Something in the air

I first encountered Janet Echelman's sculptures in the November/December 2010 issue of the sadly departed Fiberarts magazine. I found it astonishing, exciting, but life somehow got in the way, and I did not purse more information. The article did make me recall my excitement in the 70s when I learned about Magdalena Abakanowicz and her Abakans, and about other ground breaking weavers such as Lenore Tawney. I sought out a long out of print volume by Mildred Constantine and Jack Lenor Larsen - Beyond Craft: The Art Fabric which covers several weavers and other workers with big fibre. I really enjoyed going back to those heady days when I was learning about the breadth of visionary creativity around.
Then came my latest issue of Sculpture magazine with another work by Janet Echelman on the cover. The article intrigued me once again, and I looked further. I found this video, and this interview, and am looking forward to the day when I can actually experience at least one of these fantastic creations for myself. Her explorations whilst on her Guggenheim Fellowship sabbatical seem to indicate that the sky certainly will not be the limit!

If in doubt ...

When I worked in publishing one of my touchstone mantras was 'If in doubt, cut it out.' and this has stood me in good stead in other areas too. It is so easy to complicate, and then to over complicate, so I usually benefit from standing back, squinting my eyes and then taking out the scalpel.
Recently I have been concentrating on trying to loosen up my design thinking. This is both helped and hindered by the trying. Diverting attention to thinking about printmaking has been one really good solution which has allowed room for 'left field' ideas to start popping in (like my recent obsession with the notion of repeats). But my brain keeps trying to come up with themes or specific ideas. One such was the notion of women finding the limit or edge. I decided to try to make a four directional work with figures finding an inner edge rather than more conventionally breaking for the border. The above is my first rough on-screen drawing.

I had recently scanned a soft pastel exercise which had consisted of collaged paper which reminded me of islands, and which had inner torn edges which I liked. It might work, I thought. Hmm. There are many aspects of the above which I think are OK, but it was just not doing it for me. Well, if in doubt, ... so I stuck with the elements I liked, and suddenly a whole new dynamic developed.

The whole design has now gelled for me and it is at present resting on the back burner until I am ready to finish it. I prefer to leave designs-in-progress to one side for a wee while once they have reached a certain stage - even if I can see one or two elements which I want to tweak immediately. Fresh eyes can be most informative and can do away with tentative fiddling.

Final post on MADE 2011

My favourite amongst the ceramics at the show in Farnham was the work of Elaine Bolt, pictured immediately above and below. I am a constant sucker for elegant simplicity, and here it went so well with the weaving hanging beyond.

I was also attracted to the work of Judy Dibiase (seen at the top of this post) which uses ceramics to convey her ideas about archiving memory. According to the notes beside her work she 'sees memory and trace as being the key to making sense of our own emotional terrain as well as the world we inhabit ... shadows and small objects act and are as used as a metaphor for how we remember'. I am intrigued by how many artists are bound up in memory and archiving these days. I thought that the sheets of ceramic were very like sheets of paper, and liked that - it's a good way of presenting and preserving them, and nowadays so many interesting things can be done with digital transfers onto ceramic.

The other work which interested me was that done on book arts. I am attracted to the idea of book arts and artists' books, but I must say that lately trying to think about the form is rather like trying to see in a blizzard. There is just so much about!

Of the book artists the work of Ken Borg appealed to me most. I love the geometric precision of the cuts above, and of the black and white work below. The forms were beautiful, but I did not find enough content for my taste.

Cerian Rousset excited a little interest, as did the coloured textures of Suppamas Youngcharoen, described in my last post, but they did not hold that interest long, I'm afraid. There are fuller photos on this link. Ken Borg had cards for distribution with this website printed - but it seems that they are all at the beginning of things, as one would expect from the newly graduated.

I did come away stimulated, and I must say that I have thrown myself even more obsessively into design work along the lines I had already started.

Visit to MADE 2011 (part 2 - textiles)

In the main gallery the work which immediately attracted my attention was that of Louise Renae Anderson: beautiful large weavings. Her work was also being shown in Blue, an exhibition just past at Flow gallery.

