The Ground of Things: A Material Dialogue
At Charles Burnand Gallery, The Ground of Things brings together textile and glass in a way that feels considered rather than oppositional. Presented until 17 May 2026, during the lead up to London Craft Week, Dawn Bendick’s latest exhibition explores how materials with very different properties (hard and soft, reflective, absorbent) can sit in close conversation without one dominating the other.
Artworks by Dawn Bendick. Background: Gradated Pavers Rug, Hand woven wool and silk cut pile 2026. Foreground: Minor Tilt, 2026, Cast Dichroic Glass.
Bendick’s move into rugs reads less like a shift and more like an extension of her sculptural practice. Known for her kiln-formed glass works, she approaches wool and silk with the same attention to colour, light, and structure. Glass is precise and fixed, catching and refracting light with sharpness; textile, by contrast, holds and softens it. Wool absorbs, silk reflects gently, creating a surface that feels responsive and atmospheric, shifting subtly depending on light and viewpoint.
Dawn Bendick,
Pond Rug, 2026. Hand woven wool and silk cut pile.
As Bendick explains, “Textile has always been part of how I think. From fashion and interiors to digital sound and animation, I’ve long been interested in materials that move, shift, and respond. Working with rugs has allowed me to bring that sense of motion and structure into something grounded, a surface that holds colour, light, and time. In this work the rugs and the glass sculptures inform one another, both materials responding to light in different ways.”
Artworks by Dawn Bendick: Rock Stack Rug, 2026 / Boulder Rug, 2026 / Rock Stack Cloud (Shelf) 2, 2024 /
Rubble Cherry Cola, 2024
Importantly, the rugs are not treated as secondary to the sculptures. They hold their own spatial presence, grounding the works while also carrying a sense of movement through gradation and texture. Softness here is not passive, but constructed and deliberate. The rugs suggest volume without weight, offering a different kind of structure to the solidity of glass, while also inviting a more physical, tactile engagement from the viewer.
The collaboration with FJ Hakimian plays a key role in this translation from one material to another. Using traditional Tibetan weaving techniques, including Senneh looping, alongside high-altitude wool and silk, Bendick’s designs are realised with depth and precision. The process becomes part of the work, embedding time, labour, and touch into each piece, and reinforcing the relationship between concept and craft.
Artwork install by Dawn Bendick at Charles Burnand Gallery
Elsewhere in the exhibition, materials are shown in raw forms (yarn, dye, plaster, stone) alongside finished works. These elements give a sense of how ideas move between states: from liquid to fibre, from fibre to surface, from surface to form—reminding us materials are always in flux, never fully fixed.
Ultimately, The Ground of Things is about how ideas move across materials without losing their core identity. Bendick shows that glass and textile can carry the same visual language. Hard and soft are not opposites, but two ways of shaping and experiencing form, each sharpening the presence of the other.
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Further information:
The Ground of Things is on show now at Charles Burnand Gallery, London, until 17 May 2026.
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Image Credits:
Lead: Left: Dawn Bendick, Rock Stack Rug, 2026. Hand woven wool & silk cut pile. Right: Major Mystic, 2026, Cast Dichroic Glass.
All further images are copyright of the artist. Photography: Graham Pearson.