Alison Crowther, Artist

Alison Crowther is an artist working exclusively with English oak. After studying 3D Design, she went on to study Furniture Design at the Royal College of Art. The pews for Prior Silkstede Chapel at Winchester Cathedral was her first notable commission (1996). Since then, she has produced significant site-specific works for international corporate clients, as well as private commissions throughout Europe and the USA. Using tools that range from chainsaws to chisels, she makes pieces that are sometimes domestic in scale and functional, sometimes monumental. Everything is painstakingly hand-carved from unseasoned oak taken from responsibly managed woodlands within the South Downs National Park.

The way Crowther observes and responds to her material, taking cues from the density, grain and growth pattern, creates what writer Madeleine Bunting described as a ‘dialogue between material and human intervention’.