Cloth and Memory...

I researched this exhibition before hand so I knew a bit about some of the work that was going to be there. But the best thing about this exhibition was the space, the room is so big and vast this exhibition has to be seen first hand, it is lost in pictures.
there was a large variety of approaches to Lesley Millars brief Cloth and Memmory. It was interesting to see how all of the artists had a different personal meening for these words.
I did feel that I appreciated some of the exhibits a lot more than others, but I really feel like I got a lot out of this primary research in terms of:

• Finding new textile artists,
• Learning how varied approaches to a brief can be,
• How the exhibition was displayed,
• Interesting uses of textiles as a medium
• My own opinions of what I like and how I want to work

One thing I noticed straight away was that most of the artists had worked site specifically, they were responding to the space and the memories around the space, although a hand full of artists using this brief as a personal reflection of their own memories in cloth.
It was interesting to see these personal responses but I did feel that this disconnected the work from the space it was being displayed it, I did prefer the pieces that were site specific.

I spent a lot of time looking at each artists work individually then researching more into the depth of thought behind the work. These are some of the Pieces I enjoyed and why:

Caroline Bartlett

 

What I liked about this piece was aesthetical. How it had been presented was perfect for the space. I really liked the placement of theses hanging embroideries, and the detail of delicate stitch was beautiful.

I felt like this was the only piece that kind of bridged the gap between cloth and Memory as a personal exploration and a site specific one.  She was looking at an old scrap cloth box that she remembers from being a child and the ceramic impressions are from these fragments. She then linked this to different mills using fine cotton threads. The dye in the wool also represented spills of oil from the multitude of machinery found in a mill.

Caren Garfen

 This artist was inspired by gender in the workplace. each of these bobbins resembled a person who worked in the salts mill, it was compiled from the 1891 census, and it shows the name, date of birth, age, occupation marital status and number of children, the artist calls these 'memory plaques'. I felt this was a great example of visual communication, as there was only two of these bobbins that didnt say single and there was none that had kids. It showed that when a woman got married and had kids she can no longer keep her job.

Annie Harrison

 "There is no cloth in Annie Harrison's work, yet the threads of cloth are everywhere present"

This was my favourite piece of work in the exhibition, I am increasingly drawn to video installations within exhibitions, but I felt this piece in particular really portrayed the ideas of memory within occupation in the mill. She interviewed people that used to work in the mill, and simultaneously asked them to draw. I really enjoyed hearing the different voices and I felt like I was with them as the marks and lines appeared on the screen. This has supported my current motivations of wanting to use video within my project now.