Why I Work With Materials That Fight Back

Why I Work With Materials That Fight Back or Metal Doesn’t Want to Be Shaped.

In reflecting on recent rejections from open exhibitions, This is not a unique experience. Rejection is part of the ecosystem most artists move through, particularly when their work sits between established categories.

I’ve found myself returning to a question I’m often asked: why metal? Not as a defence, but as a way of understanding where my work sits, and how it is read.

A viewer once asked me why I work with metal. It’s a simple question, but for me there is no short answer.

Fact: metal does not want to be shaped. If we think of it as a living material, its behavior becomes easier to understand.

Every metal resists differently. Copper yields, but never forgets. It bends easily, then hardens in protest. Carbon steel resists longer, then moves all at once, decisive and unforgiving. Neither is passive. Each demands respect and needs to be understood.

As a designer, that understanding matters.

You don’t impose form on metal. You study its limits. Grain, heat range, thickness, stress. You learn when it will move and when it will fail. Design is not the act of forcing a shape; it’s the act of choosing how much resistance to meet.

Metal doesn’t forgive mistakes. You don’t erase them; you integrate them. A misjudged bend leaves tension. Too much heat leaves memory. Every decision remains embedded in the material.

I’m aware that work like this can be difficult to place within certain exhibition frameworks. Metal, particularly when its process remains visible, is often categorised as craft rather than fine art. The labour is apparent. The skill is legible. And sometimes that visibility overshadows intention. Yet for me, the resistance of the material is not incidental, it is where the conceptual weight of the work lives. The thinking happens at the point of pressure.

You can’t rush it.
You can’t fake it.

Force without understanding always shows.

I don’t dominate metal. I negotiate with it. I work with its resistance, not against it. Alignment creates strength. Control creates fractures.

The marks stay by design. Grind lines. Heat stains. Subtle warping. Evidence that the material was asked to change, and that it answered honestly.

A piece without resistance is decoration.
A piece shaped through conflict has weight.

Metal doesn’t want to be shaped, and neither do we.

That’s why I work with materials that fight back.

Richard Andreucetti

A material-led interpretation of a Celtic motif, shaped through resistance rather than imposed form.

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