically with a super adaptive material.
What impact have high profile commissions had on your career?
The most recent to have a massive impact on my practice was the Jerwood Arts Makers Fund, a project that commissioned my largest body of work accumulating to 10 pieces in one display. It enabled me to think beyond the glass itself and challenge how far I could push it as a physical object. Using illumination became one of those experiments, installing LEDs to a digitally sculpted vessel opened the horizons for me artistically.
How do you establish your own style over a period of time, and still stay relevant?
Establishing a style of work has been the most testing obstacle to my practice. Since I’ve worked on so many different types of projects that require various adaptations to narratives and aesthetics, pin-pointing how people connect or enjoy seeing a creation became really important for me, and at the same time enjoying the process + the result of it. This awareness begins to become the expectation, or how an audience perceives what you do forming an interest and curiosity each time.
Does your process develop thematically, or is it more distinctive and random?
It is literally both aspects, almost every time. There are infinite possibilities to creation and imagination, and I’ve never been held back in the thought of challenging that. In moments of the initial design phase, or blueprint of a project the aim may fit a theme at first, a direct concept which grows over time, however mid-way through a finding may completely change it, and that’s okay. It could better connect to yourself, others and even just look better than the over-planned and direct thinking you can begin with. The most important thing overall for my practice, or collaborations since university is to be open to change and constructive feedback when developing or refining a project.
What or who has been the biggest influence on your work – the artists or designers you admire and inspire you the most and why?
The biggest influences and role models to my work over the years have to be Zaha Hadid, Olafur Eliasson and Esther Mahlangu. Each one of them have completely different practices and techniques yet have very intrinsic methods of expressing a true and honest identity of what they imagine into what they produce. It’s so ‘them’ and they never compromise. I learnt through these artists how you can truly just be yourself without forcing an idea, or making what the industry / market requires - yet how can you reshape it?
I always ask myself this. It keeps me alert and evolving constantly. It also speaks about me, my heritage, culture and environments I ultimately want people to feel and build conversations with.
What inspires you or provokes the motivation towards creativity within?
The biggest force behind this is my experience as a migrant. I have always enjoyed creating things and never stopped allowing my imagination to roam free.
However the most challenging aspect is how you consistently do this for a lifetime, what fuels me to have it as a day-to-day lifestyle?
I was able to find these answers by my urge to build community, connecting diverse people and cultures and simply making someone feel present, and awake.
Moving thousands of miles from your home means you can easily lose what you had or what you became comfortable with. One can easily lose themselves without purpose or belonging, this is why we have people all over in the same position, more importantly people who aren’t migrants - the necessity to form connectivity and build unified ideas through the arts becomes a never-ending motivation towards my creativity.
What is it you love most about what you do?
The fulfilling outcome of what I do has always been to make others feel excited towards life and to help them, and myself rethink why we love the world we live in, balanced with how we can make it progress and grow creatively.
jahdayfordglass.co.uk
jahfayforddesign
Meet the Maker - Jahday Ford
2-3.30pm Thursday 3 October
Haworth Art Gallery, Accrington, BB5 2JS
To coincide with The Black Artisans photography exhibition at Haworth Art Gallery we present an opportunity to hear from maker Jahday Ford, who's work will be exhibited alongside the Tiffany Collection at the Haworth.
Jahday will discuss the pieces he has chosen to display with the Tiffany Collection as well as providing insights into his designs and creative process,
The exhibits at the Haworth includes the largest public collection of Tiffany glass in Europe. Jahday will participate in a conversation and walking tour of the exhibits alongside Samantha De Simone (Senior Assistant, Haworth Collection), to explore the relationship and dialogue between Jahday's own work and selected Tiffany pieces.
This event is free to attend. Places are limited so please pre-book via Eventbrite.
The Black Artisans
The Black Artisans is a project by Jo Sealy whose work focuses on culture, heritage and age. The exhibition at Howarth Art Gallery runs until 6th October and a series of connected talks and events will be hosted during the exhibition. Find out more on our blog. or on the Haworth Art Gallery Facebook Page.
These Black Artisans events form part of Creative Lancashire's curated programme of events and presentations for Black History Month (UK)
