Wry Vita is a group of interrelating pieces (2010) exploring both a box as an object-type and a specific boxed commodity: Ryvita crisp-bread. Rowe employed a range of creative strategies to de-familiarise these everyday objects in ways that offer a glimpse of their origins and an understanding of the contexts that shape them.
In this body of work, Rowe foregrounds how narratives accumulate around a specific object-type by addressing the processes through which information about it is gathered, recorded and put to use. Exploitation of the interplay between linguistic and phenomenological engagement has resulted in objects that are more than usually resonant, objects that show us something about themselves, about ourselves and about the creative process.
The innovation in Wry Vita lies in Rowe’s strategy of exploring four interconnecting narratives: ‘humble grains of barley and rye’; ‘from field to table’; ‘the natural history of the British inch’ and ‘grain as seed, a metaphor of growth and propagation’. In each case, verbal and visual/haptic aspects have been condensed into a unified piece, which informs the grouping as a whole.
Wry Vita was shown in the exhibition ‘Mindful of Silver’ at Goldsmiths Hall, London (2011) and at Gallery SO at ‘Collect 2012’, Saatchi Gallery, London, which attracted 9,000 visitors over four days. An image of Wry Vita was chosen by the Crafts Council for a ‘Collect 2012’ private view invitation card. Wry Vita was reviewed by Andrew Lambirth in The Spectator (2011). The work was also selected by the Design Museum for the Craft Council’s online Object of the Day, and featured on the websites of Design Week, the Crafts Council and Jewellery Editor. For Daniella Wells in The London Magazine (2012): ‘Wry Vita makes us take a second look at the geometry and proportions of the rectangular containers used in packaging’.