I love the simplicity and the craftsmanship in these pieces - that consideration, care, and concentration which seems to be a hallmark of so many excellent weavers. It has always struck me that when people reel aghast at how long it takes me to stitch my pieces that that time is nothing when compared with the hand weaver.

The timeless qualities of the work attracted me, and I was delighted to find that craftsmanship and timelessness in the work of others in the show. It often comes over as a desire for neatness on my part. This is not so, necessarily, but in this post it certainly seems so. I believe that craftsmanship is like design: they should facilitate appreciation or be invisible - and definitely not get in the way of the primary message of the work.

I had to go up close fully to appreciate the qualities of Rachel Gray's work. I was intrigued by her description that 'Our clothes contain our secrets, secreted in seams and sewn into linings and kept close to the body.' Her work for me resembled short stories, or poems.

Each carefully framed, and belonging to the group while also being isolated. Carefully wrapped and stitched twigs with thorns, a strip of tablets, delicate fabric and rough, ....

For me there was a sense of vulnerability, of hiding what was really meant behind perhaps a now familiar language - but then is that not what fashion is?

It is certainly a lovely and rather beautifully disturbing manifestation of this kind of textile collage.

The other textile work which intrigued me was in the Book Arts section: the work of Suppamas Youngcharoen, whose page on the college site gives nothing away. But then, neither did the books except that they are meant to represent the four elements and are part of a project called Four Elements, 'exploring the building blocks of our universe through the language of colour craft and texture'. Yes, they are yummy, like yarn colour swatches are, but books?

Visit to MADE 2011 (part 1)

I was not exactly overjoyed when I received my invitation to MADE 2011 because I have given up going to degree shows in the past few years. This not only because on various time and travel constraints, but mostly because of disappointment at what I saw. I am not a great fan of the conceptual work which depends wholly on an explanation written in fantastical bullshitese. On the other hand, this exhibition was on our doorstep, and I wanted to spend the £10 I had won on the lottery on a coffee and delicious cake at Maison Blanc, (although the £10 did not quite stretch for the two of us) so, ... why not? But then I have so often found that the event I really did not care too much about going to turns out to be a bowl of delights. The foyer of the James Hockey gallery at the University for the Creative Arts of which Farnham is but one campus contained two stunning pieces. (It contained more than those, but these are the two which appealed to me.)
The one which pulled attention first was the contained distressed piano by sculptor John Joyce. As another viewer next to me said: 'I just want to touch it. Doesn't it look like felt, or fabric?' So many different thoughts entered my mind, clashing: did those things at the corners look like buoys? A piano at sea? Music in dry dock? Emotionally I found the piece intriguing and endearing, and thought-provoking - this last always a fundamental necessity for me.

Having first walked past her work to get to the piano I had already glimpsed the work of Susan Derbyshire as we had approached the foyer. Built around another distressed item: this time a window or mirror, I love the printed images - not just the dress, but more the obscure drawings round the edges. Those prints recalled for me the work of early church glass where the colours are muted and few, with the lines of the illustration in black. The piece has made me want to look again at that early glass.

The pinking shears are cast in glass as is the hook and eye which I particularly liked. I definitely felt drawn back to early memories of dressing and of dressmaking.

And I thought that placing the piece in a large window, so that it acted as a kind of window to the outside itself was much more appropriate than having it hung against a white wall.

Late Summer sunshine - early Autumn glow

Today we went to Loseley Park to see the garden. For once the weather was beautiful and the garden a real delight. There was also the added bonus of very few folks around, so we had the gardens almost to ourselves. Bliss. Here are some of my snaps.

Spillover design

With all the thinking about linocut logistics and looking at what I like about relief printed images, I suppose that it was inevitable that one day I would wake up with an image in my head at which my subconscious had been scribbling away. I think that I like it - not as a linocut design, as one of my reverse applique A4-sized stitchings. And it just so happens that I've been wondering what I would have in reserve once I've completed Red hen.

So: The pose, design in progress.