Jane Worthington
Design as Practice and Enquiry
With function. Without function
Jane Worthington approaches design as both practice and enquiry. Across her design and sculptural work, the same intelligence of proportion, construction, material and precision operates under different conditions: with function and without. In one, this knowledge is directed towards objects for use. In the other, function is deliberately removed, allowing design itself to become the subject of enquiry.
Studio Practice
Post-Industrial Design
Post-Industrial Design defines Jane Worthington’s continuing design practice, grounded in the belief that objects can carry meaning. Her designs are less performative, more considered. She sees design, at its best, as a slow art, shaped by an understanding of mind, body and space.
Made for living, with spatial intention and material gravity, her designs are intended to deepen our connection with the spaces we inhabit. Function remains fundamental, but it is not the end of the enquiry. Proportion, material, construction and precision are considered not only in relation to use, but to how an object is experienced and why it should endure.
Jane continues to design, and the knowledge and understanding developed through this practice also make her sculptural enquiry possible.
Sculptural Enquiry
Art after Industry
From this foundation Art After Industry emerges as a sculptural enquiry into design itself. Jane retains the knowledge, processes and technical fluency of design while deliberately removing the condition that normally governs them: the requirement to function.
Her sculptural work draws on the disciplines of proportion, construction, material knowledge, digital modelling and controlled fabrication. The tools and processes developed for industry remain, but are no longer directed towards a functional outcome. Precision, no longer justified by use, becomes language.
These works are not concerned with reproducing the appearance of industry or transferring the aesthetics of design into art. Instead, Jane works through the intelligence of design itself. Once function is removed, decisions normally justified by use have to find another reason to exist. Proportion, material, surface and precision remain, but their purpose changes.
Art After Industry asks what remains of design once function is removed. The sculpture provides the evidence.