SHARP EDGES
Publication
Photographs by Jules Lister
Threshold Editions has published Sharp Edges to accompany the exhibition Sharp Edges by Bijan Amini-Alavijeh, Charlotte Saint Cullen and Ian Jackson (01-30 November 2025).
A special property of metal its malleability - its surface can be patinated, chemically treated, etched or incised to create images, patterns and gestural marks. The works in this exhibition contain many of these processes and through bringing together this group of artists Sharp Edges speculates that there is a link between how Amini-Alavijeh, Cullen and Jackson approach sculpture relative to drawing. This project explores the direct relationship working with metal has to drawing as another way of thinking through making.
It is available to purchase in-person for £12, or £14.70 including postage. If you are in Leeds and would like a copy in person please get in touch with us by email or DM.
This publication is contained by a hand painted glassine envelope and contains multiple components that can be viewed and read in any order. Writing by the artists on their relationship to working with metals and drawing are included throughout the publication.
The publication includes these elements:
- Limited edition risograph by Bijan Amini-Alavijeh (19.5 x 13.5cm)
- Limited edition risograph by Charlotte Saint Cullen (21 x 14.5cm)
- Limited edition silver digital print by Ian Jackson (42 x 29.7cm folded to 14.8 x 21cm)
- Introduction and Sharp Edges essay by artist, researcher and exhibition curator Julia McKinlay
- Documentation of research and work in progress by each artist - 2 x A5 postcard prints (Amini-Alavijeh and Jackson) and an 8 page booklet of reproduced sketchbook drawings and notes by Cullen (14x10cm).
Book dimensions: 23 x 16.5cm (just over A5)
Materials: Glassine envelope with zinc spray paint, risograph prints on paper, silver digital print on cromatico transparent paper, postcard prints, varous digital prints on paper, hand cut and folded.
Edition Size: 100
Publication date: 2025
Edited and designed by Julia McKinlay
ISBN 978-1-0684654-2-0
Sharp Edges has been supported by the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies at University of Leeds.
Threshold Editions publishes affordable sculpture editions and publications by artists working with sculpture. This brings sculpture inside the home and generates income to support future exhibitions at Threshold. All publication sales directly fund the next shows.
To order, please click the link below to add to your basket and proceed with purchase. Online orders of booklets will be sent using Royal Mail UK standard delivery within a week of ordering.
About the artists
Bijan Amini-Alavijeh
Bijan Amini-Alavijeh’s practice investigates how we perceive and interpret space, engaging with abstraction, ornamentation, nature, and architecture. Through sculpture, he works with materials that challenge notions of permanence and value, reflecting on how meaning is inherited, forgotten, intuited, rediscovered, or misinterpreted. His practice seeks to reshape our understanding of these elements to help us reconsider spirituality, mortality, and our relationship with nature and geometry in the 21st century. Initiated through drawing and developed using intuitive, repetitive processes, his work often builds into large-scale immersive displays. He favours accessible and less formal materials such as plaster, paper, wire, metal and wood, which contrast with the refinement often associated with architectural references. These materials allow for a tactile immediacy that invites close engagement.
Recent exhibitions include: ‘a glimmer’, The Art House, Wakefield (2024); ‘Harmony is Central’, The Ridings Centre, Wakefield (2022); ‘Material Matters’, Sunny Bank Mills, Leeds (2021); ‘Capital P’, Capital ISIN, PISIN presents, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester (2017). Amini-Alavijeh was a YSI Sculpture Network artist in 2022, and a member of the PANIC! Steering Group at The Tetley 2021-2022. In 2019, Amini-Alavijeh was an Engagement Artist with Yorkshire Sculpture International and partnered with the Henry Moore Institute and Meeting Point Leeds.
︎ @baalavijeh
Charlotte Saint Cullen
Charlotte Saint Cullen is an artist, academic and organiser whose sculptural practice resonates around forms of care, healing and repair, coalescing within the legacies which make such acts necessary.
Cullen was Axis Fellow 2023-24, and Yorkshire Sculpture International Associate 2021-22. They have completed public commissions, most recently for Leeds2023, undertaken residencies, notably YYT Museum, Shanghai, China (2019) and exhibited widely including solo exhibitions with Blank_ Leeds (2022), Patriot Hall, Edinburgh (2021) and Leeds Central Library (2021), and group exhibitions including Hypha Gallery, London (2024-25), Gloam, Sheffield (2024), Leeds Art Gallery (2023). In 2023 they received funding from Arts Council England, Henry Moore Foundation, AN, amongst others.
Cullen completed their Practice-led PhD with the Centre for Sculptural Thinking at the University of Huddersfield in 2019, funded by the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and University of Huddersfield scholarship. They are a lecturer in Fine Art at York St John University, where they founded and curate Vessel gallery.
︎ @_harlotte_ullen
Ian Jackson
Ian Jacksons’s work combines video, drawing, personal writing and sculpture to follow dislocated objects and materials. His work builds on these collected materials, researching and finding ways to unpick their specific languages and processes. Works often involve collaborations across disciplines with other artists, researchers and specialist makers to unravel the different physical shifts, cultural changes, and boundaries that materials can become signifiers of over time.
Ian Jackson is based in Leeds, and recent exhibitions include: ‘Leeds Artists Show’, Leeds Art Gallery (2023); ‘Extruded Thoughts’, Gerald Moore Gallery, London (2022); ‘Rhinoceros’, Haarlem Artspace, Wirksworth (2022); Routes North, Messums Gallery, Harrogate (2022); Material Matters, Sunny Bank Mills, Leeds (2021); ‘EBC024’, East Bristol Contemporary, Bristol (2020); ‘Spolia, Serf, Leeds (2020). Ian has contributed to publications such as ‘Northern Formations', a publication with Corridor8 (2022), was part of the YSI Sculpture Network in 2022, and the PANIC! Steering Group with The Tetley in 2021.
︎ @irjackson