BETWIXT – Naomi Escott

Naomi Escott is the winner of Assembly Line’s 2023 UCA Farnham Open Call Competition. She has spent the last year drawing in the myriad threads of her creative studies (and bringing up 4 small children) to produce a dazzling new limited-edition exclusive for Assembly Line. We are delighted to present ‘BETWIXT’.

‘BETWIXT’ comprises a hand-forged set of ten unique bronze loops, or bracelets. Fashioned initially on the ubiquitous bright orange satsuma mesh bag the bracelets are accompanied by a slumped borosilicate glass appendage, a branded indicator of Escott’s methodology. Inside each box a charged incantation of Escott’s making forges an anachronistic path from her deep-green Irish roots to the conscious contemporary pleasures of luxury consumerism.

Hot on the trail of Ingold, Deleuze and LeGuin, Escott taps the contemporary Gods of art theory, combining sacred notions of connectivity with the common supermarket sac to guide you along an all-consumptive path from the sacred to the profane. ‘BETWIXT’ recalls the Ouroboros, the ancient serpentine symbol of the snake eating its tail. Such Pagan undertones of eternity and progressively repeating cycles, however, belie an alluring allegiance with the high-luxury houses of consumerist couture.

‘BETWIXT’ therefore conjures a strange bridge between worlds, between times, between products and art works. Fusing conflicting approaches to wish-fulfilment ‘BETWIXT’ is not only an exquisite bangle of brilliance but a hub at the intersection of earthly pleasures and sidereal magic.

Escott says ‘The aspect of high capitalism entwined in modern logos and luxury consumerism ultimately produces empty vessels – hollow products. I am hoping for my outcome to invoke the ancient wisdom and intentions of the generations of wise women they could not burn – solid in form and resting on a foundation of connection – as far from hollow as you can get – and joining a kind of humanist solidarity through the ages.’

This vestige of the wisdom of ages comes with Escott’s very own witchy incantation inscribed on the box:

Betwixt, between, entwined,
you’ll find,
the threads and traces and lines
the echo
of the container;
the Satsuma net of connection.
(This mesh will calm you down.)

Harnessing the power of artistic omnipotence has never been easier!