Quilts returned and a curation exercise

On  Saturday I went to  a meeting of Thames Valley Contemporary Textiles ( arriving an hour  late because of booking my BBC Proms tickets !)Besides being an interesting meeting, I also collected 2 quilts that have been away for a while in different exhibitions. I unfurled them  as soon as I got home, good to see them again in situ!

'Nautical Dawn' was part of the CQ 'Horizons' exhibition, going to FoQ, Ledbury and Prague.
 'Fleet mudflats'   was in the open competition at FoQ and then  in 'Halfway Between' by TVCT exhibited at  Knit and Stitch Olympia (where it was used in the advertising !) and the National Needlework Archive

 

 

 

In the afternoon of the TVCT meeting, we had the chance to look through the latest CQ suitcase collection 'All in days work'. Some fascinating pieces, made more powerful by the stories associated  with them.  We then had a curation exercise,  working to  a theme, choosing just 10 -15  from the 40+.  A valuable experience, and  as someone pointed out, reassuring  to think that if your work is rejected it might be nothing to do with the quality of work but because it doesn't meet the brief or work with other pieces chosen.

I did make me grateful that 'Nautical Dawn'  was included in the Horizons  exhibitions - it was so singular in it's  colour  that it was displayed on  it's own at FoQ, it could easily have been rejected. 

 

The model Jane and I had constructed for  Halfway Between had another airing as I attempted to explain  my thought processes. I had  initially chosen  groups of 2 or 3 pieces that worked together ( theme, contrast,  colour , shapes, sizes) and then worked  at getting a pleasing flow  not forgetting  practicalities like where the entrance  was, sightlines and electrical points. A lot of it  seemed intuition or gut reaction but  wasn't . I've probably been analysing   what works or not from all the exhibitions I've been to  and treated it like any other  composition.