Vogue for the vague

Within its remit, the Crafts Council attempts to stage a usually challenging mix of work from the worlds of fine and applied arts. This exhibition brings together eight artists on the loose premise that they use materials, or have established working practices, that cross these boundaries.

Jemima Stehli teeters on a pair of stilettos in a parody of the images of Allen Jones, the 1960s Pop artist fixated on porno images of fetishised woman. We only get to see her legs as she holds a photographic cable release like a dominatrix whip. Since she is both the subject and maker of the image, the photograph, we are told, is 'as crafted and cultivated as any'. Similarly, Katie Pratt's decorative paintings are presented as offering us 'a way into the making process', in this case because they look a bit 'unfinished'.

While jewellery maker Lin Cheung simply uses non-fine art materials, other such justifications are used for the tedious and pretentious work of Clare Twomey, whose broken ceramic floor tiles, entitled Consciousness/Conscience, the viewer is invited to crunch underfoot, therefore becoming a part of the art making.

In the copious exhibition notes, we are told these are artworks 'whose meanings derive from the specific way in which they have been individually realised', a non-specific, catch-all statement, which, as a result of its wide but vague application, becomes a rather meaningless one. Though a few of these artists do have something to say worth hearing, only occasionally does one feel any real coherence and purpose here.