“As an artist, vessels and containers offer an innate method of communication for me, conveying a multiplicity of narratives including gathering, holding or carrying. The internal space of an empty vessel contains everything or nothing, depending on our perception. Not only do vessels form part of our lives, they also shape our perception of the basic division between inside and outside, the notion of moving from one framed space into another. Furthermore, our bodily experience relates to containment as it frames and protects us.

Vessels have been made and used across cultures since prehistoric times – for feeding, storing, or as ritual objects and symbols of power. We can learn through them about the past and about developments in material culture. Growing from these historic and symbolic narratives, my creative process explores the morphological qualities of vessels and the life of objects.

Working through metal, I apply both traditional silversmithing techniques and an experimental approach, with particular interest and attention to surface treatments. I investigate an embodied experience that engages the viewer through sensorial interaction, and often employ the metal’s conductive, sonic and reflective qualities.”

––––––

Adi is an artist metalsmith exploring the morphological qualities of vessels and objects around us. Her projects engage the viewer by sensorial interaction through play in perception, movement or investigation of embodied experience. Beginning with a flat sheet, she forms and fabricates metal into delicate hollow objects. She creates unique visual language through intricate surface marks and patination.

Toch lives and works in London. She is a lecturer at the RCA and has taught and exhibited across the world. Her work is held in major private and public collections including the V&A Museum in London, The Crafts Council, The Goldsmiths’ Company, Museum of London, Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge, National Museums Scotland, National Museum Wales, Ulster Museum Belfast and The Jewish Museum New York.

Toch was a finalist in the first Loewe Craft Prize and won prestigious awards for her work including a Gold Award from The Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Council UK and The European Prize for Applied Arts, 2018. In 2021 she was the recipient of an important commission by the V&A Gilbert Trust to create a response to the restitution of an historic gold ewer from The Gilbert Collection to Turkey. Her artwork Place to Place is on permanent display at The Gilbert Galleries, V&A Museum, London.

To mark our silver anniversary, Adi has created a special showcase of silver vessels and objects. Her showcase is on display concurrently with our Anniversary Exhibition, Making Memories.