OKU – Kathleen Reilly X London Design Festival

About

Scottish artist Kathleen Reilly presents her first solo exhibition of her Dezeen Award-winning design Oku, a new knife with a unique folded handle crafted in collaboration with highly skilled artisans in Tsubame-Sanjo, an area in Niigata Prefecture, Japan, renowned for its metalworking history for over 400 years.

The exhibition showcases the completed design with wood produced in collaboration with Karimoku Furniture, Japan’s leading wooden furniture manufacturer. An installation and a film created with artist Riyo Nemeth and directed by Paz Castro featuring music by soundscape designer Hiroki Saitoh is presented alongside Oku to celebrate the fusion of Eastern and Western cultures.

Kathleen is a Scottish artist and metalworker with over ten years of experience whilst living in the UK and Japan. She graduated from The Glasgow School of Art Silversmithing & Jewellery department in 2015 and completed her Masters in Jewellery & Metal at the Royal College of Art in 2018. Her journey creating Oku began in 2018 when she visited the ‘Biology of Metal: Metal Craftsmanship in Tsubame-Sanjo’ exhibition at Japan House London for London Design Festival, and discovered the skills of their craftspeople. In 2019 she moved to Japan on the Daiwa Scholarship. From 2020-2022, she trained with artisans in Tsubame-Sanjo and developed Oku which won Dezeen Awards Homeware design of the year 2022.