Now based in London where he runs his studio, Aesthetic Sabotage, Robert Dawson was born in New York City but spent most of his childhood in Geneva, Switzerland. He received his MA in Ceramics from the Royal College of Art. In the early 1990s he began working with historic ceramic sources, which he manipulated and reapplied to china tableware and ceramic tiling. His re-workings of the Willow Pattern included the enlargement, distortion and cropping of elements within this familiar chinoiserie decoration, and his new style of working was soon to be widely imitated. Robert moved on to making large-scale public art works. In 2004 Wedgwood asked him to return to the Willow Pattern, and amongst the work he did for them was the award-winning range titled ‘After Willow Pattern’, which is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum along with his ‘In Perspective Willow’, which he designed in 1992. More recently, Robert’s work has been an enquiry into the nature of pattern and sequences. His 2013 commission for the new Sedgemoor building in Liverpool incorporates Minton tiling designs but leaves out parts of the patterns, so producing alternative new patterns, and creating new visual rhythms across the surfaces of the tiled walls.
Robert Dawson
Designer London / United Kingdom
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Now based in London where he runs his studio, Aesthetic Sabotage, Robert Dawson was born in New York City but spent most of his childhood in Geneva, Switzerland. He received his MA in Ceramics from the Royal College of Art. In the early 1990s he began working with historic ceramic sources, which he manipulated and reapplied to china tableware and ceramic tiling. His re-workings of the Willow Pattern included the enlargement, distortion and cropping of elements within this familiar chinoiserie decoration, and his new style of working was soon to be widely imitated. Robert moved on to making large-scale public art works. In 2004 Wedgwood asked him to return to the Willow Pattern, and amongst the work he did for them was the award-winning range titled ‘After Willow Pattern’, which is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum along with his ‘In Perspective Willow’, which he designed in 1992. More recently, Robert’s work has been an enquiry into the nature of pattern and sequences. His 2013 commission for the new Sedgemoor building in Liverpool incorporates Minton tiling designs but leaves out parts of the patterns, so producing alternative new patterns, and creating new visual rhythms across the surfaces of the tiled walls.
